As an engineering student, I had a degree and three good job offers．I can’t help trembling when I hear about studies that show that women are at a 1 when it comes to math．However, I discovered：just because a subject is 2 to learn, it does not 3 you are not good at it．You just have to grit your teeth and work harder to get good at it． 4 you do, there’s a strong chance you will enjoy it more than anything else．
In eighth grade I took algebra(代数学)．On one test I got only 36 percent of the 5 answers．I failed the next one, too．I started to 6 ．Maybe I’m just not good at this．I was lucky enough to have a teacher who didn’t take my bad grades as a judgment of my 7 , but 8 as an indication that I should study more．He 9 me aside and told me he knew I could do better．He let me 10 the tests, and I pulled my grade up to an A．
I studied a lot in college, too．I had moments of fear while sitting below the buzzing fluorescent lights in the 11 library on Saturday afternoons, when I 12 that the estrogen(雌性激素)in my body was 13 me from understanding thermodynamics(热力学)．But the 14 in my classes had to work just as hard, and I knew that I couldn’t 15 to lose confidence in myself．I didn’t want to choose between my femininity(女性)and a good career． 16 I reminded myself that those 17 , the ones that say that math comes more naturally to men, are faulty．
Here’s a secret：math and science don’t go 18 to most people．No one was 19 born knowing calculus．A woman can learn anything a man can, but first she needs to know that she can do it, and that takes a leap of 20 ．It also helps to have selective hearing．