2018年12月六级第2套仔细阅读 Passage 1 原文翻译及答案解析

While human achievements in mathematics continue to reach new levels of complexity, many of us who aren't mathematicians at heart (or engineers by trade) may struggle to remember the last time we used calculus (微积分).

尽管人类在数学领域的成就不断达到新的复杂水平，但我们这些并非天生数学家（或职业工程师）的人，可能很难回忆起上次使用微积分是什么时候。

It's a fact not lost on American educators, who amid rising math failure rates are debating how math can better meet the real-life needs of students. Should we change the way math is taught in schools, or eliminate some courses entirely?

美国教育工作者并未忽视这一事实，在数学不及格率上升的背景下，他们正在辩论数学如何更好地满足学生的实际需求。我们应该改变学校的数学教学方式，还是完全取消一些课程？

Andrew Hacker, Queens College political science professor, thinks that advanced algebra and other higher-level math should be cut from curricula in favor of courses with more routine usefulness, like statistics.

皇后学院政治学教授安德鲁·哈克认为，应该从课程中删减高等代数和其他高等数学，转而开设更具日常实用性的课程，如统计学。

"We hear on all sides that we're not teaching enough mathematics, and the Chinese are running rings around us," Hacker says. "I'm suggesting we're teaching too much mathematics to too many people…not everybody has to know calculus. If you're going to become an aeronautical (航空的) engineer, fine. But most of us aren't."

哈克说：“我们从各方面听到我们教的数学不够，中国人在绕着我们跑。我认为我们给太多人教了太多数学……不是每个人都必须懂微积分。如果你要成为航空工程师，那没问题。但我们大多数人不是。”

Instead, Hacker is pushing for more courses like the one he teaches at Queens College: Numeracy 101. There, his students of "citizen statistics" learn to analyze public information like the federal budget and corporate reports. Such courses, Hacker argues, are a remedy for the numerical illiteracy of adults who have completed high-level math like algebra but are unable to calculate the price of, say, a carpet by area.

相反，哈克在推动更多类似他在皇后学院教授的课程：Numeracy 101。在那里，他的“公民统计学”学生学习分析公共信息，如联邦预算和公司报告。哈克认为，这类课程是治疗那些完成了高等数学（如代数）却无法计算例如地毯按面积价格的成年人的数字文盲的良方。

Hacker's argument has met with opposition from other math educators who say what's needed is to help students develop a better relationship with math earlier, rather than teaching them less math altogether.

哈克的论点遭到了其他数学教育工作者的反对，他们认为需要的是帮助学生更早地与数学建立更好的关系，而不是总体上减少数学教学。

Maria Droujkova is a founder of Natural Math, and has taught basic calculus concepts to 5-year-olds. For Droujkova, high-level math is important, and what it could use in American classrooms is an injection of childlike wonder.

玛丽亚·德鲁约科娃是Natural Math的创始人，并曾向5岁儿童教授基本微积分概念。对德鲁约科娃来说，高等数学很重要，美国课堂上需要注入孩童般的好奇心。

"Make mathematics more available," Droujkova says. "Redesign it so it's more accessible to more kinds of people: young children, adults who worry about it, adults who may have had bad experiences."

德鲁约科娃说：“让数学更容易获得。重新设计它，使其对更多种类的人更容易理解：幼儿、担心数学的成年人、可能有过糟糕经历的成年人。”

Pamela Harris, a lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin, has a similar perspective. Harris says that American education is suffering from an epidemic of "fake math"—an emphasis on rote memorization (死记硬背) of formulas and steps, rather than an understanding of how math can influence the ways we see the world.

德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的讲师帕梅拉·哈里斯有类似观点。哈里斯说，美国教育正在遭受“假数学”的流行——强调公式和步骤的死记硬背，而不是理解数学如何影响我们看待世界的方式。

Andrew Hacker, for the record, remains skeptical.

安德鲁·哈克，记录在案，仍然持怀疑态度。

"I'm going to leave it to those who are in mathematics to work out the ways to make their subject interesting and exciting so students want to take it," Hacker says. "All that I ask is that alternatives be offered instead of putting all of us on the road to calculus."

哈克说：“我将留给那些从事数学的人去想办法让他们的学科变得有趣和令人兴奋，这样学生才会想学。我要求的只是提供替代方案，而不是把我们都推上微积分之路。”