英文短文：女生人數多男生成績就差
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.
當班上女生人數較多時，男生的英語成績要下降10%，而女生們的成績則不受影響。
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.
研究人員今天宣稱，當班上女生人數較多時，男生的英語就會變得較差。而人們以往普遍認為，在學校中，女生對男生總是有積極影響。
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.
布里斯托大學的研究生史蒂文·普勞德將在皇家經濟學會的會議上宣布：對于小學與初中的英語課而言，女生越少，男生成績越好。
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 of girls in the class, Proud found.
然而史蒂文·普勞德同時發現在數學與科學學科上，女生人數多對男女生都有積極影響——成績可以提高10%。
Proud tracked boys' and girls' test results at the ages of seven, 11, 14 and 16 in 16,000 schools in England between 2002 and 2004 for his PhD.
2002年至2004年間，普勞德為了完成他的博士研究課題，跟蹤查詢了英格蘭16000所學校里7歲、11歲、14歲、16歲的男女生測試成績。
He analysed the test scores to see whether the proportion of girls in a year group made a difference to the results of both genders in maths, science and English.
為了研究女生所占比例對所有學生的數學、科學以及英語成績的影響，他對測試分數進行了分析。
There are marginally more boys than girls in schools, but most classes in mixed schools are almost equally split between the genders. Proud looked at these and schools that were exceptional in their high or low proportion of girls.
男生數目比女生數目要稍多一些，但是在大多數學校的班級中，兩性比例基本是平衡的。普勞德研究的對象是那些女生所占比例超低或者超高的學校。
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.
普勞德發現，相對班上沒有或者有很少女生的班級而言，當班上女生人數較多時，男生的英語成績總是會下降10%。
The more girls there are in an English class, the worse boys perform. This is particularly the case in primary schools, he discovered.
普勞德發現，這種現象在小學尤其明顯，女生越多，男生的英語就學得越差。
Proud will argue that his results show boys should be taught English in single-sex classes.
普勞德提議依照研究成果來看，男生學習英語應該被安排在一個都是男生的班級里。
Girls, who outperform boys in English at every stage at school, are unaffected by the number of boys in their English classes.
而女生的英語成績則不受男生人數影響，她們在學校的所有學習階段英語表現都要強過男生。
Girls also do better when there are some boys who receive free school meals in their class, Proud found.
普勞德還發現，當班上有幾個吃免費學校餐的男生時，女生們的表現會更好。
He said: "The results imply that boys would benefit at all ages from being taught English with as small a proportion of girls as possible. In maths and science, the results tend to imply that both boys and girls benefit from having more girls in the classroom. A mix of the genders in both science and maths is optimal."
普勞德稱：“研究結果表明，如果能降低英語課上的女生人數比例，所有年齡組男生的英語成績都將受益。在數學和科學學科上，研究結果表明女生多對班級中的男女生都有好處。數學與科學學科中，性別混合是最優化的選擇。”
Proud said boys may do worse in English when there is a high proportion of girls in their class because they realise 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.
普勞德認為男生的英語成績被女生人數影響的原因是男生會認識到女生在英語方面要比他們強。也有可能是老師的教學方式在女生較多之時更加適合女生。而在小學數學與科學課程中，女生人數的增加使得喜歡擾亂課堂秩序的男生們沒那么猖狂了，因此男女生都能從中受益。
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.
白金漢大學教育與職業研究中心的艾倫·史密瑟斯教授認為，開始學校教育之時，女孩們在口頭表達方面要比男孩們稍稍強一些，而男孩們對數學的熱情要比女孩高。
"Boys might be discouraged by how well girls are doing in English," he said, "but that still does not explain why they would do better in maths and science with a higher proportion of girls in their class.
“女生們的表現使得男生們在英語上有挫敗感，”教授稱，“但這不能解釋為何女生比例高時，他們的數學與科學表現也較好。”
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