Ageing in Japan (上)-經濟學人雙語精讀-限免外刊閱讀活動
⑴①“ The decline of birth rate and the ageing of Japanese society is accelerating at unprecedented speed,” warns Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister. ②Given the scale of the problem, he told The Economist this week, the government must push for “impactful policies” to tackle it right away. ③He mentions a series of reforms, intended to boost the workforce and reduce the cost of supporting the elderly. ④The Diet is currently debating a government proposal to admit 345,000 foreign workers over five years, for instance.?
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重點詞析
demographic?/?dem??gr?f?k/
■ 1demographics [plural] information about a group such as the people who live in a particular area :
?the demographics of a newspaper’s readership→一份報紙讀者的統計數據
■ 2[countable] a part of the population that is considered as a group, especially by advertisers who want to sell things to that group←群體，人群〔尤指廣告商推銷對象〕:
?the 21–40 demographic →至 40 歲的群體
outline?['a?t.la?n] verb transitive
■to give the main facts about something 略述，概括
?At the interview she outlined what I would be doing.面試時，她簡要介紹了我將要從事的工作。
trim?[tr?m] verb transitive (-mm-)
■to reduce the amount or size of something 消減，減少
?They're trying to trim their costs, so staff who leave are not being replaced.他們正試圖降低成本，所以沒有安排填補離職員工的空缺。
unprecedented?[?n'pres.?.den.t?d] US [-t??d] adjective
■never having happened or existed in the past 史無前例的，空前的；絕無僅有的
?This century has witnessed environmental destruction on an unprecedented scale.環境在本世紀遭到了空前的破壞。
scale [ske?l] noun?
■the size or level of something, especially when this is large 大小；規模；范圍
?We don't yet know the scale of the problem.我們還不知道問題有多嚴重。
impactful?['imp?ktful]
■ adj. 有效的；有力的
diet?['da?.?t]
■a particular type of thing that you experience or do regularly, or a limited range of activities 程式，套路；有限的幾種活動
?He was brought up on a diet of political propaganda from birth.他一出生就開始接受老一套的政治宣傳
