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　　Boys' English gradesare up to a tenth worse when high numbers of girls are in the classwith them, though girls' grades are unaffected。

　　当班上女生人数较多时，男生的英语成绩要下降10%，而女生们的成绩则不受影响。

　　Boys do worsein English when there are girls in their class, researchers willsay today, contradicting the widely held belief that girls arealways a good influence on boys in school。

　　研究人员今天宣称，当班上女生人数较多时，男生的英语就会变得较差。而人们以往普遍认为，在学校中，女生对男生总是有积极影响。

　　Boys do best with "as fewgirls as possible" in English lessons at primary and secondaryschool, Steven Proud, a research student at Bristol University,will tell the Royal Economic Society's conference。

　　布里斯托大学的研究生史蒂文·普劳德将在皇家经济学会的会议上宣布：对于小学与初中的英语课而言，女生越少，男生成绩越好。

　　But when it comes to mathsand science, both boys and girls at primary school achieve up to atenth of a grade more when there is a high proportion of girls inthe class, Proud found。

　　然而史蒂文·普劳德同时发现在数学与科学学科上，女生人数多对男女生都有积极影响——成绩可以提高10%。

　　Proud tracked boys' andgirls' test results at the ages of seven, 11, 14 and 16 in 16,000schools in England between 2002 and 2004 for his PhD。

　　2002年至2004年间，普劳德为了完成他的博士研究课题，跟踪查询了英格兰16000所学校里7岁、11岁、14岁、16岁的男女生测试成绩。

　　He analysed the test scoresto see whether the proportion of girls in a year group made adifference to the results of both genders in maths, science andEnglish。

　　为了研究女生所占比例对所有学生的数学、科学以及英语成绩的影响，他对测试分数进行了分析。

　　There are marginally moreboys than girls in schools, but most classes in mixed schools arealmost equally split between the genders. Proud looked at these andschools that were exceptional in their high or low proportion ofgirls。

　　男生数目比女生数目要稍多一些，但是在大多数学校的班级中，两性比例基本是平衡的。普劳德研究的对象是那些女生所占比例超低或者超高的学校。

　　Boys consistently perform upto a tenth of a grade worse when they study English with highnumbers of girls as opposed to few or no girls, Proud found。

　　普劳德发现，相对班上没有或者有很少女生的班级而言，当班上女生人数较多时，男生的英语成绩总是会下降10%。

　　The more girls there are inan English class, the worse boys perform. This is particularly thecase in primary schools, he discovered。

　　普劳德发现，这种现象在小学尤其明显，女生越多，男生的英语就学得越差。

　　Proud will argue that hisresults show boys should be taught English in single-sexclasses。

　　普劳德提议依照研究成果来看，男生学习英语应该被安排在一个都是男生的班级里。

　　Girls, who outperform boysin English at every stage at school, are unaffected by the numberof boys in their English classes。

　　而女生的英语成绩则不受男生人数影响，她们在学校的所有学习阶段英语表现都要强过男生。 

　　Girls also do better whenthere are some boys who receive free school meals in their class,Proud found。

　　普劳德还发现，当班上有几个吃免费学校餐的男生时，女生们的表现会更好。

　　He said: "The results implythat boys would benefit at all ages from being taught English withas small a proportion of girls as possible. In maths and science,the results tend to imply that both boys and girls benefit fromhaving more girls in the classroom. A mix of the genders in bothscience and maths is optimal."

　　普劳德称：“研究结果表明，如果能降低英语课上的女生人数比例，所有年龄组男生的英语成绩都将受益。在数学和科学学科上，研究结果表明女生多对班级中的男女生都有好处。数学与科学学科中，性别混合是最优化的选择。”

　　Proud said boys may do worsein English when there is a high proportion of girls in their classbecause they realise that the girls are better than them. It couldalso be that teachers use teaching styles more appropriate to girlswhen there are more girls than boys in the class. Both gendersperform better in maths and science at primary school when thereare more girls in the class because boys tend to disrupt the classmore, he said。

　　Professor Alan Smithers,director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at theUniversity of Buckingham, said girls started school with slightlybetter verbal skills, while boys started with a slightly greateraptitude for maths。

　　白金汉大学教育与职业研究中心的艾伦·史密瑟斯教授认为，开始学校教育之时，女孩们在口头表达方面要比男孩们稍稍强一些，而男孩们对数学的热情要比女孩高。

　　"Boys might be discouragedby how well girls are doing in English," he said, "but that stilldoes not explain why they would do better in maths and science witha higher proportion of girls in their class。

　　“女生们的表现使得男生们在英语上有挫败感，”教授称，“但这不能解释为何女生比例高时，他们的数学与科学表现也较好。”