经济学人双语精读丨六十五度灰（下）

导读

随着社会的发展和进步，我们的国家也不可避免地进入了老龄化社会。但老年人带来的只有老龄化问题吗？这篇经济学人将带你了解新的一个年龄组别，pre-tirees.

Doom-mongers tend to miss bigger point, however. Those extra years of life are predominantly healthy ones. Five of the additional six years that a British boy born in 2015 can expect to live, compared with one born in 1990, will be healthy, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, at the University of Washington. Too many governments and firms fail to recognise this fact, instead lumping all the extra years in the damning category of 65 and over. This binary way of thinking, seeing retirement as a cliff edge over which workers and consumers suddenly tumble, bears little relation to the real world. It also encourages unimaginative policy, whereby the retirement age is occasionally moved as lifespans lengthen.

每一个话题出现，往往都伴有一些末世论者的言论，但往往这些言论都是片面的。在写文章时，我们也可以通过削弱（weaken）反对一方的观点来增强（strengthen）自己的观点，这也是一个不错的方法。

Doom 指厄运，死亡，我们经常会见到doomed，它的形容词形式，表示注定的，命定的，例如：All the heroes are doomed.

Doom-monger 指末世论者，指一些悲观的人。通常在讨论一个观点的时候，我们可以用支持者（proponent）和反驳者（opponent），或者悲观者（pessimist）和乐观者（optimist）区分两派，进行观点阐述。

有人可能会认为，bigger point中的big不如换成significant 或者crucial，其实不然。个人认为，英文词汇没有所谓的高端词汇和低端词汇，只有用的恰当与否。在这里big point显然比significant或者crucial更加贴切，那么big自然是最合适的形容词了。

再后面值得学习的是This binary of thinking bears little relation to the real world.这句话。binary of thinking 指二分法。对于托福和雅思的很多作文题目，我们或许会觉得那样的二分法过于绝对，想要写中立的态度，那么，这个表达方法就可以被用上。比如说，我们在第一段转述了作文题目后，可以说 However, this binary thinking is too absolute. Actually, in the real world...或者可以直接用原文中的 bears little relation to the real world.

Bear是一个很灵活的动词。根据字典：

If you bear something somewhere, you carry it there or take it there.

If you bear something such as a weapon, you hold it or carry it with you.

If one thing bears the weight of something else, it supports the weight of that thing.

除此之外还有一些抽象的意思，我们一起看几个例句：

The young ball player will bear watching.  那个年轻的球员大有前途。

He just couldn’t bear with such insults.  这种侮辱他就是受不了。

在英文中，有许多表示否定意义的词汇，我们可以灵活运用。比如说这句话，我不了解你。我们可以说I don’t know you.也可以说I barely know you. 或者I know you little.显然后面的表达两个要比前面的表达更地道。 

A more radical approach would start by acknowledging that, in the rich world at least, many of the old are still young. They want to work, but more flexibly. They want to spend money, too. In western Europe the over-60s will account for 59% of consumption growth in cities between now and 2030, says McKinsey, a consultancy.

这段话让我想起了高龄实习生这部电影。片中的老人就是在退休后又重返了工作岗位。随着社会的进步和科技的发展，许多的老年人生活依然充满活力。他们渴望知识，学习，工作和更精彩的生活，而不再向往传统观念中退休后归隐田园的生活。正如文章所说，要想真正帮助到这些老年人，就要先正视这一个群体。

Radical=dramatic， 都可以表达激进的意思。

这一段同样适合中译英的翻译练习。

Declaring a newstage of life could help change perceptions. It has done so before. Today’s conception of childhood emerged in the 19th century, paving the way for child-protection laws and a golden age of children’s literature. Spotty, awkward 15-year-olds predated the 1940s, but only then did mystified adults coin the label “teenagers”, fueling all sorts of products and services, from bobby socks to the music industry. In 1944 Life wrote that “American businessmen, many of whom have teenage daughters, have only recently begun to realise that teenagers make up a big and special market.” By the mid-1960s both Time and Newsweek had splashed “The Teen-Agers” on their covers.

在人口老龄化的社会中，会存在一些不可避免的社会问题。但不可否认的是，65岁以上的老人正在逐渐形成一个庞大的消费群体。不仅在医疗卫生方面，甚至在金融业，娱乐业都少不了老年消费者的存在。作者在这里举了19世纪青少年的例子，以此说明老年人将构成下一个庞大的市场。

Emerge是一个很好的动词。除了表示某一个行业产业最近刚刚兴起，emerge还可以用来指摆脱。例如：There is growing evidence that the economy is at last emerging from recession. 有越来越多的迹象表明经济终将摆脱萧条。

Pave the way 就是指为...铺平道路；为...作准备。比如我们可以说，女权运动的出现，为女性个人的发展铺平了道路。The emergence of women rights movement paved the way for female individual’s development.

Coin 在这里指的动词，创造，杜撰（新词或短语）。coin the label就是指创造了一个标签。我们也可以说作者在这里就是coin了“Nyppies”和“Owls”这两个新词。

Fuel 本意是供以...燃料。在这里动名词做伴随状语，我们可以理解为催生，促使...涌现。例如： The speculation about market fueled the uncertainty of market. 人们对市场的猜测加剧了市场的不确定性。

Marking out youthful old age as a distinct phase of life might have a similar effect, prodding employers and policy-makers to think differently about how to keep the young old active. As life becomes longer, the word “retirement”, which literally means withdrawal to a place of seclusion, has become misleading. At 65 you are not clapped out, but pre-tired. So, as they embark on the next stage, here’s to all those pre-tirees.

正因为这样一些充满活力的（energetic）老年人的存在，才让老龄化社会不再具有那么多老龄化问题。所以让我们和作者一起向他们致敬吧！

Prod 在这里和fuel很像，但是更多了一层刺激，敦促的意思。

As life becomes longer这句话很好理解，但我想在这里说一下，我们很多人会用随着科学技术的发展，with the development of science and technology.来做作文开头。但其实，as science and technology develops要比前者更加地道。

Withdraw to a place of seclusion指退隐到清净之地的意思

Clap out 可以理解为疲倦，疲惫。

Embark on 指从事，着手。例如：He has already embarked on his new job. 他已经着手他的新工作了。  embark on something new 指着手新的事情。