精美英文欣赏:社会救助（在线收听）

Yesterday the Health Secretary announced his social care reform plan. The reforms have been adopted from an earlier commission which grappled with the soaring cost of residential care. While the State is considering the cost of care for a growing over-80s population, government is proposing a fixed lifetime contribution from those with assets. After a year of consultation, plans still seem hazy, but contributions could later be deducted from property sales after the person dies. Every year 40,000 people are forced to sell their homes in order to pay for their care. These colossal issues, which frustrates governments and terrify the old, may also ambush the financial future of the unsuspecting young.

昨天，卫生部长宣布了他的社会保障改革计划。社会服务业成本激增，试图克服此趋势的早期委员会采取了改革。正当年过80的人口日益增多时，国家在考虑给这些人予以补贴费用，然而政府却打算从拥有资产的老人扣除一笔固定的终身费用。经过一年的协商，计划似乎还是令人感到迷茫，但当人死后，捐款能在死后的物业销售中扣除。每年有四万人被迫卖掉自己的房子来支付他们的社会服务费。这四万人巨大的数字，使政府担忧，令老人害怕，甚至还可能潜伏在未来的经济上，突袭毫无防备的年轻人。

I have to confess that these discussions leave me personally agitated. Having become eligible for a senior rail card recently they're a bit close to home. And I'm wondering what I can now say to my children when they make playful innuendos about inheriting the family home "when we're gone."It's not hard, it's hard not to feel like a future fiscal problem loitering in the present, a burden rather than a blessing. In this kind of environment, it's hard to read biblical statements about the veneration of old age with any kind of assurance.

我必须承认这些讨论令我非常地焦虑不安。最近，我已经有资格拿到老年人卡。当我的孩子含沙射影戏谑着说“我们去世时”可以继承房子的时候，我无言以对。不难发现，这是一个徘徊在当前的未来财政问题，与其说这是一种保佑，还不如说是一种负担。在这种环境下，很难去理解圣经中以任何形式来保证关于尊敬老人的陈述。

But in an ancient world without welfare and pension plans, it's easier to see why the currency of respect for the old was so vital to the political eco-system and why God himself became involved in providing assurances for Israel's senior citizens. "Even to old age I am he; even to your advanced age I myself will support you" said the prophet Isaiah. "I myself have made you, I myself will carry you". No vague promises here though, because everything about belonging to this covenant God meant a religious and cultural obligation to look out for the vulnerable and feeble. Care for the elderly was about attitudes even more than money.

但在远古时候，虽然没有福利救济金和慈善计划，却很容易能看到为什么现在尊重老人的想法对政治生态系统如此地重要，为什么上帝也被卷入为以色列老年人提供保障的计划。“直到你年老，我仍是一样；直到你白头，我依然扶持你。”预言家艾赛亚说道，“我既然如此做了，我必要提携你，扶持你，拯救你。”虽然这里没有模糊的承诺，因为所有关于盟约之神的事情，都意味着宗教和文化的职责是照顾弱势群体。对老人的照顾更多的是态度，而不是金钱。

Britain has 1.5 million people over 85. In the next decade, care of the elderly will account for 45% of some council spending. In economic terms, aging is a growing service industry in which the present and future old will need professional care and respect as much as money. But if we are to achieve this, we will also need what the old reformer William Wilberforce called, 'a reformation of manners' as much as a reformation in our economic structures.

英国有150万人85岁以上。在未来的十年里，照顾老人的费用将占委员会开支的45%。从经济方面来看，人口老龄化给服务业带来了日益增长的趋势，但不论是现在还是未来，老年人更需要专业的照顾和尊重，而不仅仅是金钱。但如果我们要达到这个目标，我们也需要老改革家威廉·威尔伯福斯所说的”形式改革“，而不仅仅是经济结构的改革。