[originaltext] Adults who lack basic science and maths skills risk being "de

Adults who lack basic science and maths skills risk being "deceived" and making bad decisions, according to a leading scientist Teaching maths and science to all up to 18 would "produce a wiser population", says new British Science Association president Dame Athene Donald.
    Prof Donald will use her address to next week’s British Science Festival to urge major changes to UK education. "Citizens need to be permitted to make good decisions in their private lives." she will tell the festival, at Bradford University. In order for this to happen, she will say, more young people need to be interested in and comfortable with science.
    She believes the problem starts young, with too few teachers able to teach primary school science or trained as subject specialists at secondary level. Forcing pupils to make subject choices from the age of 14, effectively divides the nation "into sheep and goats, science people and arts people", she will argue. "We may be laughed at if our knowledge of Shakespeare or Austen isn’t perfect, but it is still OK to say ’I could never do maths at school.’"
    5. What is the news report mainly about?
    6. What will Prof Donald say in the science festival?
    7. What if you don’t know Shakespeare or Austen well?