. 美国人在数学方面不算出类拔萃，这不是什么秘密。
. It's not secret that Americans aren't exactly leading the peak in mathematics.
. 在众多支撑这一事实的统计数据中，最能说明问题的可能是，美国高中毕业生的数学成绩与其他国家大多数高中辍学生的大致相同。
. Out of the profusion of statistics that support this fact, the most telling may be that math performance by American high graduates is roughly the same as most high school dropouts in the other countries.
. 发表在《科学进展》期刊上的一项最新研究揭示，美国石英财经网站（Quartz)称美国人算术技能糟糕透顶的另一个可能原因是：数学焦虑。
. A newest study in the journal Science Advances uncovers another possible reason for what Quartz has called America's "spectacularly bad" arithmetic skills: It's math anxiety.
. 更具体一点来说，该研究表明了，数学焦虑导致美国人对数学的逃避。
. To be more specific, the researc shows that math anxiety leads to math avoidance.
. The math test.
. “我和我的研究团队以及来自芝加哥大学、斯坦福大学的合作者一起设计了一项研究，可以明确评估人们在数学测试中的行为表现。"
. Together with my collaborators at The University of Chicago and Stanford University, my research team and I designed a study that could definitively assess how people behave when put to the math test.
. 参与者正确解答出一系列数学和文字题时，我们会给予奖金奖励，而每次选择解答简单题还是难题的决定权在他们手上。
. We paid participants to correctly answer a series of math and word problems, giving them the option to choose solve an easy or hard question each time.
. 测试的有趣之处在于：参与者知道，答对简单的题，获得的奖金金额也相对较低，而答对较难的题，则可以获得更高金额的奖金。
. Here is where it gets interesting: Participants knew they would be paid a smaller amount of money when they got the easier-ranked questions correct, and a larger amount for getting the more difficult questions right.
. 我们发现，那些之前自称对数学感到害怕或者紧张的人不愿尝试解答数学难题，即便他们答对了可以获得更多的奖金，而且他们也具备解答难题的数学技能（基于实验过程中的实际数学成绩）。另一方面，数学焦虑度较低的人则敢于尝试，勇于解答难题。
. What we discovered was that people who had previously reported they felt had afraid or nervous about math wouldn't attempt to solve hard math problems even when they knew they could score a larger amount of reward money for a correct answer and evev when they had the math skills (based on actually math performance throughout the experiment) to solve the difficult problems. People with less math anxiety, on the other hand, jumped in and tackled the difficult math.
. 我们的结论是：当你的数学焦虑程度高时，会不惜一切代价逃避数学，测试成绩也会很差。
. Our conclusion: When you have high leve of math anxiety, you avoid math at all costs, and you perform poorly on tests.
. 而测试中的文字题部分，情况却并非如此。在有经济奖励时，数学焦虑人群热衷于解答文字难题。换言之，人们逃避数学不仅仅是因为他们不擅长数学--而是因为数学中的某些部分令他们害怕。美国人对数学有一种与生俱来、根深蒂固的恐惧，这种恐惧让人感觉无法打破。
. This was not true for the word problem portion of our test. Math-anxious folks were eager to solve the hard word problems when it was financially in their favor to do so. In other words, people don't just avoid math because they're bad at it -- they avoid math because there's something about it that scares them. Americans have an inherent, deep-down fear of mathematics that feels impossible to shake.
. 就像蜘蛛恐惧症、幽闭恐惧症或飞行恐惧症一样，美国人把专门指代该种状况的一个类别戏称为“数学创伤”，这种创伤由个人曾经在数学课上遭遇尴尬和屈辱而造成的。
. And just like arachnophobia, claustrophobia, or aviophobia, Americans have dubbed an entire category devoted to this condition:"math trauma," caused by a personal history of embarrassment and humiliation experienced during math class.
. American losers
. 每隔三年，世界各地的学生便会参加国际学生评估项（简称PISA)测试。该项目旨在评估各国学生数学、阅读和科学方面的技能水平。
. Every three years, students around the world sit for the Programfor International Student Assessment, or PISA, exam, which evaluate countries' student skill levels in math, reading, and science.
. 美国学生历来在数学方面的表现都颇为糟糕，2012年排名第28位，2015年排名第35位。2019年12月3日发布的最新PISA考试结果显示，美国学生成绩提升微乎其微，在79个参与国中排名第35位。
. Historically, US students have doen especially poorly in the math category, ranking number 28 in 2012 and number 35 in 2015. The results of the latest PISA released on Dec.3, 2019 showd negligible improvemet for American students, who ranked 35th place out of the 79 participating countries.
. 尽管决策者和行业领袖都在强调科学、技术、工程和数学（简称STEM）技能对美国经济的重要性，这些数据清楚地表明了（不出以外的话）美国教育体系支持STEM的方式出了问题。
. If nothing else, this is a clear indication that something is going awry in the way the US education system supports science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), even as policymakers and industry leaders emphasize how important STEM skills are for the US economy.
. 正如我的研究表明的那样，即使作数学题能拿到奖金，美国人显然还是不想去做。
. As my study showed, apparently Americans don't want to do math even if you pay us to do.
. 这就成了一个有为严重的问题，因为越来越多的美国雇主需要能够解答数学题的员工。
. That's an especially big problem when, increasingly, US employers want to do exactly that.
. Numbers pshche.
. 更好地理解数学焦虑和数学逃避之间的明显关联，有着巨大的潜在好处。因为，数学焦虑不仅会影响学生选择的课程，还会影响他们选择的专业，从而影响他们从事的职业。约有93%的美国人称，自己在数学方面存在一定程度的焦虑。据估计，近五分之一（占比17%）的美国成年人，有着严重的数学焦虑。
. Better understanding the clear link between math anxiety and math avoidance has potentially enormous benefits, as math anxiety affects not only what classes students select, but the majors they choose, and, therefore, the careers they pursue. Approximately 93% of Americans report experiencing some level of math anxiety and it's estimated that nearly one in five US adults --17%-- suffers from high levels of math anxiety.
. 美国劳工统计局的数据表明，偏重数学的职业岗位增长速度将远高于其他职业，2016至2026年期间可能会增长28%。
. Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that employment in math-heavy occupations will grow much faster than other occupations, potentially increasing 28% from 2016 to 2026.
. 作为一名认知科学家兼大学校长，我担心数学焦虑会将阻碍下一代胜任社会需求量最大的那些社会岗位。
. As a cognitive scientist and as president of a college, I worry that math anxiety wil prevent the next generation from qualifying for the exact jobs that will be in highest demand.
. 既然数学焦虑已被认定为是美国数学危机愈演愈烈的一个根本问题，那么，是时候采取行动去解决这一个根本问题了。
. Now that mat anxiety has been identified as a root cause of our growing math crisis, it's time to take action to address it.