1.  What is the purpose of the article?


2.    Where does it first become apparent how the author feels about Susannah’s decision to drop math?

3.    What does the author mean by a “self-inflicted female disability”? What other expressions with a similar meaning appear in the article?


4.    What does the author imply about Susannah’s parents at the end of paragraph 3? Would a Thai writer make a similar implication about most Thai parents today?


5.    What does the author want us to understand from her story about Rosalyn S. Yalow (paragraph 4)?

6.    Explain the last sentence of paragraph 5. Does it support the idea that there are or are not many women working in science today?


7.    How does the author explain the phenomenon known as “math anxiety”? Why does it occur when it does? Did it affect anyone you know?


8.    How do the results of the study cited in paragraph 9 help to support the author’s ideas?



9.    In paragraph 13, the writer claims: “Scientific and mathematical illiteracy …produces an incalculably impoverished vision of human experience.” What does she mean? How do the following paragraphs help to clarify what she means?


10.    In paragraph 15, the author gives a reason why more women than men are technologically illiterate. What is it? Do you think the same is true for men and women in Thailand?



11.    Examine the context and give a definition for each of the following:
a.    sanguine (¶3)    ________________________________________________
b.    epitomize (¶8)    ________________________________________________
c.    outstripped (¶9)    ________________________________________________
d.    province (¶14)    ________________________________________________
e.    diatribes (¶14)    ________________________________________________
f.    acquiesce (¶15)    ________________________________________________
g.    accede to (¶16)    ________________________________________________

12.  What do the following refer to?
a.    this syndrome (¶13) ________________________________________________
b.    that indulgence (¶15) ________________________________________________
   

• Indian Girls and Math (2015; 1:09 min.)

• "Why Girls Don't Like Math," Your Voice (2009; 27:48 min.)

• "Are girls bad at science?," How Stuff Works (2013; 4:59 min.)

• "Girls vs. Boys at Math," Science Central (2009; 1:55 min.)