实验班任务阅读专项限时训练七

实验班任务型阅读专项限时训练7(限时45分钟)2020.3.21Glad to be greyThe recession (经济衰退) of 2008-09 was remarkable in rich countries for its intensity, the subsequent recovery for its weakness. The labour market has also broken the rules, as new research from the OECD, shows in its annual Employment Outlook.Young people always suffer in recessions. Employers stop hiring them; and they often get rid of new employees because they are easier to sack. But in previous periods, such as the recessions of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, older workers were also dismissed. This time is different. During the financial crisis in 2008, and since, they have done better than other age groups.The researchers focus on movements in “non-employment” as a share of the total population in three age groups between the final quarters of 2007 and 2012. This measure has the advantage of including not just unemployment, where people are looking for work, but also inactivity, where people are not seeking jobs. Whereas the average non-employment rate in the OECD has risen by four percentage points among young people and by one-and-a-half points among 25- to 54-year-olds, it has fallen by two points among the 55-64 age group.Why have older employees done so well? In some southern European countries they benefit from job protection not afforded to younger workers, but that did not really help them in past recessions. What has changed, says Stefano Scarpetta, head of the OECD’s employment directorate, is that firms now bear the full costs of getting rid of ol der staff. In the past early-retirement schemes provided by governments (in the mistaken belief that these would help young people) made it cheaper to push grey-haired workers out of the door. These have largely stopped.Job losses among older workers have also been balanced by falls in inactivity, reflecting employment presssure that were already apparent before the crisis. Older workers are healthier than they used to be and work is less physically demanding. They are also more attractive to employers than former generations.Today’s 55- to 64-year-olds are the advance group of the post-war baby-boomers who benefited from better education than their predecessors. Older workers now have a stronger motivation to stay in employment because of the impact of the crisis on wealth.Many will argue that older workers have done better at the expense of the young. That view is wrongheaded. First, it is a mistaken belief that a job gained for one person is a job lost for another; there is no fixed “lump of labour”. And second, as the report shows, young and old people are by and large not substitutes in the workplace. They do different types of work in different types of occupation: younger people are attracted to IT firms, for example, whereas older folk tend to be employed in more traditional industries. There are plenty of things that should be doneFamily structure is the core of any culture. A major function of the family is to socialize new members of a culture. As children are raised in a family setting, they learn to become members of the family as well as members of the larger culture. The family provides the model for all other relationships in society. Through the observations and modeling of the behavior of other family members, children learn about the family and society including the values of the culture. Family structure and their inherent relationships and obligations are a major source of cultural difference.The family is the center of most traditional Asians’lives. Many people worry about their families’welfare, reputation, and honor. Asian families are often extended, including several generations related by blood or marriage living in the same home. An Asian person’s misdeeds are not blamed just on the individual but also on the family—including the dead ancestors.Traditional Chinese, among many other Asians, respect their elders and feel a deep sense of duty toward them. Children repay their parents’sacrifices by being successful and supporting them in old age. This is accepted as a natural part of life in China. In contrast, taking care of aged parents is often viewed as tremendous burden in the United States, where aging and family support are not honored highly.The Vietnamese family consists of people currently alive as well as the spirits of the dead and of the as-yet unborn. Any decisions or actions are done from family considerations, not individual desires. People’s behavior is judged on whether it brings shame or pride to the family. Vietnamese children are trained to rely on their families, to honor elderly people, and to fear foreigners. Many Vietnamese think that their actions in this life will influence their status in the next life.Fathers in traditional Japanese families are typically strict and distant. Japanese college students in one study said they would tell their fathers just about as much as they would tell a total stranger. The emotional and communication barrier between children and fathers in Japan appears very strong after children have reached a certain age.Although there has been much talk about “family values” in the United States, the family is not a usual frame of reference for decisions in U.S. mainstream culture. Family connections are not so important to most people. Dropping the names of wealthy or famous people the family knows is done in the United States, but