Question

【題目】If you were like most kids, your mother told you there were three no-no’s when it came to your fingers: Don’t put them in an electrical outlet, don’t stick them up your nose ( at least not in public ), and don’t use them when you are counting. 【1】 But experts in education and cognition now believe that using your fingers to do math is not only a perfectly good idea but may even help children become superior students.

It certainly makes sense. When children count on their fingers, they take an abstract concept— mathematics—and translate it into the most basic and visual form. 【2】 Even when we aren’t actually counting on them, they still can help us on math problem,

【3】 It activates when we respond to heat, pressure, pain, or the use of a given finger. Studying brain scans, researchers discovered that when students aged 8 to 13 work on subtraction (減法) equations, this region “l(fā)ights up” on the scans, even if the students aren’t using their fingers. The more complex the problem, the more activities are detected.

The connection between finger use and math ability has been shown on old-fashioned math tests as well. With their eyes closed, first graders were asked to identify which of their fingers a researcher was touching, 【4】 When college students were given the same quiz, the highest scores once again performed best on calculation tests.

So what does all this mean? For one thing, parents and teachers shouldn’t discourage children from counting on their fingers. 【5】 Memorizing the multiplication tables may help, but it is not the best option. “I would like to see interesting and creative representations of ideas.” says Jo Boaler, a professor of math education.

Recently, a series of activities have been designed to strengthen students’ perception of their fingers. Maybe in the near future, there will be only two no-no 1s regarding the use of fingers.

A. The first two laws of fingers are as true as ever.

B. There is a section of the brain, called the somatosensory finger area.

C. Researchers also stress that students simply learn better using visual tools.

D. Researchers are unimpressed by those students who finish quickly as well.

E. In fact, experts believe the brain is able to “see” a representation of our fingers.

F. That may sound simplistic, but the researchers offer an interesting explanation.

G. Researchers found those scoring highest on the finger-ID questions scored higher on a math test.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】A

【2】E

【3】B

【4】G

【5】C

【解析】家長經(jīng)常教育孩子不要用手指數(shù)數(shù)，但研究表明用手指數(shù)數(shù)對數(shù)學(xué)能力有促進作用。

【1】A

考查對上下文的理解和推理判斷能力。上文講母親告訴我們的三個不要用手指的事項，下句講教育專家說數(shù)數(shù)時用手指是很好的方法。A項：前兩個法則是對的，是對上文的總結(jié)，對下文的轉(zhuǎn)折。故選A.

【2】E

考查對上下文的理解和推理判斷能力。上句講用手指數(shù)數(shù)能把抽象的數(shù)學(xué)概念變成最基本的視覺形式。E項：事實上，專家認為大腦能夠“看到”我們手指的表征。是對上句的進一步解釋，故選E.

【3】B

考查對上下文的理解和推理判斷能力。本段講大腦特定區(qū)域的具體工作程序，B項：大腦有一個區(qū)域，叫做軀體感覺指區(qū)。就是本段指的這個區(qū)域，引出下文。故選B.

【4】G

考查對上下文的理解和推理判斷能力。本段講手指使用和數(shù)學(xué)能力之間的關(guān)系，G項：研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，在手指識別問題上得分最高的人在數(shù)學(xué)測試中得分較高。說明了兩者之間的關(guān)系，故選G.

【5】C

考查對上下文的理解和推理判斷能力。本段講我們應(yīng)該采取的措施：首先，父母和老師不應(yīng)該阻止孩子們用手指數(shù)數(shù)。C項：研究人員還強調(diào)，學(xué)生們只是通過視覺工具學(xué)習(xí)得更好。與上句并列，與下句的乘法表一致，故選C.