2015年英语专八听力原文

　　SECTION B INTERVIEW

　　Now both the government and the opposition partyagreed that state schools are not good enough.And the Opposition is coming up with somenew proposals of their own to improve them. But is their approach really all that different fromthe government's? Today we have Theresa May, the shadow education secretary from theOpposition with us on the radio show.

　　M: Good afternoon, Theresa.

　　W: Good afternoon.

　　M: Can I remind you of what John Major said only a few years ago when he was Prime Minister?He said we should give people opportunity and choice. "We don't mean some people. I meaneveryone, opportunity for all." Well, that is precisely what the present government is saying,opportunity for all.

　　W: The hallmark of this government is that what they say and what they actually do is alwaysdifferent. And that's no different in education. What we see from the present government isthat they may talk about opportunity for all, they may talk about choice, but actually they arecutting opportunity and reducing choice. And what I think is most damaging is that actuallythey are giving a message "Don't bother. If you are from a state school, there are barriers tobe put in your place." But this is far from the truth. Universities have been doing a very greatdeal to encourage state school pupils to apply. The point is that we still haven't got enoughstate school pupils applying to our leading universities.

　　M: But your government had 18 years to get more of them into Oxbridge.

　　W: And indeed we increased the number of young people in this country going to university,from one in eight to one in three. The number of state pupils being accepted by Oxford andCambridge and other leading universities, the proportion of state pupils has actually increased.But there is a problem in many of our secondary schools - of expectations. And it is thepresent government that has been leveling down expectations rather than raising them.

　　M: But I was talking about pupils from state schools going to the so-called elite universities.That didn't go up during your time.

　　W: The number from the state schools who are going to leading universities has increased overthe years. But there's still an issue about ensuring the pupils from our state schools apply togoing to the universities. And if you look at the Oxford figures, for example, you see that thepercentage of students applying to Oxford from the state schools is about one percent,whereas from the private schools it's over 4.5 percent, so that you know that's the problem.It's expectations in the state system that have been driven down by this government over theyears.

　　M: But again you had the opportunity to do that as well. I mean to get more children fromstate schools into those leading universities and it didn't happen.

　　W: We have been getting more children from state schools into the leading universities and theuniversities have been working very hard at doing that. But I think there's going to be a realproblem in the short term as a result of what the present government has been doing, becausethey have been giving a message that there are barriers there. And we've seen it today. Thereare reports already that Cambridge have been finding state school pupils ringing up and sayingthat they are not going to bother to apply now. That's the real damage the government hasbeen doing. Far from opening opportunities, they are actually closing down opportunities.

　　M: Well, they'd argue with that of course. And what they would say is "one of the things wewant to do is improve the standard of our schools". Now one of the ways they want to do it isto give the schools the opportunity to run themselves more completely than they are doing atthe moment. To give schools more powers, exactly the same as you. You made a speech lastnight laying out the way you see the education system changing in this country. I see nodifference here at all between you and them.

　　W: There's a very great deal of difference actually. The present government talks aboutfreedom for schools. It talks about getting money into schools. But if you look in the detail ofwhat they are proposing, the reality is very different. We genuinely want to make schools freeand give them the freedom to have all of the money to spend on what is going on in theirschools.

　　M: All of it?

　　W: Well, the government say in the future 85 pence in the pound will go to the schools. I wantto make sure that every pound spent on schools is a pound spent in schools. I think schoolsshould have the money and have the power to decide how to spend it because they know bestwhat's in the interest of their pupils.

　　M: Right. So the answer to my question was "Yes. All of that money will go to the schools", wasit?

　　W: I want to see every pound spent on schools.

　　M: Well, you say all of the money being spent in schools going into the schools. Fine. But whatdoes it mean in practice? Does it mean, I repeat the question, that all of that money, all of it,will go to the schools?

　　W: What it means is that all that money at the moment that is being spent on the schoolsshould be spent in the schools rather than, - M: And on local? -rather than money that issupposed to be spent on schools but is being held back in bureaucracy.

　　M: So at the moment a certain amount of money goes to schools. A certain amount of moneygoes to local education authorities. Are you saying that in future no money will go to localeducation authorities but all of the money will go to the schools. I mean that's a verystraightforward question, isn't it?

　　W: At the moment what happens is that money goes to local education authorities and theydecide how much money is then going to be spent on the schools. Money's held back at thoseeducation authorities and is held back initially at central government as well for them to decidehow it should be spent. I want that money to be actually in the schools for the schools todecide how it should be spent.

　　M: OK. Thank you very much, Theresa, for talking to us on the program.

　　W: Pleasure.

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