A 33-year-old financial analyst in California recently quit his job to
devote himself to an unpaid job teaching math on the Internet, and his lessons
are reaching almost 100,000 people a month. Salman Khan’s voice is heard every
day on the net --- by tens of thousands of students around the world who are
hungry for help learning math. He has posted 1,200 lessons on YouTube ...
lessons that appear on an electronic blackboard, which range from basic
addition to advanced mathematics for science and finance. And they are free.
Khan lives in Silicon Valley, with his wife, a doctor, and their new
baby. He got the idea for his “Khan Academy” four years ago, when he taught a
young cousin how to convert kilograms to grams. With Khan’s help, the cousin
got good at math, and Khan began a new career.
Now, Khan records his lessons himself, but he never goes on camera. “It
feels like my voice in their head. You’re looking at it and it feels like
someone’s over your shoulder talking in your ear, as opposed to someone at the
blackboard, which is distant from you,” he said.
When Springfield High School in Palo Alto, California invited Khan to
speak in person --- he immediately connected to the students there.
The idea of short lessons that can be played over and over again
attracted high school senior Bridget Meaney. She says she had trouble with math
in the seventh grade. “I think the teachers are good, but they can’t teach at a
speed that’s perfect for everyone,” she said. “I like the idea of learning
something in class but then going back and pressing pause or rewind and
actually getting a deeper understanding of it.”
Originally, Khan kept his lessons short because of YouTube restrictions.
Now, he thinks short is better. “Education researchers now
tell me that 10 minutes is how long someone can have a high level of
concentration. And anything beyond that and your brain switches off,” he said.
For Khan, teaching math, science, and finance is just the beginning. He
says he’s ready to expand his YouTube site to include other subjects as well.
1.What gave
Khan the idea of teaching math online?
A. His success in helping his cousin learn math.
B. His discovery that many students found learning math difficult.
C. A suggestion made to him at a local high school.
D. His interest in Internet teaching.
2.Why does
Khan never go on camera?
A. He’s too shy to show his face on camera.
B. It’s restricted by YouTube for education videos.
C. He wants to keep distance from the viewers.
D. He wants to create a more relaxed learning atmosphere.
3.From the
passage, we know that ________.
A. Khan travels to many schools to promote his lessons
B. Khan plans to include more subjects in the future
C. Khan gives live math lessons every day for free
D. Khan set up the Khan Academy with his wife
4.Why does
Bridget Meaney like Khan’s lessons?
A. Khan
teaches seventh grade math better than her teacher.
B. The
lessons can be watched repeatedly until fully understood.
C. She can
perfectly follow the pace of Khan’s teaching.
D. She
cannot concentrate when learning in class.
5.What does
Khan mean by “short is better” in the 6th paragraph?
A. Keeping
the lessons short can ensure better concentration.
B. YouTube
recommends short lessons for its site.
C. Short
lessons encourage students to return to the website.
D. Students
enjoy short mathematics lessons more.
