Gaokao maths question leaves US teacher stumped

　　高考数学题目难倒了美国老师

　　A video of a US middle school maths teacher comically trying – and failing – to complete a mathematics question from a Chinese exam paper has been widely shared on social media in China.

　　近日，一段有关一位美国中学数学老师尝试解开一道中国考试卷上的数学题但未能解开的滑稽的视频在中国社交媒体上被广为转发。

　　The video was shared on June 8 by a Chinese teacher working in the US. It shows her friend, a US middle school maths teacher, trying to solve a question from this year’s gaokao, China’s college entrance examination with a reputation for difficulty, even by international standards.

　　6月8日，一位在美国工作的中国教师分享了这段视频。视频中，她的朋友（一位美国中学数学老师）正在尝试解答今年高考中的一道题。中国高考以其高难度而闻名，即使以国际标准来衡量也是如此。

　　The question was taken from section II of the natural sciences mathematics exam paper on the national level.

　　这道题摘自理科数学全国卷的第二部分。

　　“I heard this year’s gaokao maths questions are very difficult so I searched online and tried to solve one in a cafe. But it has been a long time, therefore I forgot how to solve it,” she told online news media platform Guancha Syndicate.

　　她向在线新闻媒体平台观察者网表示：“我听说今年的高考数学题目很难，所以我上网搜索了一下，想在咖啡馆里解开一道。但由于很久没做题了，所以我都忘记如何解开这道题了。”

　　At that moment, the US maths teacher was sitting next to her and playing chess with his friends, “so I asked if he could help me solve a question, but that posed a big challenge to him,” she said.

　　当时，这位美国数学老师正坐在她旁边和朋友们下棋，她说道：“所以我就问他能否帮我解开一道题，但是没想到这对他来说是一个很大的挑战。”

　　In the video, the US teacher looked confused when reading question 12 for 3 minutes, a multiple choice question about functions. He first tries the method of substitution but fails and finally chooses D by exclusion.

　　在视频中，这位美国老师对第12题（一道有关函数的多项选择题）审题3分钟后显得很是困惑。他首先用代换法试了试，但没能解开，最后通过排除法选择了D。

　　However, the answer turned out to be B, much to the amusement of social media users. Posts about the video have been viewed 140 million times on microblogging site Weibo, and the video has been picked up by other Chinese news media.

　　然而，正确答案却是B，这乐坏了社交媒体上的用户。有关该视频的帖子在微博上被浏览了1.4亿次，该视频也被其他中国新闻媒体转载。

　　(全文共265个词，南华早报)

　　重难点词汇：

　　stump [stʌmp] n. 树桩；残余部分；假肢 vt. 砍伐；使为难 vi. 笨重地行走

　　comically ['kɔmikli] adv. 滑稽地；诙谐地

　　confuse [kən'fjʊz] vt. 使混乱；使困惑

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