Ted is a high school student. He is very good at math, but he is not a very good English student. He likes all of his teachers;
he thinks they are fair and want him to learn. On Tuesday, Ted was sitting in his English classroom, listening to his teacher’s lecture. The teacher asked the class a question. He called on Ted. Ted had not been paying attention. His palms began to sweat, and his heart rate increased. He felt embarrassed that he did not know the answer. On Wednesday, Ted was asked to answer another question in his math classroom. Even though this time he was listening and knew the answer, his palms began to sweat and his heart rate increased. Why did Ted’s palms sweat and heart rate increase on Wednesday? A. Ted associated his embarrassment with being in high school. B. Ted associated his math teacher with feelings of embarrassment. C. Ted was not completely sure that his answer was correct. D. Ted associated being asked a question with embarrassment.
Option D - Ted associated being asked a question with embarrassment.
Explanation:
The embarrassing experience Ted went through, on Tuesday, in his English class - where he became nervous, started sweating and could not answer the question - made him associate the notion being questioned with getting nervous. Hence on Wednesday, when his math teacher asked him a question he immediately went into the same nervous state and could not answer the question, even though he was good at math.
