2018年BEC商务英语高级阅读：伦敦城年龄歧视突出

　　原文阅读：伦敦金融城年龄歧视问题突出

　　Age discrimination is now seen as a more widespread problem in the City than sex discrimination, a survey of more than 1,600 finance sector workers has found.

　　While more than one-third of City employees said their employer was “very committed” to gender diversity, less than a quarter felt the company was similarly committed to fighting age discrimination.

　　The research also confirmed that problems over discrimination and lack of commitment to diversity were most likely to arise in areas such as trading and sales rather than within the middle or back-office functions.

　　“The City is getting far better at supporting and developing female staff,” said Mark Cameron, chief operating officer at Astbury Marsden, a financial services recruiter, which carried out the survey.

　　He added: “The huge effort that London’s financial services sector has made to broaden its workforce is clearly reflected in positive feedback we have had from employees.”

　　But while sex discrimination was on the decrease, negative attitudes towards co-workers on the basis of age and a lack of commitment to age diversity was seen as wider problem.

　　“We aren’t saying that the negative consequences of age discrimination are bigger than other forms of discrimination, just that employees see it as more prevalent. They also see age diversity as something employers are not particularly focused on,” said Mr Cameron.

　　The default retirement age (DFA), under which employers could force workers to retire at 65, was phased out in 2011. But Mr Cameron said that, as with racial and gender diversity, it often took years for attitudes to change, and this seemed to be the case with age discrimination.

　　学习指南：

　　1.Word of the day

　　discrimination: Treatment or consideration based on class or category rather than individual merit; partiality or prejudice:歧视，差别待遇：根据阶级而不是根据个人的优点来加以对待和考虑的;偏心或偏见：

　　小编注：discrimination有“区别”的意思，但更多地表示判断、见识方面的差别，也表示待遇上的差别，因此通常用discrimination表示“歧视”。同样有“区别”意思的distinction侧重于细节上的区别而difference则更普通，可以指几乎任何区别。

　　2.Phrase of the day

　　phase out : If something is phased out, people gradually stop using it. 逐步停止;逐步撤去;逐步淘汰。

　　ex:Will that country phase out its oil exports?

　　例句：那个国家会逐步停止输出石油吗?

　　小编注：phase out的反义词是phase in，解释为逐步使用。

　　3.Sentence of the day

　　But Mr Cameron said that, as with racial and gender diversity, it often took years for attitudes to change, and this seemed to be the case with age discrimination.

　　但卡梅伦表示，就像种族和性别多样性一样，这通常需要数年时间来改变人们的态度，年龄歧视似乎也是如此。

　　小编注：as with解释为正如，比如：

　　As with the birds,it's time for the youths to leave home.

　　正如小鸟一样,到了年青人离开家的时候了。

　　写作时如果需要打比方，可以使用这个词。

　　4.Cultural point of the day

　　年龄歧视 随着人类社会的发展，人们的平均寿命越来越长，退休年龄则越来越晚。原本规定的65岁法定退休年龄在欧美许多国家被取消。然而这一决定却引发了诸多社会问题。虽然取消退休年龄后使得很多高龄职工得以继续工作发挥余热，但长期职工的高额薪水也令雇主们难以负担，同时更低的退休率也带来了更高的失业率。大量青年毕业生的就业机会被这些本该退休的老职工所挤压。对于退休年龄和年龄歧视，你又有什么看法呢?

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　　5.Translation of the day

　　But while sex discrimination was on the decrease, negative attitudes towards co-workers on the basis of age and a lack of commitment to age diversity was seen as wider problem.

　　然而，尽管性别歧视问题在减轻，但对同事的年龄歧视以及对年龄多样性重视不够被视为一个更普遍的问题。

　　小编注：减少除了说on the decrease，还能说decrease in number，be cut down，be lessen，fall off等。