it is not viewed positively. More important is a person’s own individual “track record” of personal achievement.Thus, many cultural differences exist in family structures and values. In some cultures, the family is the center of life and the main frame of reference for decisions. In other cultures, the individuals, not the family, is primary. In some cultures, the family’s reputation and honor depend on each person’s actions; in other cultures, individuals can act without permanently affecting the family life. Some cultures value old people, while other cultures look down on them.Age has its privileges in America, and one of the more important of them is the senior citizen discount. Anyone who has reached a certain age—in some cases as low as 55—is automatically entitled to dazzling array of price reductions at nearly every level of commercial life. Eligibility(资格) is determined not by one's need but by the date on one's birth certificate. Practically unheard of a generation ago, the discounts have become a routine part of many businesses—as common as color televisions in motel rooms and free coffee on airliners.People with gray hair often are given the discounts without even asking for them; yet, millions of Americans above age 60 are healthy and solvent (有支付能力的). Businesses that would never dare offer discounts to college students or anyone under 30 freely offer them to older Americans.The practice is acceptable because of the widespread belief that “elderly” and “needy” are synonymous(同义的). Perhaps that once was true, but today elderly Americans as a group have a lower poverty rate than the rest of the population. To be sure, there is economic diversity within the elderly, and many older Americans are poor. But most of them aren't.It is impossible to determine the impact of the discounts on individual companies. For many firms, they are a stimulus to revenue. But in other cases the discounts are given at the expense, directly or indirectly, of younger Americans. Moreover, they are a direct irritant(刺激物) in what some politicians and scholars see as a coming conflict between the generations.Generational tensions are being fueled by continuing debate over Social Security benefits, which mostly involve a transfer of resources from the young to the old. Employment is another sore point. Supported by laws and court decisions, more and more older Americans are declining the retirement dinner in favor of staying on the job—thereby lessening employment and promotion opportunities for younger workers.Far from a kind of charity they once were, senior citizen discounts have become a formidable economic privilege to a group with millions of members who don't need them.It no longer makes sense to treat the elderly as a single group whose economic needs deserve priority over those of others. Senior citizen discounts only enhance the myth that older people can't take care of themselves and need special treatment; and they threaten the creation of a new myth, that the elderly are ungrateful and taking for themselves at the expense of children and other age groups. Senior citizen discounts are the essence of the very thingAn Extension of the Human BrainOther people can help us compensate for our mental and emotional deficiencies (欠缺)，much as a wooden leg can compensate for a physical deficiency. To be exact, other people can extend our intelligence and help us understand and adjust our emotions. When another person helps us in such ways, he or she is participating in what I’ve called a ＂social prosthetic (义肢的）system.＂Such systems do not need to operate face-to-face, and it’s clear to me that the Internet is expanding the range of my own social prosthetic systems. It’s already a big bank of many minds. Even in its current state, the Internet has extended my memory and judgment.Regarding memory: Once I look up something on the Internet, I don’t need to keep all the details for future use—I know where to find that information again and can quickly and easily do so. More generally, the Internet functions as if it were my memory. This function of the Internet is particularly striking when I’m writing; I’m no longer comfortable writing if I’m not connected to the Internet. It’s become natural to check facts as I write, taking a minute or two to dip into PubMed, Wikipedia, or other websites.Regarding judgment: The Internet has made me smarter in matters small and large. For example, when I’m writing a textbook, it has become second nature to check a dozen definitions of a key term, which helps me dig into the core and understand its meaning. But more than that, I now regularly compare my views with those of many others. If I have a ＂new idea,＂I now quickly look to see whether somebody else has already thought of it, or something similar—and I then compare what I think with what others have thought. This certainly makes my own views clearer. Moreover, I can find out whether my reactions to an event are reasonable enough by reading about those of others on the Internet.These effects of the Internet have become even more striking since I’ve begun using a smartphone. I now regularly pull out my phone to check a fact, watch a video, read weibo. Such activities fill the spaces that used to be dead time (such as waiting for somebody to arrive for a lunch meeting).But that’s the upside (好处).The downside is that in those dead periods I often would let my thoughts flow and。