英译汉 22. 
    All over the world mention of English education suggests¹ a picture of the "public school",² and it suggests in particular the names of certain very famous institutions³—Eton⁴, Oxford and Cambridge; but people do not always realize what place these institutions occupy in the whole educational system. Oxford and Cambridge are universities, each having about 12,000 students out of a total of over 250,000 students at all British universities. Eton is a public school, and the best known of the public schools, which, in spite of their name, are not really public at all, but independent and private secondary schools taking boys from the age of thirteen to eighteen years. The public schools in reality form a very small part of the whole system of secondary education; only about one out of forty English boys goes to a public school, and out of 1,500 goes to Eton.
    Apart from the so-called public schools, there is a complete system of state primary and secondary education⁵, which resembles in its general form the state education in most other countries. All children must, by law, receive full-time education between the ages of five and sixteen. Any child may attend, without paying fees, a school provided by the public authorities, and the great majority attend such schools. They may continue, still without paying fees, until they are eighteen. In presenting an overall picture of English education it would be reasonable to concentrate on the state system alone and refer briefly to the public schools. However, although the public schools are not important numerically, they have been England's most peculiar and characteristic contribution to educational methods, and they have an immense influence on the whole of English educational practice and on the English social structure. For a hundred years most men in leading positions in banking, insurance, high finance, some industries, the army, the church and conservative politics⁶ have been educated at public schools. Things are beginning to change but it will take time. Among the universities Oxford and Cambridge hold a dominant position. Of cabinet ministers who went to universities, nearly all went to one or the other of these two, and to Oxford in particular.
    A student who receive further full-time education after the age of eighteen, either at a university or at a teachers' training college or at some other college giving training of a special type, can usually receive a grant from the public authorities to cover his expenses, or almost all of them, unless his parents have a large income. But the number of young people who can enter universities is limited by the capacity of the universities, which is less than enough to take all the young people who have the basic qualifications for university admission. In practice, therefore, entry to the universities is competitive. But university degree courses are also available at polytechnics⁷, and entry to the Open University⁸ is less restricted.