Testament of youth
青春作证（陈继龙 编译）
Sep 21st 2006
From The Economist print edition
MOST marketing operations pay close attention to what young people are buying and thinking. Not Britain's political parties, however, for the simple reason that the under-30s are unlikely to go anywhere near ap______①booth. In 1964, 11% of those aged 18 to 24 claimed not to vote, according to the British Election Study. At the general election last year that figure rose to 55%. （1）A report this week by Reform, a think-tank, suggests that this reticence[1] is costing them dearly. Changes in government policy, it argues, have turned being young into a terrible bore.
大多数经营机构都密切关注年轻人的所购所想，然而英国各政党对年轻人却不感兴趣，原因很简单，那就是在投票站附近不可能见到30岁以下的年轻人。据《英国选举研究》称，1964年，有11％年龄介于18至24岁之间的年轻人声称不会去投票。去年大选时这一数字已升至55％。一家名为“改革”的研究机构本周发布的一项报告表明，年轻人正在为这种漠不关心的态度付出昂贵的代价。报告指出，政府的政策变革已经让他们开始感到做一个年轻人真是没劲透了。
（2）There are already two powerful economic forces working against the so-called “IPOD generation” that are beyond the government's control.First, the ageing of the population is fast increasing the ratio of people inr_______②to those of working age. So the young can look forward to handing over a rising proportion of their pay to support the oldies in their decline. Second, the cost of buying a house in places where people want to live has shot up beyond the reach of the young. In 1995 24% of all first-time homebuyers were under 25; today, less than 15% are, according to the Halifax, a bank.
不服政府管束的所谓的“IPOD一代”目前已然受制于两种巨大的经济压力。首先，人口的老化正迅速提高退休人口与在岗人口的比率，因此为了维持老年人的晚年生活，年轻人支出比例升高指日可待。其次，在人们都希望居住的区域购买房屋的价格飞速蹿升，年轻人已经难以企及。Halifax银行称，1995年首次置业者中有24％在25岁以下，而如今却不到15％。
This much is uncontroversial. But the report also argues that the Labour government has made life worse for young people, in three ways. First, increased spending on health care has tended to benefit the old, who use theNHS[2]more than the young. Second, tilting the tax and benefit system towards people with children has transferred money from the young to the middle-aged. Third, highert_______③fees are landing university graduates with hefty debts. （3）And the future doesn't look much better: the government's proposed pension reforms, along with the decline of defined-benefit company-pension schemes, make grim reading for the under-30s too.
这些都是毋庸置疑的。不过该报告也指出，让年轻人生活变得更糟的是工党政府，理由有三：首先，增大的医疗投入倾向于惠及使用国民医疗服务较年轻人多的老年人。其次，将税收与福利制度向有子女的人倾斜使得年轻人的钱转向中年人群。第三，高昂的学费使大学毕业生背上了沉重的债务。而且，未来似乎也没有好转的迹象——由于政府拟进行养老金改革，加之固定给付式养老金计划即将取消，30岁以下的人将面临严峻的形势。
“These changes ought to have brought about a re-examination of the burden of taxation on this age group,” says Nick Bosanquet of Imperial College London, one of the authors of the report. He reckons that, after paying various taxmen and lenders, graduates take home only around half of their salaries. The average for all salaried workers is about three-fifths.
该报告作者之一、伦敦帝国学院的尼克•博桑基特说：“在进行这些变革的同时，应该重新审视一下年轻人所背负的纳税负担。”他估算，大学毕业生在缴纳了各种各样的税款和贷款后，能够带回家的工资就只剩下一半左右，而就所有拿工资的工人而言，这一平均数字大约是五分之三。
Are things really that bad? When examined in afreeze-frame[3],being young does not look much fun financially. But welfare states are meant to transfer resources from the vigorous to thef_______④.Some benefits are merely deferred: today's 25-year-olds will have babies andhip[4]replacements one day. （4）And although people in their 20s and 30s tend to be heavily indebted this passes when they sink into their 40s and 50s, says Richard Disney of Nottingham University.
情况真的如此糟糕么？静止地看，年轻人在经济状况上是高兴不起来的，但福利制度本身就意味着“锄强扶弱”，而且有些福利只不过是延期到来而已——今天25岁的人总有一天会生儿育女，并且将被新的弄潮儿所取代。此外，诺丁汉大学的理查德•迪斯尼说，虽然人们在二、三十岁的时候重债在身，但到了四、五十岁时，这些债务终将成为过去。
Even so, the feeling that young people are beings_______⑤presents a political opportunity for the opposition parties. David Willetts, the Conservative shadow education secretary, said in a speech last year that （5）the young “could be forgiven for believing that the way in which economic and social policy is now conducted is little less than a conspiracy by the middle-aged” against them.The Liberal Democrat commission on tax policy worried in August about inter-generational unfairness too.
话虽如此，认为年轻人遭到了压榨的这种情结还是让反对党在政治上有隙可乘。保守党影子内阁教育大臣大卫•威莱茨在去年的一次演讲中说，年轻人“认为现行的经济与社会政策无异于是中年人对他们所策划的一场阴谋”，这“是可以谅解的”。今年8月，自由民主党税收政策委员会也对两代人之间的不公平表示了担忧。
There will be more of such talk. For theTories[5],it offers a way to discuss reducing spending without sounding as if they are merely themouthpiece[6]of the wealthy. It gives Lib Dem leaders a way to argue activists out of promising to out-spend Labour. And it might even persuade some of those gloomy 25-year-olds to vote.
诸如此类的言论定会不绝于耳。对于保守党而言，它可以让人们就削减财政支出展开讨论，而不会让人觉得自己无非是有钱人的传声筒而已。至于自由民主党，它的领导人则因此找到了一个劝阻激进分子在支出上与劳工党攀比的由头。而且，这样也可能会说服那些抑郁的年轻人投上一票。
[QUIZ]
1. 根据上下文和英文释义，补全单词：
①p_______（n.when people vote in a political election）
②r_______（n.the period after you have stopped work）
③t________（n.the money you pay for being taught）
④f________（adj. a weak physical condition because of illness）
⑤s________（v.to strictly limit the amount of money that is available to a company or organization）
2. 英译汉（将划线部分英文翻译成中文）：
[NOTES](LONGMAN)
1. reticent adj.unwilling to talk about what you feel or what you know [= reserved]闭口不谈的，保持缄默的 reticence n.
2. NHSNational Health Service （英国）国民医疗服务制度
3. freeze-frame n.when you stop the action on a video at one particular place定格，停帧，凝镜
4. hip adj.doing things or done according to the latest fashion [= cool]赶潮流的，新潮的，时髦的
5. Tory （英国）保守党党员
6. mouthpiece n.a person, newspaper etc that expresses the opinions of a government or a political organization 代言人，传声筒
[KEY TO QUIZ]
1. ①polling 投票选举
②retirement 退休
③tuition 学费
④fragile 软弱的，虚弱的（注意比较frail，feeble）
⑤squeezed 压榨，使经济困难
2.（见译文，仅供参考，欢迎指正）
