黃連英

Many elementary school teachers say they dislike the idea of teaching mathematics even at the most basic level. That is a cause for concern among educators.

Experts say it is indispensible for students to have a solid foundation in math because each math skill builds on another one. Research published by the National Institutes of Health （NIH） found that math is a common cause of anxiety for adults， especially for women. About 90 percent of elementary teachers in the U.S. are women.

The Erikson Institute in Chicago is a graduate school centered on child development. The school holds a yearly math conference where elementary teachers can ease their anxiety about math. Teachers find out how young children learn math and plan activities for the classroom.

During the Erikson Institutes summer meeting， teachers work with math concepts that they can use in the classroom. For example， the group built 10-sided shapes out of colored blocks. These exercises helped the teachers with their own math skills.

Jennifer McCray is a research professor at Erikson. She said the best way to see how a child will perform in math up through eighth grade is to learn how the child did in math when they started kindergarten.

Lauran Solarski is a trainer with the Early Math Collaborative at Erikson. She told a group of educators， “Theres a misbelief that in order to teach early childhood math， you dont really need to know math well.”

Lisa Ginet is the director of operations at Erikson. She said that early childhood teachers do not necessarily need to be experts in complex math subjects like algebra and geometry. But they need to understand that many of the skills they are teaching are connected to mathematical thinking and to subjects that students will learn later in school.

Heather Peske， the president of the National Council on Teacher Quality said， “If we prepared teachers better， they would be stronger at both their math knowledge as well as their ability to teach math， and this would reduce their anxiety and improve student outcomes.”

（材料來自51VOA網站，有刪改）

1. What does the underlined word “indispensible” in Paragraph 2 mean？

A. Essential. B. Independent.

C. Difficult. D.Establishable.

2. Which of the following isnt true according to the text？

A. Many adults feel anxious because of math.

B. Anxiety affects men and women equally.

C. Men teachers are in the minority in elementary schools.

D. Many elementary school teachers dislike teaching maths.

3. How is the passage mainly developed？

A. By making comparisons.

B. By making different arguments.

C. By giving examples.

D. By listing some arguments.

4. What can be learnt about early childhood teachers according to the last two paragraphs？

A. It isnt necessary for early childhood teachers to know math well.

B. They had better be experts in complex maths subjects.

C. Their teaching skills should be related to students thinking.

D. The improvement of their teaching ability helps improve students outcomes.

1. A。解析：詞義猜測題。材料第二段中畫線詞所在句子的大意為“專家表示，對學生來說，在數學這個科目上有牢固的基礎是必不可少的，因為數學技能之間是相輔相成的”?！癷ndispensible”有“必不可少的”之意，故選A。

2. B。解析：細節(jié)理解題。根據材料第二段第三句“About 90 percent of elementary teachers in the U.S. are women”，我們可排除C選項；根據材料第一段第一句“Many elementary school teachers say they dislike the idea of teaching mathematics even at the most basic level”，我們可排除D選項。根據材料第二段第二句中的“math is a common cause of anxiety for adults， especially for women”，我們可知“數學是成年人焦慮的常見原因，尤其是對女性而言”，因而A選項與文意相符，B選項與文意不符。故選B。

3. C。解析：推理判斷題。材料第三段和第四段列舉了芝加哥的埃里克森研究院如何提高教師的數學技能，材料最后三段分別展示了Lauran Solarski、Lisa Ginet和Heather Peske對于早期數學教育的看法。因此，這篇文章主要是通過舉例子來展開的。故選C。

4. D。解析：推理判斷題。材料最后一段提到“如果我們讓教師做好準備，他們的數學知識會更深厚，數學教學能力會更強，這將減少他們的焦慮，提高學生的成績”，由此可知，教師教學能力的提高有助于學生成績的提高，故選D。