经济学人:三天周末!谢天谢地 终于星期四了(1)

 　　Britain 英国

　　Three-Day Weekends: Thank God it's Thursday 三天周末：谢天谢地，终于星期四了

　　A shorter working week sounds appealing, but could be costly¹. 更短的工作周听起来很美好，但是可能会花费巨大。

　　With the prospect² of Easter and two bank holidays on the horizon, Britons have an embarrassment³ of long weekends to savour. 随着复活节和周末的接踵而至，英国人可以尽情享受一个长长的假期，但是这种长假期往往使得政府感到为难。

　　For Caroline Lucas, the joint⁴ leader of the Green Party, that is not enough: she wants three-day weekends every week. 对于绿党的主要领导人Caroline Lucas来说，这远远不够：她想每周有三天假期。

　　On March 31st she announced at her party's conference that the Greens were exploring such a policy, which could go in their manifesto⁵ in 2020. 3月31日她在绿党的会议上宣布，绿党一直在探讨，研究这样的政策，大概在2020年能够成为绿党的竞选纲领。

　　The Greens reckon that lopping a day off the working week would begin to redress⁶ the inequalities between men and women, since both paid and unpaid⁷ work might then be shared more evenly. 绿党认为，调减工作日将会开始调整男性与女性之间的不平等，因为女性上班和做家务的时间将会变得更加平衡。

　　People could do more of what they love (assuming that excludes their jobs) and would be less stressed. 同时人们可以做更多他们喜欢的事情（假设其中不包括他们的工作），并且压力也会减少很多。

　　It would reduce Britain's carbon footprint. 调减工作日也将会降低英国的碳排放量。

　　And it could even boost the country's productivity. 而且甚至会推动国家的生产率。

　　Some evidence supports this. 一些证据印证了这一想法。

　　A paper published in 2014 by John Pencavel of Stanford University, looking at first-world-war munitions⁸ workers, shows that reducing working hours can be good for productivity. 来自斯坦福大学的John Pencavel于2014年发表的一篇论文表明：对一战时期生产军需品的工人数据分析得知，减少工作时间能提高生产效率。

　　Between 2007 and 2011 the American state of Utah adjusted the working week for state employees, with longer days from Monday to Thursday, and Friday off. 在2007年到2011年美国犹他州将政府雇员的工作日调整为周一到周四，但是每日的工作时长会增加。

　　In ten months the shift saved the state $1.8m in energy costs. 这样的改变持续了10个月后，犹他州因此节省了一百八十万美元的能源费用。

　　But the Greens would go further than simply redistributing working hours over four days: they suggest that people could work fewer hours overall. 但是绿党想做的并不是像犹他州一样仅仅将5天的工作时间重新分配在4天里，而是建议人们可以真正的缩减自己一周的工作时间。

　　Since not everyone can afford to take a 20% pay cut, “wages must go up correspondingly” —courtesy of employers and the state— “to ensure no one loses out”. “如果雇主和政府愿意的话，工资应该相应的增加，确保每个人都不会亏损”，因为不是所有人都能接受由于多放一天假而导致工薪缩减20%的事情。

1 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

2 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

3 embarrassment   

n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫

参考例句：

• She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
• Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。

4 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

5 manifesto   

n.宣言，声明

参考例句：

• I was involved in the preparation of Labour's manifesto.我参与了工党宣言的起草工作。
• His manifesto promised measures to protect them.他在宣言里保证要为他们采取保护措施。

6 redress   

n.赔偿，救济，矫正；v.纠正，匡正，革除

参考例句：

• He did all that he possibly could to redress the wrongs.他尽了一切努力革除弊端。
• Any man deserves redress if he has been injured unfairly.任何人若蒙受不公平的损害都应获得赔偿。

7 unpaid   

adj.未付款的，无报酬的

参考例句：

• Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
• He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。

8 munitions   

n.军火，弹药；v.供应…军需品

参考例句：

• The army used precision-guided munitions to blow up enemy targets.军队用精确瞄准的枪炮炸掉敌方目标。
• He rose [made a career for himself] by dealing in munitions.他是靠贩卖军火发迹的。