玩命工作

A. J. Dalton (amended by Jon Porter)

在英國，年輕人可以得到的工作類型往往是創造性的和動態的，這些工作帶來了經濟上的回報，也帶來了情感上的寄托。而且，無論男女，通常都可以獲得這些工作。同時，為避免失業，人們不得不拼命工作。

When you were at secondary school, was there a career adviser? Did he or she tell you that if you worked hard you could do any job you wanted once you left school or university? Many young people in the UK who believe this to be true could be in for a shock. For many school leavers, the reality of working life in Britain today is very different.

The first thing to say is that it's becoming more and more difficult for young people to find a regular job in the UK. Unemployment is at 5.4 percent, which is not bad compared to some European neighbours,but it's not ideal. And it's higher for university graduates: 7 percent. According to recent figures, a third (33 percent) of working graduates took jobs such as cleaners, office juniors and road sweepers six months after leaving university. Even if young people decide to apply for lower-paid jobs, they find that there is a lot of competition from workers who have travelled from other countries in the European Union (for example,Poland) to work in the UK.

If a young British person does manage to find a job, they then find it is harder than they might have expected. On average, British workers work more hours a week than workers in any other country in Europe. Surely the UK government should do something to improve things for British workers, shouldn't it?Well, it's tricky. If British workers were to start working fewer hours, the UK economy would be damaged and would become less competitive than the economies of other countries. Then, there would be even fewer jobs available in the UK.

And the UK economy is struggling to remain competitive with large-scale economies such as India.Because workers are relatively cheap in India, a lot of big UK companies have outsourced their call centre jobs to that country. A British person who wants to talk to their British bank these days normally has to telephone and talk to someone in Delhi. You can imagine how many British people feel about that!

When it comes to manufacturing goods, the UK cannot compete with a country like India, which can create larger volumes of goods for less money. It was because of this sort of situation that the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, back in the 1980s, decided that the UK should become a “service sector”country rather than a “manufacturing-based” country. Margaret Thatcher closed many UK coal mines, causing riots （騷亂） up and down the country, and started to give government money to individuals who wanted to set up their own small businesses.

So if the UK doesn't have as many low-paid jobs as before, and doesn't have as much manufacturing,what does it have? Well, it has more jobs in “advanced technology”, research, consultancy, international education and the “creative industries”. The creative industries include areas such as computer gaming—with UK titles Lara Croft, Fable, Black and White,and Grand Theft Auto, for example. Books, films,fine art and music are important, too. UK pop stars and bands are a global business. This sort of economy is often called a “knowledge economy”,an economy that manages to turn its culture into a set of commercial products.

So it's not all doom and gloom （悲觀失望）.The types of jobs available for young people in the UK are often creative and dynamic, and encourage selfexpression. The jobs are not just financially rewarding, and they are often emotionally rewarding as well.They are the sorts of jobs that can be done from home. They are equally accessible to men and women. It's increasingly common for the woman in a UK family to be the breadwinner, while the man is the house husband who stays at home to cook, clean and look after the young children. In the last 15 years, the number of house husbands in the UK has tripled.

I tell you, actually, it's a very different UK from the one I grew up in. It's a bit scary sometimes, because I often feel out of date. But perhaps it's not all doom and gloom. On the bright side, the UK economy has been growing steadily, if not spectacularly（令人吃驚地）, in recent years, and thanks to the strength of the creative arts in Britain, I've been able to publish several novels in that time: the UK's knowledge economy is real!

Activity 1: Vocabulary

For each paragraph, find the word or phrase that matches the definition.

Paragraph 1: a teacher or an adult who gives children advice about getting work later in life

Paragraph 2: harder and harder

Paragraph 3: complicated

Paragraph 4: usually

Paragraph 5: the fighting between crowds of people and the police

Paragraph 6: computer gaming, music, film,books and fine art

Paragraph 7: the person in the family who earns the main salary

Paragraph 8: behind the times Activity 2: Requirements

Look at the list of adjectives below. Tick (√)the ones that describe the sort of young person you should be if you want to get a job in the UK.

（ ）1. cheap

（ ）2. gloomy

（ ）3. knowledgeable

（ ）4. regular

（ ）5. energetic

（ ）6. common

（ ）7. creative

（ ）8. competitive

Activity 3: Attitude

Is the article for (F), against (A) or neutral (N)about the following?

（ ）1.traditional advice from career advisers

（ ）2. the UK government

（ ）3. jobs being outsourced to India

（ ）4. Margaret Thatcher

（ ）5. jobs in the creative industries

（ ）6. the UK today

Fun corner

Animal idioms are very common in the English language. But which adjective describes which animal?

elephant parrot fox ox lion owl mouse mule dodo

1. She's as quiet as a ___________________.

2. He's as dead as a ___________________.

3. He's as big as an ___________________.

4. She's as cunning as a ________________.

5. She's as brave as a __________________.

6. He's as sick as a _____________________.

7. She's as strong as an _________________.

8. He's as stubborn as a ________________.

9. She's as wise as an __________________.

Word(s) of the passage

We use the phrase “between jobs” to describe someone who is unemployed. The word “unemployed” has a slightly negative meaning, so people tend to say “he's between jobs” instead, because that sounds more positive.