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Boys' English grades are up to a tenth worse when high numbers of girls are in the class with them, though
girls' grades are unaffected. Boys do worse in English when there are girls in their class, researchers will say
today, contradicting the widely held belief that girls are always a good influence on boys in school.
Boys do best with "as few girls as possible" in English lessons at primary and secondary school, Steven
Proud, a research student at Bristol University, will tell the Royal Economic Society's conference. But when it
comes to maths and science, both boys and girls at primary school achieve up to a tenth of a grade more when
there is a high proportion (比率) of girls in the class, Proud found.
Proud tracked boys' and girls' test results at the ages of 7, 11, 14 and 16 in 16,000 schools in England
between 2002 and 2004 for his PhD. Boys consistently perform up to a tenth of a grade worse when they study
English with high numbers of girls as opposed to few or no girls, Proud found. The more girls there are in an
English class, the worse boys perform. This is particularly the case in primary schools, he discovered.
Proud said boys may do worse in English when there is a high proportion of girls in their class because they
realize that the girls are better than them. It could also be that teachers use teaching styles more appropriate to
girls when there are more girls than boys in the class. Both genders perform better in maths and science at
primary school when there are more girls in the class because boys tend to disrupt the class more, he said.
Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University
of Buckingham, said girls started school with slightly better verbal skills, while boys started with a slightly
greater aptitude for maths.
1. What people widely believed is that ____.
A. boys can do well at school under the influence of girls
B. boys can have good influence on girls in terms of English learning
C. boys and girls can make progress in English learning together
D. boys always fall behind girls in English learning
2. When there is a high proportion of girls in the class, ____.
A. boys can have a good influence on girls in learning science
B. boys can do much better in science
C. both boys and girls do better in science
D. girls still do better than boys in science
3. We can learn from the last paragraph that Professor Alan Smithers ____.
A. doesn't think boys do worse in English with girls in their class
B. provides further proof to Steven Proud's study
C. agrees with Steven Proud exactly
D. gives a different explanation for girls' advantage at English
4. The underlined word "aptitude" in the last paragraph is similar in meaning to ____.
A. sense
B. gift
C. chance
D. interest