Teach boys ballet and zumba to make PE gender-neutral

题材文章词数舞蹈320 难度 ★★★体裁建议用时新闻6 min

难词探意

1. neutral /'njuːtrəl/ adj. 不分性别的；中性的

2. exclude /ɪk'skluːd/ v. 阻止……进入；把……排斥在外；不包括

3. executive /ɪg'zekjətɪv/ n. 行政主管；经理

4. assumption /ə'sʌmpʃn/ n. 假定；假设

A school in the UK is giving boys lessons in zumba and ballet to encourage the idea that PE is gender-neutral. Steve Frenzel, a school officer, says that boys should be offered different activities in sport including dance. They should see dance as something they can enjoy just as much as girls.

However, giving boys more choices will not solve the problem of girls' disengagement with sport, since for years,girls have beenexcludedfrom playing sport like football and cricket.

A research done by Women in Sport showed that girls begin to lose interest in sport when they are as young as six. “At around the age of six or seven girls start to drop out of sport. What is interesting is that this is the same time that boys start doing more,” said Ruth Holdaway, ChiefExecutiveof Women in Sport. “What seems to be happening is up until that age when boys and girls feel the same—they just run around, they don't think about what they are doing, they will explore, and they will climb.”

Teachers should not make anyassumptionsabout which sport girls or boys would like to play. Often teachers will be surprised if they ask girls what they want. There will be an assumption that they want to dance and many of them will, but they might also want to play football or cricket.

Other steps schools can take to encourage girls to play sport could include making adaptation to changing rooms.

Girls may think, “If I am going to get hot and sweaty, I need to put my hair up, and if I don't have a mirror, I can't do that.”

Small changes like allowing girls more time in the changing room and putting up mirrors may encourage them to run around and get hot and sweaty during PE lessons.

Reading Check

1. The school mentioned in paragraph 1 is______.

A. training boys to be dancers

B. opening dance classes for special-need students

C. offering boys chances to do all kinds of sport

D. encouraging boys to be more active in PE classes

2. What did the research by Women in Sport show?

A. Boys get recognized for doing sport.

B. Girls lose interest in sport at a very young age.

C. Boys are born with greater interest in sport than girls.

D. Girls are more willing to dance as they grow older.

3. What does the underlined word “adaptation” in paragraph 5 mean?

A. Wish. B. Change.

C. Suggestion. D. Explanation.

Language Study

Difficult sentence

A research done by Women in Sport showed that girls begin to lose interest in sport when they are as young as six.

【翻译】________________________________________________________________________________

【点石成金】句中的done by Women in Sport为过去分词短语作名词research的后置定语；that girls...as six为实义动词show的宾语，其中when引导的是一个时间状语从句。