英语流利说 第24天

红色表示重点词汇

蓝色表示句子主干

带着问题听讲解

Q1: 你能在文中找到几个“老龄化”的英文表达？

Q2: 文中的“turns silver”该如何理解？

Q3: 为什么日本的老龄化问题如此严重？

Coping with the 100-year-life society

More than half of Japanese babies can expect to live to 100. This prospect would have horrified today’s pessimists. They worry that, as the country ages and its population shrinks, health bills will soar, the pension system will go bust, villages will empty and there will be too few youngsters to care for the elderly.

Yet for most people, not dying young is a blessing. Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, says he wants his country to be a model of how to make ultra-long lives fulfilling—and affordable. He talks of “designing the 100-year-life society”. But to achieve that Mr Abe, in his last three years in office, will have to adopt reforms that are far bolder than he currently envisages.

The key is to have enough people working to support those who no longer can. There are three ways to achieve this: persuade current workers to labour longer, encourage more women to enter the workforce and let in more immigrants.

Japan has made progress on all three, but it is not enough. If Japanese people are going to live to 100 they will have to retire much later than 70. Women are too often stuck in part-time or badly paid jobs. Nearly 70,000 immigrants a year may sound like a lot, but Japan’s population is declining by almost 400,000 a year and there are a stunning 1.6 vacancies for every jobseeker.

An ageing society need not be a decrepit one. As Mr Abe notes, today’s elderly Japanese walk as fast as those ten years younger once did. But for Japan to stay solvent as it turns silver, he too must move faster than he has done thus far.

如何应对百岁人生社会

预计超过半数的日本婴儿能活到 100 岁。这一前景可能会吓坏当今的的悲观主义者们。他们担心的是，当国家开始老龄化，人口也随之萎缩时，医疗费用会暴增，养老金制度将会崩溃，村庄也人去楼空，而且也没有足够的年轻人来照料那些老人。

然而对于大多数人来说，活得长是个好事。日本首相安倍晋三表示，他希望自己所在的国家成为一个榜样，一个能让超长寿生活变得充实且负担得起的榜样；他还谈到了自己的“人生百年时代构想”。不过要达成这个目标，在安倍最后三年任期里，他得采取比现在的设想更大胆的改革了。

解决问题的关键在于，需要有足够多的劳动人口来供养那些不再劳动的人。有三种方式可以达成这一目标：劝说目前工作的人延迟退休年龄，鼓励更多的女性参加工作以及接纳更多移民。

日本在这三个方面都取得了进展，但这还不够。如果日本人能活到 100 岁，那么他们将来的退休年龄将会比 70 岁还要迟得多。女人们常常困于兼职或是薪水低廉的工作。每年近 7 万的移民听起来很多，但是日本的人口每年下降近 40 万，与此同时每一个求职者都对应着惊人的 1.6 个职位空缺。

一个老龄化的社会不一定是一个年老体衰的社会。正如安倍指出的，如今的日本老人走路的速度和那些比他们年轻十岁的人一度一样。但要想让日本在变得白发苍苍时仍保持国家的偿债能力，他也必须采取比之前更迅速的行动了。