More than half of all pupils failed to achieve five good GCSEs（General Certificate of Secondary Education）that included English and math this year，according to official figures published today．

The statistics suggest that record increases year-on-year in the overall pass rate mask continued potential failures in basic qualifications for most children．

Only 47.2% of all those who took GCSEs this summer—including children at private school —managed to get a C or above in math，English and three other subjects，an increase of just 0.7% on last year．

Girls continue to outshine boys，with 51.9% achieving five good GCSEs including English and math，compared to 42.8% of boys reaching that standard．

Educational inequality is highlighted（突出）by an analysis，which indicates a vast gulf in achievement between children from rich and poor areas．In the top 10% of highest achieving local authorities，61.3% of pupils get five good GCSEs on average．But in the bottom10% that figure falls to 34.8%．

Michael Gove，the Shadow Schools Secretary said：“Once again we see that children in the weakest areas are not getting the same opportunities as others．The gap between the fortunate and the forgotten remains stubbornly wide as the lucky ones pull away from the rest as they progress through school．Overall，fewer than half of children leave school aged 16 with the basic level of qualifications．The government has ploughed money into education，and rightly so，but they have not achieved the improvements to match”．

Concerning the problem，Jim Knight，the Schools Minister，said：“The bottom line is that more young people than ever before have now got a firm foundation for further education or the work-based training that they want to do．”

1．We can learn from the statistics that _________．

A．secondary education has suffered a great failure

B．the basic qualifications for most children have been improved

C．English and math are difficult for students to learn well

D．the number of the students achieving GCSEs is slightly increasing

2．According to the passage，compared with boys，_________．

A．girls have more advantages in learning English and math

B．girls perform much better in achieving good GCSEs

C．girls are more diligent when learning at school

D．girls live a more successful life at school

3．It can be inferred from the fifth paragraph that _________．

A．secondary education doesn’t achieve balanced development

B．wealth determines the success of secondary education

C．pupils in rich areas have more abilities to learn well

D．students from rich and poor areas haven’t communicated well

4．Which of the following statements might Michael Gove agree with?

A．The phenomenon of education inequality can be avoided entirely．

B．All the students are supposed to reach the level of qualifications．

C．The government is responsible for educational inequality．

D．The government shouldn't invest so much money in education．

5．What's Jim Knight's attitude towards secondary education?

A．Indifferent．        B．Supportive．        C．Negative．              D．Unknown．