What is Math Anxiety?

Math anxiety or fear of math is actually quite common. Math anxiety is quite    1  to stage-fright. Why does someone suffer   2  ? Fear of something going wrong in front of a crowd? Fear of   3  the lines? Fear of being judged   4  ? Fear of going completely blank? Math anxiety conjures（使现出） up fear of some type. The fear that one won't be able to do the   5  or the fear that it's too hard or the fear of failure which often stems(起因于) from having a lack of   6  . For the most part, math anxiety is the   7  about doing the math right, our minds draw a   8  and we think we'll fail and of course the more frustrated and anxious our minds become, the   9  the chance for drawing blanks. Added pressure of having time limits on math tests and exams also cause the levels of anxiety grow for many students.

Where Does Math Anxiety Come From?

Usually math anxiety stems from    10 experiences in mathematics. Typically math phobias have had math presented in such a fashion that it led to limited understanding. Unfortunately, math anxiety is often  11   poor teaching and poor experiences in math which typically leads to math   12  . Many of the students I've encountered with math anxiety have demonstrated an over reliance on procedures in math as opposed to actually understanding the math. When one tries to memorize procedures, rules and routines without much   13  , the math is quickly forgotten and   14  soon sets in. Think about your experiences with one concept --- the division of fractions（小部分）. You probably learned about reciprocals（倒数） and inverses. In other words, 'It's not yours to reason why, just invert（反转） and multiply'（乘）. Well, you memorized the rule and it   15   . Why does it work? Do you really understand why it works? Did anyone every use pizzas or math manipulative（巧妙处理的） to show you why it works? If   16   , you simply memorized the procedure and that was that. Think of math as memorizing all the procedures --   17  if you forget a few? Therefore, with this type of strategy, a good   18  will help, but, what if you don’t have a good memory. Understanding the math is critical. Once students   19  they can do the math, the whole notion of math anxiety can be overcome. Teachers and parents have an important   20  to ensure students understand the math being presented to them.

(    ) 1. A. different           B. similar             C. far                          D. familiar

(    ) 2. A. speech              B. performance     C. threatens                  D. stage-fright

(    ) 3. A. understanding   B. memorizing      C. forgetting                D. reading

(    ) 4. A. poorly              B. crazily              C. well                        D. publicly

(    ) 5. A. Chinese            B. math                C. English                   D. physics

(    ) 6. A. wish                B. conscience        C. determination           D. confidence

(    ) 7. A. fear                 B. joy                   C. pleasure                   D. doubt

(    ) 8. A .failure              B. choice              C. blank                             D. death

(    ) 9. A. further             B. greater             C. less                         D. smaller

(    ) 10. A. unpleasant      B. unfair               C. pleasant                   D. successful

(    ) 11. A. because           B. thanks to          C. resulting in              D. due to

(    ) 12. A. fear                B. anxiety             C. failure                     D. misunderstanding

(    ) 13. A. forgetting       B. use                   C. understanding          D. knowledge

(    ) 14. A. panic             B. excitement        C. disappointment         D. encouragement

(    ) 15. A. opens             B. works               C. starts                       D. runs

(    ) 16. A. so                  B. possible            C. not                          D. any

(    ) 17. A. Where            B. Why                C. When                      D. What

(    ) 18. A. memory         B. method             C. brain                       D. body

(    ) 19. A. fill                 B. realize              C. confirm                   D. recognize

(    ) 20. A. task                B. aim                  C. appointment             D. role