1. When, in the twentieth century, education and its possibilities for social advancement came within everybody’s reach, new schools tended to copy the features of the public schools. After all, they were the only model of a successful school that the country had.
在二十世纪，对于每个人来说，受教育和提高自身社会地位的可能性已触手可及。新建立的学校往往模仿公立学校的特色。归根结底，他们形成了英国学校成功运作的唯一模式。
2. Moreover, there is no doubt that Britain suffers from a chronic shortage of teachers (Help from abroad). Although many young people embark on teacher-training courses, only about half of them remain in the profession for longer than three years, so that schools often have an unsettled atmosphere due to rapid turnover of staff and class sizes are large.
此外，英国长期以来一直受到教师短缺的影响，这一点毫无疑问。尽管许多年轻人参加了教师培训课程，却只有大约一半的人在此岗位上工作三年以上时间，因此学校人员调整频繁、班级人数众多，致使学校往往有一种不稳定的气氛。
3. People want someone to blame for this, so they blame the teachers. This means teachers have to spend a lot of time being inspected and filling in forms to prove they are doing a proper job, making the job seem even less attractive. The government in this century has tried to alleviate the situation by advertising campaigns and other initiatives (such as national awards for excellence in teaching, known as the teaching ‘Oscars’).
人们希望有人应该为此负责，所以他们责怪老师。这意味着教师必须花大量的时间接受检查和填写表格，以证明他们尽心尽职，这就使教师这项工作更加缺乏吸引力。在本世纪，政府试图通过广告宣传活动和其他一些新举措，来缓解这一状况（如颁发有“教学界奥斯卡奖之称”的“国家优秀教学奖”）。
4. However, it is almost impossible to provide real equality. Inevitably, the children of parents who care about education the most, especially if they have money, tend to get what they want for them. In some cases, this means moving house to make sure they can get their child into a school which gets good exam results (since children must attend a school in local area).
然而，要实现真正的平等几乎是不可能的。最关心孩子教育的家长，特别是如果他们有钱，往往会给孩子他们想得到的一切，这是必然出现的现象。在某些情况下，家长会搬家，以确保孩子能够进入优秀的学校取得更好的考试成绩（因为儿童必须在当地学校上学）。
5. It is this principle, plus a belief that it would improve the quality of education in schools generally that has led to the publication of ‘league tables’ of school exam results.
正是这一原则，再加上人们相信这将会普遍提高学校教育水平，导致学校考试成绩“排行榜”的出现。而对于那些望子成龙的家长来说，这正中他们下怀，因为他们可以借此了解哪些学校是最理想的。
6. Traditionally, education in Britain gave learning for its own sake, rather than for any particular practical purpose, a comparatively high value. In comparison with most other countries, a relatively high proportion of the emphasis was on the quality of person that education produced (as opposed to the quality of abilities that it produced).
传统上，英国的教育就是教书育人，而不是为了满足任何特定的实际目的。与其他大多数国家相比，这里更加重视的是培养高素质的人（而不是能力超群的人）。
7. Primary schoolchildren do not normally have formal homework to do and university students have fewer hours of programmed attendance than students in mainland Europe do, although on the other hand, they receive greater personal guidance with their work.
英国的小学生通常没有正式的家庭作业要做，而与欧洲大陆学生相比，大学生们听课的时间更少，但另一方面，他们的学习却可以得到更多的个人指导。
8. The assessment of each examinee’s performance in each subject is usually a combination of coursework assignments and formal, sit-down exams. Coursework has formed a large component of the total mark in many subjects in the last two decades. But the present trend is towards a return to more conventional exams.
对于每个考生的各科成绩的评估通常是课程作业和正式考试的相结合。课程作业在过去的二十年里已经成为许多科目最后总分的一个重要组成部分。但目前的趋势是朝着更传统的考试形势发展。
9. At the age of 16, people are free to leave school if they want to. With Britain’s modern enthusiasm for continuing education, far fewer 16-year-olds go straight out and look for a job than did previously.
16岁时，学生只要愿意就可以离开学校。但与以往相比，学生们满怀继续接受教育的热情，选择中断学业去找工作的人越来越少。
10. Because of this limitation, students at university get a relatively high degree of personal supervision. As a result, the vast majority of university students complete their studies- and in a very short time too.
由于此限制，学生在大学阶段受到的个人监督程度相对较高。由此产生结果就是，绝大多数大学生都能够而且是在很短的时间内完成学业。