Retirement

    Dan: Hello and welcome to this week’s 6 Minute English. I’m Dan Walker Smithand today Kate and I are talking about retirement 1（退休）.

    Kate: Hello Dan. Yes, well retirement is the time of your life when you stopworking completely. And here in the UK this is usually in your 60s. You're nolonger earning a regular income from employment（工作）, so you collect a pension;this is a sum of money paid by the state or a private company instead of yoursalary.

    Dan: So this week's question for you Kate is: What percentage（百分比） of the UK'spopulation is over retirement age; that's over 65 for a man and over 60 for awoman? Is it:

    a) 12.5%b) 18.5%c) 22.5%Kate: I'm afraid I've got absolutely no idea. But I have heard that our population is anaging population, so I'm going to go for b, 18.5%.

    Dan: OK, well we'll see if you're right at the end of the programmeKate: Now in the UK men have to stop working when they're 65. And women retireat the age of 60. It's what we call a compulsory 2 retirement age.

    Dan: Compulsory means that you're forced to do something or that you don't have achoice, so a compulsory（义务的、必修的） retirement age is the age at which you stop working.

    Kate: But with people living longer, there's increasing discussion over whether it'sright to have a compulsory retirement age.

    Dan: Now here's the British journalist John Humphrys talking about how retirementis changing as the population gets older. Listen out for the word compulsory,and also the terms 'kick our heels' and 'hang around'. Can you explain whatthese means Kate?

    Kate: Sure, well to kick your heels means to wait impatiently. So if you have to waita long time for someone, you might say that you kick your heels while you doit. And to hang around means to spend time somewhere, usually withoutmuch purpose.

    Let's have a listen to the first extract: what does the Equality and HumanRights Commission say we should do about compulsory retirement?

    Extract 1Now we retire, kick our heels for years, maybe just hang around, and then we die. It'svery different from how it was, and now the government body, the Equality and HumanRights Commission has said it's got to change. The notion of compulsory retirementshould be scrapped 4.

    Dan: OK, so because we're living longer, retired 5 people have to kick their heels fora lot longer. And the commission is suggesting that a fixed 6 age for retirementshould be scrapped.

    Kate: To scrap 3 means to get rid of or cancel something. So if the commission wantsto scrap compulsory retirement, it wants to abandon the idea of forcing peopleto stop work when they reach 60 or 65. Sounds like a good idea to me.

    Dan: Here's Andrea Murray from the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Shesays there are strong economic reasons to let people continue working after thetraditional retirement age. So how much money does she say would begenerated for the British economy by letting people work longer?

    Extract 2There would be a big boost to the economy; if we extended people's working lives by 18months they calculate would add ?15 billion in to the economy.

    Kate: Well she said that letting people work for 18 months longer could generate upto ?15 billion. And she describes this as a big 'boost' to the economy. A boostmeans to make something bigger or increase it. So, if she's right, ?15 billion ofextra money would certainly be a boost to the economy.

    Dan: Here's Andrea Murray again, talking about the health benefits of workinglonger. What does she say is the main health advantage of retiring later?

    Extract 3At the moment people tend to drop off into retirement at 65, and we know that theyhave greater job satisfaction and better health if they continue working and continuebeing engaged.

    Kate: OK, so she said that you have more job satisfaction if you continue working.

    Job satisfaction is the phrase we use to describe how happy or content you arewith your job. So if your work gives you a purpose, then retiring early couldmean you have too much free time and you don't have enough to do.

    So going back to job satisfaction Dan, do you think you have job satisfaction?

    Dan: I'd say so. I'm pretty happy with my life as it is.

    Kate: But think about in a few years' time and you're hitting 60/65, do you thinkyou'd like to carry on working?

    Dan: I'd like to have to option to carry on working. I think that maybe I wouldn'twant to work every day, but I'd like to have the chance to come in every nowand again, and if I wanted to work, just to earn some money or keep myselfbusy, that's what I could do.

    Kate: Yup, that sounds like a very nice arrangement. But of course there are peoplewho look forward to retirement their entire working lives. They look forwardto a time when they can relax, play sport, and read books, and not have to getup every morning and go to work. I can kind of understand that, can't you?

    Dan: If you've worked hard, then you probably deserve it.

    OK, we’re almost out of time, so let’s go over some of the vocabulary we’vecome across today:

    Dan: And of course there's just time for today's question. I asked you Kate whatpercentage of the UK's population is over retirement age?

    Kate: And I think I went for the middle one, b, 18.5%.

    Dan: And you are right with 18.5%.

    Kate: Yay! I'm always right these days.

    Dan: You are. You're always right these days.

    It's quite incredible though; we're getting a lot older as a population.

    Apparently 8 the number of people aged 7 65 and over in the UK is expected torise by 60% in the next 25 years.

    And also, the number of people over 85 is predicted to double in 20 years andtreble – get three times as big – in the next 30.

    Kate: Oh my goodness. That's quite worrying really. How are we going to look afterall these old people?

    Dan: Well that's what people are trying to decide at the moment.

    Kate: Yes, it's a difficult problem that's facing people all over the world, I think.

    Dan: Well maybe that's something we can discuss in another programme.

    But for now, thanks very much for listening from all of us here at BBCLearning English, and goodbye!

    Kate: Goodbye!（本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑）