2015年职称英语理工类教材新增内容阅读理解篇(四)

　　Teaching Math,Teaching Anxiety

　　In a new study about the way kids learn math in elementary school,the psychologists at the University of Chicagol1 Sian Beilock and Susan Levine found a surprising relationship between what female teachers think and what female students learn:If a female teacher is uncomfortable with her own math skills,then her female students are more likely to believe that boys are better than girls at math.

　　Just as students find certain subjects to be difficult, teachers can find certain subjects to be difficult to learn -- and teach. The subject of math can be particularly difficult for everyone. Researchers use the word anxiety to describe such feelings:anxiety is uneasiness or worry.

　　The researchers also gave the students tests to tell whether the students believed that a math superstar had to be a boy. Then the researchers turned to the teachers:To find out which teachers were anxious about math,the researchers asked the teachers how they felt at times when they came across math, such as when reading a sales receipt5. A teacher who got nervous looking at the numbers on a sales receipt, for example,was probably anxious about math.

　　This is an interesting study,but the results need to be interpreted as preliminary and in need of replication with a larger sample6, said David Geary,a psychologist at the University of Missouri7 in Columbia.

　　snowball 雪球;滚雪球式增长的事

　　superstar n.超级明星

　　1. University of Chicago：芝加哥大学。位于美国伊利诺伊州芝加哥市，是世界一流的私立大学，创建于1891 年。

　　3. snowball effect on their math achievement：在数学成就上的雪球效应。其含义是：在数学上越来越没有信心。

　　5. sales receipt：销售清单

　　在量化实证研究中的意思是重复。

　　练习：

　　A Girls comfortable with their own math skills are better than boys at math.

　　C Female teachers math skills have influence over girl students math skills.

　　2. What is implied in the third paragraph?

　　B A difficult subject like math may affect teachers confidence in teaching the subject.

　　D Math is so difficult that no teachers like to teach it.

　　A nervous memorizing the numbers of a sales receipt.

　　C uneasy reading the numbers of a sales receipt.

　　4. The sixth paragraph tells us that the research findings

　　B show that male students are less likely to be affected by their math anxiety than female students.

　　D discover a strong link between teachers math anxiety and their students math achievements.

　　A the study is interesting but it is based on unreliable research process.

　　C the research results need to be reinterpreted to be meaningful.

　　答案与题解：

　　students learn)之间有很大的关联度，也就是说，女教师如果对自己的数学技能没有自信，她的女学生很可能相信男孩子会在数学方面超过女孩子。

　　3.C 第五段第三句To find out which teachers were anxious about math, the researchers asked the teachers how they felt at times when they came across math,such as when reading a sales receipt指出了答案。memorizing the numbers;意为记住数字saving the numbers意为保存数字filling in the numbers意为陆续编入数字，而且文中没有提到a sales report;它们均不是答案。

　　teachers scored lower on the end-of-the-year math tests)，而且，所有认为男生数学肯定比女生强的女生，其数学教师都是有数学焦虑感的女教师。D所以不是正确的选择，因为只提到teachers 和students,而不是female teachers 和female students。