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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.
"If these girls keep getting math-anxious female teachers2 in later grades,it may create a snowball effect on their math achievement3 said Levine. In other words,girls may end up learning math anxiety from their teachers4. The study suggests that if these girls grow up believing that boys are better at math than girls are,then these girls may not do as well as they would have if they were more confident.
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 new study found that when a teacher has anxiety about math, that feeling can influence how her female students feel about math. The study involved 65 girls,52 boys and 17 first- and second-grade teachers in elementary schools in the Midwest. The students took math achievement tests at the beginning and end of the school year, and the researchers compared the scores.
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.
Boys,on average,were unaffected by a teacher's anxiety. On average,girls with math-anxious teachers scored lower on the end-of-the-year math tests than other girls in the study did.Plus,on the test showing whether someone thought a math superstar had to be a boy,20 girls showed feeling that boys would be better at math -- and all of these girls had been taught by female teachers who had math anxiety.
"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.
词汇：
snowball 雪球；滚雪球式增长的事
replication n ．重复，复现
superstar n．超级明星
练习：
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。
2. keep getting math-anxious female teachers：一直由对数学有焦虑感的女教师教授数学。此处getting是having的意思，math-anxious指的是上文中提到的对数学没有自信的心理状态。另见第三段最后一句对anxiety的解释。
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。
4. end up learning math anxiety from their teachers：最后从老师那里获得的是对数学的焦虑。End up doing something：最终会做某事
5. sales receipt：销售清单
6. in need of replication with a larger sample：需要用更大的调查样本进行重复验证。replication
在量化实证研究中的意思是"重复（实验）"。
7. the University of Missouri：密苏里大学。位于密苏里州，是美国一所公立研究型大学，创建于1839年。
练习：
1. What is the result of the research at the University of Chicago,according to the first paragraph?
A Girls comfortable with their own math skills are better than boys at math.
B Girls uncomfortable with their own math skills are not as good as boys at math.
C Female teachers' math skills have influence over girl students' math skills.
D Female teachers' confidence in their math skills is related to girl's math skills.
2. What is implied in the third paragraph?
A Math teachers,like math learners,do not like the subject due to its difficulty.
B A difficult subject like math may affect teachers' confidence in teaching the subject.
C Teachers are more anxious teaching math than their students learning math.
D Math is so difficult that no teachers like to teach it.
3. According to the experiment,those teachers were probably anxious about math when they felt
A nervous memorizing the numbers of a sales receipt.
B helpless saving the numbers of a sales receipt.
C uneasy reading the numbers of a sales receipt.
D hopeless filling in the numbers of a sales report.
4. The sixth paragraph tells us that the research findings
A prove a strong link between female teachers' math anxiety and their female students' math achievements.
B show that male students are less likely to be affected by their math anxiety than female students.
C provide strong evidence that math superstars are more likely to be males than females.
D discover a strong link between teachers' math anxiety and their students' math achievements.
5. David Geary thinks that
A the study is interesting but it is based on unreliable research process.
B the research results need to be retested based on a larger sample.
C the research results need to be reinterpreted to be meaningful.
D the study is well based and produces significant results.
答案与题解：
1.D 该段告诉我们女教师的想法（what female teachers think）和女学生的学习（what female
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。
2.B 第三段的大意是，数学对任何人来说都可能有难度（The subject of math can be particularly difficult for everyone)，如同学生，教师也会觉得数学难学和难教，这就是研究者所言的焦虑。所以，可以推断，作者是要告诉我们，教师会因为数学这门学科的难度而对教授该课程不自信。其他选项都不是该段所要表达的内容。
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。
4.A 短文的第六段是对前一段所述调查数据结果的讨论，即，男学生较少受对数学有焦虑感的教师影响，而那些数学成绩较低的女生都有对数学有焦虑感的教师（girls with math-anxious
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（all of these girls had been taught by female teachers who had math anxiety. )。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。
5.B 根据David Geary的说法，实验结果还是初步的（preliminary)，需要更大的样本对其进行重复验证（in need of replication with a larger sample)。他没有认为该实验的过程不可靠，所以A不是正确选项；他认为实验样本不够大，所以D也不是正确选项。
