第二节完形填空（共20小题；每小题1分，满分20分）

请认真阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

What is it about maths, anyway? Why is it that a ___36___ who would rather die than ___37___ they found reading difficult at school will happily say he is brain-dead when it ___38___ to numbers?

“I was ___39___ at maths at school,” they say. “still am. Can’t ___40___ up to save my life. My little girl takes after____41___. Thinks take-aways are something to do with fish and chips. Ha-ha!” Oh, how we all laugh.

But how many of us remember it being ___42___ at the time? How many of us remember the blind panic of the Monday morning maths test when the ___43___ we could hope for was a miracle(奇迹) to make the numbers we ___44___ without thinking as answers somehow ___45___ the questions?

On the face of it, today’s children can ___46___ be considered happier and more satisfied. They have a daily numeracy lesson ___47___ to improving their maths skills. But if that sounds like hell to you, you may ___48__ find that your child surprises you by actually quite ___49__ it.

One of the __50___ is that over the last ten years or so, there has been a ___51___ in the way maths is taught. And many of those who teach it feel it’s been a ___52__ for the better. There’s generally much more emphasis now on __53___ arithmetic, getting children used to doing calculations without forever having a pen in one hand and a calculator in the other. Often the first question a teacher will ask is: can you do this in your___54___? And if they can, they do.

The whole approach is more___55___, the goal to get children understanding numbers, not just putting them through the uninteresting process of learning something by repeating it until they remember it.

36    A.    teacher    B.    parent     C.    pupil       D.    teenager

37    A.    understand      B.    admit      C.    observe   D.    pretend

38    A.    add  B.    relate      C.    comes     D.    reject

39    A.    good       B.    expert     C.    special     D.    rubbish

40    A.    add  B.    make       C.    look D.    pick

41    A.    stranger   B.    me   C.    herself     D.    somebody

42    A.    funny      B.    easy C.    attractive D.    remote

43    A.    worst      B.    prize       C.    best  D.    surprising

44    A.    missed     B.    lost  C.    found      D.    chose

45    A.    get   B.    foresee    C.    fit    D.    evaluate

46    A.    however  B.    frequently       C.    mostly     D.    hardly

47    A.    suggested B.    devoted   C.    intended  D.    adapted

48    A.    well B.    sometimes      C.    seldom    D.    extremely

49    A.    enjoying  B.    hating     C.    objecting D.    mastering

50    A.    consequences  B.    reasons    C.    findings   D.    incidents

51    A.    mistake   B.    program  C.    policy     D.    revolution

52    A.    preparation     B.    reputation       C.    requirement    D.    change

53    A.    difficult   B.    general    C.    mental     D.    basic

54    A.    class B.    head C.    textbook  D.    own

55    A.    logical     B.    unbelievable   C.    direct      D.    conservative