完形填空
Education in Britain is primarily the responsibility of local educational authorities【A1】______ the central government lays【A2】______ guidelines and provides or withholds money. From the end of the Second World War until the 1960s education【A3】______ state control depended on the “11-plus” examination, 【A4】______ by all pupils between the ages of eleven and twelve. The most successful went to grammar schools or direct-grant schools, while【A5】______ went to secondary modem schools. Since the 1960s almost all local【A6】______ have introduced comprehensive schools, where all pupils attend the same school, 【A7】______ there is usually an attempt to separate them【A8】______ ability once they are there. Local authorities where the Labor party is usually in control tend by now to be almost 【A9】______ “comprehensive”; those where the Conservatives hold power have been more【A10】______ to the change. Throughout this period the public schools, which are private in all 【A11】______ name, have continued to exist,【A12】______ of the state system. Some became direct-grant school, accepting students 【A13】______ has passed the 11-plus examination and were paid for by local authorities, but this system came【A14】______ an end in many cases when a Labor-controlled local authority refused to go on paying the grants because of its 【A15】______ to comprehensive education. 【A16】______ political conviction, there remains, a public debate between the supporters of comprehensive schools and those who want to 【A17】______ or revive grammar schools. For one group the overriding consideration is equality and the need to【A18】______ privilege, 【A19】______ it means ruling out any form of parental choice; for the other, the belief that its own children have the best chance of belonging to the educational elite is sufficient reason for 【A20】______ it.
单选题
【A1】______
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】since意为“因为”， 此处用来引导英国的教育主要由地方政府负责的原因。 as正如。 although尽管。 even if尽管。