Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, said girls started school with slightly better verbal skills, while boys started with a slightly greater aptitude 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 discouraged by how well girls are doing in English," he said, "but that still does not explain why they would do better in maths and science with a 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。”