Question

【题目】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 (减法) equations, this region “lights 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】家长经常教育孩子不要用手指数数，但研究表明用手指数数对数学能力有促进作用。

【1】A

考查对上下文的理解和推理判断能力。上文讲母亲告诉我们的三个不要用手指的事项，下句讲教育专家说数数时用手指是很好的方法。A项：前两个法则是对的，是对上文的总结，对下文的转折。故选A.

【2】E

考查对上下文的理解和推理判断能力。上句讲用手指数数能把抽象的数学概念变成最基本的视觉形式。E项：事实上，专家认为大脑能够“看到”我们手指的表征。是对上句的进一步解释，故选E.

【3】B

考查对上下文的理解和推理判断能力。本段讲大脑特定区域的具体工作程序，B项：大脑有一个区域，叫做躯体感觉指区。就是本段指的这个区域，引出下文。故选B.

【4】G

考查对上下文的理解和推理判断能力。本段讲手指使用和数学能力之间的关系，G项：研究人员发现，在手指识别问题上得分最高的人在数学测试中得分较高。说明了两者之间的关系，故选G.

【5】C

考查对上下文的理解和推理判断能力。本段讲我们应该采取的措施：首先，父母和老师不应该阻止孩子们用手指数数。C项：研究人员还强调，学生们只是通过视觉工具学习得更好。与上句并列，与下句的乘法表一致，故选C.