新西兰英语 380 15 year olds score well in reading

　　Each year, the OECD tests half a million 15-year old students in 70 countries in reading, mathematics¹ and science. The results for 2009 were published this month.
They showed students in Korea² and Finland had the highest scores for reading literacy³. Both countries did well in mathematics and science tests also.
New Zealand was 6th in reading, behind Korea, Finland, Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada. Japan was next. In science, New Zealand was 7th and in mathematics 11th out of 70 countries. While most of our students did very well in all tests, we have a large tail. These are students who have problems at school and do not achieve good results. Maori and Pacific Islanders⁵ often do not do well in tests.
The OECD report also showed that girls in these 70 countries read better than boys. They are about one year ahead of boys. Reading for pleasure has dropped from 69% in 2000 to 64% in 2009.
Countries which had a more equal society achieved better results whereas⁶ countries with a wide gap⁴ between rich and poor usually did not do so well.
Countries which chose to pay their teachers well instead of making classes smaller, had better results in the tests.
You can read the full report here.
Questions
1. Why do students from more equal societies do better in these tests?
2. Why do girls read better than boys?
3. Is reading for pleasure important?
4. Some of the countries which had the best results are Finland, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore. Can you suggest any reasons why their students produced such good results?

1 mathematics   

n.（用作单）数学；（用作单或复）计算(能力）

参考例句：

• He has come out in front in the study of mathematics.他在数学方面已名列前茅。
• She is working at a difficult problem in mathematics.她在做一道数学难题。

2 Korea   

n.朝鲜(亚洲)

参考例句：

• Korea lies to the east of China.韩国位于中国东面。
• Korea and China are separated by only the Yalu River.朝鲜和中国只隔一条鸭绿江。

3 literacy   

n.识字，有文化，读写能力

参考例句：

• I can't believe that he failed the literacy test.我无法相信他识字测试不及格。
• The literacy rate there is the highest in Central America.那里的识字率居中美洲之首。

4 gap   

n.缺口；间隔；差距；不足，缺陷

参考例句：

• We must see that there is no gap in our defence.我们必须确保我们的防御没有漏洞。
• There is a gap of five miles between towns.镇与镇之间相隔五英里。

5 islanders   

岛民( islander的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The islanders could barely survive without an export crop. 没有出口作物，岛上的居民几乎无法生存。
• The islanders were on fire and determined to fight against the attackers. 岛上的人情绪激昂，决心与来犯者战斗一场。

6 whereas   

conj.而，却，反之

参考例句：

• They want a house,whereas we would rather live in a flat.他们想要一座房子，而我们宁愿住在一套房间里。
• Some praise him,whereas others condemn him.有些人赞扬他，而有些人谴责他。