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最新一期经济学人Bartleby(“巴托比”)专栏写了一篇文章叫作People are working longer for reasons of choice and necessity,说到了人们退休年龄推迟的问题。
“巴托比”是经济学人2018年5月新开的一个职场专栏,内容都跟职场生活相关。
文章提到很多人不愿意过早退休,提及原因时有一句话是这么说的:
In part, that is because rather than rely on a state pension, which kicks in at the official age, as their sole source of retirement income, many people supplement it with work-related pensions, which can be taken earlier.
一部分原因是,许多人认为政府养老金到法定年龄后才能领取,与其把它作为退休后唯一的收入来源,不如晚点退休,还能早些领取到企业退休金。
从这句话中我们可以学到以下几个知识点:
1. 句子结构分析:句子主干是“In part, that is because rather than rely on a state pension, many people supplement it with work-related pensions”;“which kicks in at the official age”是“state pension”的定语从句;“which can be taken earlier”又是“work-related pensions”的定语从句;rely on a state pension as their sole source of retirement income是一起的,as表示“作为”,引导的是状语从句,修饰“state pension”。
2. “部分原因是……”:In part, that is because,当作固定表达来记。比如经济学人上这句:In part that is because open-source software tends to polarise opinion. 部分原因是人们对开源软件的看法趋向于两极分化。这里理解为“部分原因是”。
它也可以理解为“从某种程度上来说,是因为……”。比如经济学人升职的诅咒这篇文章里有这么一句:In part, that is because he has observed a variant on the Peter and Dilbert principles; what might be dubbed the Bartleby curse. 从某种程度上来说,这是因为他观察到了“彼得原理”和“呆伯特法则”的另一种表现形式,或许可以称之为“巴托比诅咒”。
3. 政府养老金/政府退休金:a state pension;“official age”是“法定年龄”。
4. “到法定年龄才可领取养老金”:kicks in at the official age。“kick in”这个短语有两层含义,一表示“捐献,捐助”,如:kicked in $35,000 捐助了35000美元;二表示“开始生效,起作用”。比如金融时报上所说:the emergency lockdown had kicked in 应急防范措施启动。这里的“kicks in at the official age”即“法定年龄生效”的意思,the state pension kicks in at the official age即“到法定年龄才可领取养老金”的意思。“法定退休年龄”可说“official retirement age”。
5. “退休后唯一收入来源”:one’s sole source of retirement income。“sole source of sth.”意思是“……的唯一来源”,如《华尔街日报》上这句:His onetime hobby became his sole source of income. 曾经的嗜好成了他唯一的收入来源。
6. supplement A with B:表示用B补充A。原文的“supplement it with work-related pensions”,“it”指代前面的“a state pension”,“work-related pensions”即“企业退休金”,即用企业退休金补充政府退休金。它的意思是说,如果员工过早退休,他们就只能依靠政府发放的养老金生活,这也是他们唯一的收入来源。为了避免出现这种情况,他们更愿意推迟退休时间,换取另一份收入保障。
7. “领取退休金”:which can be taken earlier,“领取”可以用“take”这个词。金融时报上有句话是这么说的:Take unemployment benefits, which pay about a third of the lost salary, up to a cap. 领取失业救济金有最高限额,大约是过去薪酬的三分之一。“领取”也可以说“receive”。如:领取政府养老金 receive a state pension。