2017考研英语阅读精选-为什么数学难学

2017考研英语阅读精选-为什么数学难学

2017考研英语阅读精选为什么数学难学?

考研英语阅读真题中的文章，多摘自英美主流外刊，有时候你认识所有单词、搞清全部语法还不够，还需要了解英美文化，掌握他们的表达方式，这就是阅读的潜台词。有时候是一些俗语和俚语，有时候是固定搭配，有时候需要借助历史、风俗、文化才能理解某种现象或表达。总之，这些地道的英语文章背后都有潜台词，一般人不容易读出，但往往是理解文章的关键。

Why Is It So Hard to Learn Math?

为什么数学就这么难学?

导读:学语言真的很难。老实讲，它比学数学要复杂得多，也困难得多。不过，几乎所有的小孩子都能够学习并且熟练掌握一门语言。

Language is hard. In fact, it’s infinitely harder and more complicated than math. And yet, nearly every small child can learn and master language.

学语言真的很难。老实讲，它比学数学要复杂得多，也困难得多。不过，几乎所有的小孩子都能够学习并且熟练掌握一门语言。

Why is math so overwhelming for so many students? And how high is the price we pay from having so many math-terrified or even math-illiterate people in our society? Too high, especially as the ability to grasp data and pursue advanced work that involves math is becoming increasingly important for both citizens and job applicants.

那到底为什么数学会成为许多学生难以逾越的鸿沟呢?因为社会上这些“数学恐惧症患者”，甚至是“数学盲”的存在，我们又得付出多大的代价呢?不用说，这代价简直太大了，尤其是在当今社会，获取数据和从事高难度工作越来越成为普通人和求职者的必备能力。

It often starts with the problem of teaching math in the abstract. This misses the remarkable amount of mathematical knowledge that we humans already possess. We know how to solve for unknowns, for example. That’s algebra. We also are able to think in terms of three dimensional spaces—that’s geometry and trigonometry. So this mathematical language is the analytical expression of the way we already think.

问题一开始出在数学的抽象教学上。这就让我们错失大量数学知识，而这些知识是我们本身就具有的。我们知道如何去解决未知的东西，那么

这就是代数。我们也知道用三维空间去思考——这就是几何学和三角学。这门数学语言其实就是我们思维方式的解析式。

But how many of us feel incapable, rather than poorly taught, when we are confronted with the rigors of math? How many children who struggled to grasp math concepts, who lacked the necessary tool kit, were led to feel stupid, even demeaned?

然而碰到数学难题的时候，我们当中有多少人只会觉得是自己无能，而不会归因于教育问题?又有多少孩子绞尽脑汁地去记忆数学概念，却因为缺少必要的学习工具，而觉得自己愚蠢之极，甚至变得妄自菲薄?

Compare it to spoken or written language. When you make a mistake, a teacher corrects the part that is wrong. And then you proceed. With math, if you don’t have the correct result, it is typically treated as wrong. And, as mistake after mistake builds up, too many students simply give up: I can’t do math.

相比起来书面语或者口语，如果你犯了错误，老师就会对此进行更正，然后你可以再继续。而数学就不一样了，数学是如果你得不到正确答案，老师就会认定你做错了。随着错误不断堆积，很多学生干脆破罐破摔，直接放弃了：我就是搞不懂数学。

But math is not about intelligence. It’s a language that too many people never learn, often because the education process misses the number of ways that a given person can arrive at a given solution.

不过数学无关智力，而是一种许多人都未曾学习过的语言。很多时候就是因为教育过程不注重因材施教的方法，才会让数学变得那么“难”。

That’s not a failure of children to learn. That’s a failure of teaching. It’s a failure of the school. We should not blame the student. (These are children, after all.)

这不是孩子学习的失败，而是教育的失败，学校的失败。我们不该责怪学生。(毕竟他们只是孩子而已)

Part of the challenge is to identify the gaps in knowledge, to clarify that the challenge is not that a student simply doesn’t understand algebra or trigonometry or whatever. There may be a particular basic concept that stands in the way of going forward in math, as well as other fields such as social science or engineering.

我们遇到的挑战一部分是认清知识之间的缺口，以及明白这份挑战不只是因为学生不懂代数或者三角学。有时候我们可能会遇到某一个基本概