延迟退休真的要来了吗?

At about 54, the average age of retirement in China is among the lowest in the world. This is a problem. Since standards were set, life expectancy has soared while the number of working adults--those whose labour, in effect, supports retirees--has begun to shrink.

中国的退休年龄在54岁左右，是世界上退休年龄最低的国家之一。这便造成一个问题。自标准建立以来，人们的预期寿命提高了，然而成年工作者（支持退休的劳动者）却大幅减少。

retiree n.退休人员

But persuading people that they should work longer is proving hard. In 2008 the government said it was mulling the idea of raising retirement ages, but backed away aimed a public outcry. Now it feels it can wait no longer.The pressure to act is evident. Current retirement ages were set in the 1950s, when the average person was expected to die before reaching that stage. For most men in China the age is 60, much lower than the average of 64.2 in the OECD, a club mostly of rich countries. For female civil servants the age is 55; for blue-collar women it is 50.

但事实上，说服人们接受延迟退休政策很难。2008年，政府考虑延长退休年龄，但是由于公众的反对而搁置了。如今，这件事情不能再拖下去了。显而易见的是，在政策推行的过程中，我们肯定会遇到重重阻力。当前的退休年龄标准建立于20世纪50年代，那时候人们的预期寿命是低于退休年龄的。在中国，大多数男性在60岁退休，远低于经济合作组织（一个由主要发达国家组成的俱乐部）64.2岁的平均水平。中国女性公务员的退休年龄为55岁，女性蓝领工人是50岁。

mull v.考虑

back away 搁置

outcry n.强烈抗议

civil servant(s) 公务员(可数)

The pressure to act is evident. 这句话为主系表结构，evident是一个形容词，为了避免翻译腔且更加符合中国人的说话方式，进行了一个形容词变副词的变化。

Yet life expectancy in China is now just two years short of the OECD average of 79, so a Chinese retiree on a state pension usually needs several more years of support from government funds than his or her rich-world equivalent.

In 2019 the public-pension system covered almost 1bn adults, more than any other such scheme in the world. The country’s main pension fund may run out of money by 2035, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, an official think-tank, has warned.

然而，中国现在的预期寿命比经合组织79岁的平均水平仅仅低两岁，所以中国的老人通常要比发达国家的退休老人多领几年的政府退休金。

2019年，中国公众退休金系统覆盖几乎10亿人，比世界上任何一个同类系统的规模都要大。官方智库，中国社会科学院警告称，到2035年国家主要退休金可能会耗尽。

life expectancy 预期寿命

...two years short of... 虽然没有明显的比较词than, 但本身含义就是比...短。

The government appears not yet to have decided how to reform the system. The current five-year economic plan, a 142-page document that was approved in March, contains merely a sentence on the topic, calling for adjustment in “small steps” and “flexible implementation”.

But its inclusion means that changes are all but certain to begin before the plan expires in 2025: the government rarely announces a goal that may not be attainable.

显然，政府还没有想好要如何进行改革。今年三月通过的，长达142页的五年计划，仅有一句话涉及到了这个问题，写道“小步调整”“灵活实施”。

但这句话也意味着改革将会在2025年的十四五规划前开始：中国政府很少公布一个可能无法实现的目标。

...was approved... 在英文的被动语态翻译中，若没有by+ somebody/something, 我们通常直接把“被”字去掉。

Officials say retirement ages will be lifted in stages, a few months at a time. China’s main state-run news agency, Xinhua, said two possible approaches were being considered.One would raise the retirement age for both men and women to 65, with the age for women being raised faster so that both reach the end point simultaneously. The other method would involve first raising the retirement age for women to 60, and then both sexes advancing to 65 at the same pace.

政府官员称，退休年龄将分阶段提高，每次提高几个月。中国的主要官媒，新华社称，政府正在考虑两种可行的方式。一种是将男性和女性的退休年龄都提高至65岁，女性退休年龄提速更快，以便能够同时达到目标。另一种是先将女性的退休年龄提高至60岁，然后再将男性和女性退休年龄共同提高至65岁。

at a time 每次；某时

approach v. 接近 n. 靠近；方法

an approach to 学习...的途径

simultaneously adv. 同时地

simultaneously with 与...同时

Since the government revealed that the five-year plan would call for older Chinese to work longer, social media have reverberated with debate about the idea. On Weibo, a Twitter-like platform, posts tagged with “postpone the retirement age” have received 620m views and launched more than 100,000 discussions.

自从政府透露五年计划将会延迟退休以来，社交媒体关于此话题展开了激烈的讨论。微博上（类似推特的平台），延迟退休这个话题的帖子已经获得了6.2亿的浏览量，并有10万多条的评论。

reverberate v. 回响；反响

Many comments have been critical, with some blaming the country’s draconian one-child-per-couple policy for exacerbating the population’s ageing. (The limit was increased to two children in2016, and will soon be raised again, to three. ) In 2020 a survey of 96,000 people by a newspaper in Wuhan found that more than 80% opposed later retirement.

许多评论是带有批判性的，一些人指责独生子女政策加剧了人口老龄化。（2016年，该政策放宽至二孩，随后又放宽到三孩）2020年，武汉一家报社对96000人进行调查发现，超80%的人反对延迟退休。

draconian adj.严厉的；苛刻的

They wondered whether they would have the stamina to keep working into their 60s, and also whether--if not in a secure job already--they would still be employable. Firms often discriminate against older people when recruiting.

他们不知道自己的精力是否能支撑他们工作到60岁，也不知道到时候如果没有一份稳定的工作的话，自己是否还能再找到一份工作。因为公司在招聘时通常存在年龄歧视的问题。

stamina n. 耐力；持久力

discriminate against 歧视；排斥

（校对：ljw 饭团