Research project on maths ability

文章大意

学生Aya与导师讨论她关于数学能力的调研项目：先考察人们对数学的态度，再研究人们如何解题；她放弃问卷改用面对面访谈，访谈了本学院25名自称完全不喜欢数学的学生（14男11女），发现自评好与差各占两成、多数居中，男女无差异，而学生强烈的反数学情绪令她意外。

题目与答案

1. 21 Aya chose interviewing as her main research method because
   • it was easier to use than other methods
   • it enabled her to explore points of interest in detail
   • it was different from methods used by other research groups

   答案：it enabled her to explore points of interest in detail

   原文定位：I thought face-to-face interviews would be more appropriate because you can look at things in more depth when you're actually with the person

   同义替换：「explore points of interest in detail」↔「look at things in more depth」

2. 22 On what basis did Aya choose her research participants?
   • They were available in large numbers
   • They had asked to be involved in the project
   • They all had very similar attitudes to maths

   答案：They all had very similar attitudes to maths

   原文定位：Well, they were all students at this college, and what I did was send round a really short questionnaire by email asking whether people like maths, and these twenty-five answered, "Not at all," which is what I needed

3. 23 What surprised Aya most about her findings?
   • that so few people had thought about their maths ability before
   • that there were such distinct differences between the genders
   • that people had such strong feelings about the subject

   答案：that people had such strong feelings about the subject

   原文定位：Hmm, I wouldn't say so. What did shock me was how violently anti-maths as a subject they were. It wasn't what I'd expected at all

   同义替换：「surprised」↔「shock」，「strong feelings about the subject」↔「violently anti-maths」

4. | 无内容 | Females | Males |

   | --- | --- | --- |

   | First-level importance | Poor 24_____ | Fear of 25..... |

   | Second-level importance | No obvious 26..... for subject | Belief that you need a 27..... for math |

   | Third-level importance | Low awareness of alternative strategies to solve math problems | |

   答案：teaching

   原文定位：Now, you can see that for the women, they thought bad teaching was mainly to blame for their disliking maths

5. | 无内容 | Females | Males |

   | --- | --- | --- |

   | First-level importance | Poor 24..... | Fear of 25_____ |

   | Second-level importance | No obvious 26..... for subject | Belief that you need a 27..... for math |

   | Third-level importance | Low awareness of alternative strategies to solve math problems | |

   答案：numbers

   原文定位：No. They talked mostly about the fact that they were actually, you know, scared of numbers

6. | 无内容 | Females | Males |

   | --- | --- | --- |

   | First-level importance | Poor 24..... | Fear of 25..... |

   | Second-level importance | No obvious 26_____ for subject | Belief that you need a 27..... for math |

   | Third-level importance | Low awareness of alternative strategies to solve math problems | |

   答案：applications

   原文定位：And then the problem for the women at the second level was the fact that they couldn't see what applications maths had, what obvious ones anyway

7. | 无内容 | Females | Males |

   | --- | --- | --- |

   | First-level importance | Poor 24..... | Fear of 25..... |

   | Second-level importance | No obvious 27..... for subject | Belief that you need a 27_____ for math |

   | Third-level importance | Low awareness of alternative strategies to solve math problems | |

   答案：talent

   原文定位：And for the men, they found problems because they had this strong belief that you have to be born with a talent for the subject to be any good at maths

8. How do people solve maths questions?

   Research method:28_____ of people's strategies.

   答案：observation

   原文定位：Well, the method I used for my research was of observation. Of what? Of how different people solve maths problems;I made notes on how they did it

9. | 无内容 | Successful | Unsuccessful |

   | --- | --- | --- |

   | Most common strategy | Understanding the question as a 29_____ | Applying a solution learned previously |

   | Second most common strategy | Using visualization | Giving up after first 30..... of the problem |

   答案：whole

   原文定位：Now, I found that the most common strategy used by the people who got the correct answers was that they attempted to comprehend the question taken as a whole

10. | 无内容 | Successful | Unsuccessful |

    | --- | --- | --- |

    | Most common strategy | Understanding the question as a 29..... | Applying a solution learned previously |

    | Second most common strategy | Using visualization | Giving up after first 30_____ of the problem |

    答案：reading

    原文定位：Well, that's the strategy they used to give up immediately after reading the question, I'm afraid