If, on the other hand, you start working the day I give you the midterm, you'll be frustrated.

或者，另一方面，如果你只是在我们期中考试那天才开始复习，那么你一定会感到很失落。

You'll come to me and say, 'It's impossible.' I'll tell you to keep working and by week two, you'll find you'll make significant progress."

你将跑过来跟我说‘这不可能。’我想告诉你们，持续努力，到了第二周你就会发现你将取得重大进步。”

We sometimes think of being good at mathematics as an innate ability. You either have it, or you don't.

有些时候我们将优秀的数学能力看作一种内在的能力。或者你具备，或者你不具备。

But to Schoenfeld, it's not so much ability as attitude. You master mathematics if you are willing to try.

但是对于肖恩菲尔德来说，什么能力都不如态度重要。如果你有意愿去尝试，你就会掌握数学，

That's what Schoenfeld attempts to teach his students.

这就是他想传授给学生的。

Success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard for twenty-two minutes

成功就是坚持不懈地钻研，

To make sense of something that most people would give up on after thirty seconds.

比如，带有强烈的意愿花22分钟去解决一个大多数人只花30秒就放弃的问题，

Put a bunch of Renees in a classroom, and give them the space and time to explore mathematics with themselves, and you could go a long way.

如果一个班里都是雷妮这样的人，只要给她们足够的空间和时间让她们自己解决问题，那么一定会取得很好的成绩。

Or imagine a country where Renee's doggedness is not the exception, but a cultural trait,

或者想象一下，如果在某个国家，雷妮的这种坚持不是特例，而是一种文化特征，

Embedded as deeply as the culture of honor in the Cumberland Plateau.Now that would be a country good at math.

那么深植在这种文化中的荣誉感将会毫无疑问地致使这个国家具备卓越的数学能力。

Every four years, an international group of educators administers a comprehensive mathematics and science test to elementary and junior high school students around the world.

每四年，一个由许多学者组成的国际组织都会组织一次高难度的数学竞赛，竞赛的选手大多都来自世界各国的初中生或高中生。

It's called the TIMSS (the same test we discussed earlier when looking at differences between forth grader born near the beginning of a school cutoff date and those born near the end of the date),

这个数学竞赛就是TIMSS（这与我们在第一章中讨论的竞赛是同一个竞赛）。

And the point of the TIMSS is to allow us to compare the educational achievement of one country with another.

设立TIMSS竞赛的目的就在于比较不同国家之间的教育成果。

When students sit down to TIMSS exam, they also have to fill out a questionnaire.

当学生们坐下来参加TIMSS竞赛时，他们同时还必须填写一份问卷。

It asks them all kinds of things, such as what their parent's level of education is, or what their views about math are, or what their friends are like.

这份问卷包括很多内容，如父母的教育程度，对数学的看法，以及对朋友的描述。

It's not a trivial exercise. It's about 120 questions long.

这并非是毫无意义的测试。这是个长达120道题的问卷，

In fact, it is so tedious and demanding that many students leave as many as ten or twenty questions blank.

因此很多学生都留下了10道到20道题未能填写。