英语听力文摘 English Digest 635 数学伤大脑
时间：2018-12-31 作者：英语课 分类：英语听力文摘 English Digest
英语课
Math Hurts My Brain – Why?
It’s time to go again to the A Moment of Science mailbag. A listener writes:
Dear A Moment of Science,
I’m not a math person. In fact, anytime I have to deal with numbers, let alone solve an actual math problem??which, thankfully, is not often??it’s almost painful.
图片1
What’s going on?
First, you should know that you’re certainly not alone. Lots of people suffer from what’s known as math anxiety. And what’s most interesting is that, according to one study, people with very high levels of math anxiety actually experience pain when confronted 1 with a math challenge. Not metaphorical 2 pain??actual, real pain.
OK, but what does that mean? How can math cause pain?
All in the brain
It’s all in the brain, of course. The researchers compared fourteen people with high math anxiety to fourteen people with low math anxiety. Each group was given a series of word and math problems while an MRI machine scanned 3 their brain activity. Before each problem, either a yellow circle would appear to indicate that they were about to solve a math problem, or a blue square would pop up to signal a word problem.
When people with high math anxiety saw the dreaded 4 yellow circle, the parts of their brain linked to pain perception 5 lit up like a pinball machine. People with low math anxiety didn’t show much or any activity in that part of the brain.
So doing math problems caused real pain. Not exactly. It’s the anticipation 6 of doing math that lit up the pain sensors 7. Actually doing math didn’t cause any pain?related brain activity.
面对( confront的过去式和过去分词 )； 使面对； 使对质； 处理
- When we confronted him, he denied everything. 我们与他当面对质时，他什么都不承认。
- The writer confronted his pile of work with determination. 那作家下决心面对成堆的工作。
a.隐喻的，比喻的
- Here, then, we have a metaphorical substitution on a metonymic axis. 这样，我们在换喻（者翻译为转喻，一种以部分代替整体的修辞方法）上就有了一个隐喻的替代。
- So, in a metaphorical sense, entropy is arrow of time. 所以说，我们可以这样作个比喻：熵像是时间之矢。
经（擦伤仪）仔细检查的
- He scanned the horizon for any sign of land. 他仔细眺望地平线，找寻陆地的踪影。
- She scanned his face to see if he was telling the truth. 她审视着他的脸，看他讲的是否是真话。
adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词)
- The dreaded moment had finally arrived. 可怕的时刻终于来到了。
- He dreaded having to spend Christmas in hospital. 他害怕非得在医院过圣诞节不可。 来自《用法词典》
n.感知，感觉，觉察(力)；认识，观念，看法
- What's your perception of the matter?你对此事有什么看法？
- He was a man of keen perception.他是一个感觉敏锐的人。
n.预期，预料，期望
- We waited at the station in anticipation of her arrival.我们在车站等着，期待她的到来。
- The animals grew restless as if in anticipation of an earthquake.各种动物都变得焦躁不安，像是感到了地震即将发生。