【时事聚焦】2010年发生的最大民生事件就是富士康的自杀事件。我们就来看一下整个事件的回放,以下是英国BBC对于该事件的报道:
Foxconn suicides: “Workers feel quite lonely”
A string of suicides at a factory in China owned by Taiwan firm Foxconn has highlighted what some say is a stressful working environment for migrant workers. Foxconn says it is employing trained counsellors and installing more leisure facilities at the factory in Shenzhen to help its staff, as well as increasing salaries to boost morale.
Here, people who have worked at or visited the plant describe the working atmosphere which many have blamed for the suicides. There is a suspicion being floated that some of the people who committed suicide, did it for money. The math works like this: the average employee earns about 2,000 yuan per month ($295:£200), but the company pays 100,000 yuan compensation to the family of anyone dying on site. To an unstable 20 year-old, the thought of that much money going to their parents could be attractive.
The morale at the factory was very low when I was training there. Young engineers referred to the company as Foxconn University – a place to get a couple of years’ experience after graduating, and before moving on to a more relaxed job. There’s a recreation centre, but the engineers I was training told me they had never been there. Then I saw on TV that there’s a stress room full of these dolls that look like Japanese warriors. You get a bat and you beat them. That’s how they are encouraged to relieve the stress.
The security at Foxconn has always been extremely tight. On arriving at the main gate, visitors had to surrender their passports to the guards and bags were searched. If one wanted to enter any of the manufacturing or training areas within the campus, there would be further checkpoints to be negotiated and additional passes issued. When confronted with security on this scale, it’s easy to compare the place to a prison.
Anonymous Foxconn worker (Interview by the BBC’s Chinese service)
After work we go for a walk, we get online, sometimes we go together outside the supermarket to watch TV on a big screen. Life here is OK. Workers don’t have much time to communicate with each other and they feel quite lonely. We work six days a week with one day off and every day we work two hours overtime. The salary is quite low for newcomers, the lowest in Shenzhen, but once you’ve been here a while, it gets better. I’ve also heard that salaries will be increased.
Anonymous former Foxconn employee (Interview by the BBC’s Chinese service)
I currently live and work in Ireland. Before that I worked in project management for Foxconn. The job often involved visiting the manufacturing sites in China with our customers before and during production ramp-up. The factories themselves are top notch although they are fairly intense working environments. Westerners would find it very difficult to work there. Employees have to work long days and many of the staff were working at least six days a week. So it was very common to hear of people being burnt out.
【热点话题】从以上这篇报道中我们可以发现,富士康事件对雅思阅读考试也有一定的启发作用。分析认为,雅思阅读文章很多都涉及到心理学和社会学,那么平时多多阅读积累相类似的文章有助于考生背景知识的积累。在英国,美国或者日本,自杀率都是非常高的,而且成为一种普遍现象,多阅读此类文章有助于考生备考相关社会类的话题。同时也有助于考生的阅读速度的提高。
【难句词汇】雅思考生的阅读难点之一就是词汇量和句型掌握程度的不同,如果学生的词汇量不足,那么文章将看不懂,我们从上文中就可以学到很多的句型和词汇。
A string of suicides at a factory in China owned by Taiwan firm Foxconn has highlighted what some say is a stressful working environment for migrant workers.
宾语从句
a string of suicides 一系列的自杀事件
highlight 突出(同义词:stress, emphasize)
migrant workers 民工
Foxconn says it is employing trained counsellors and installing more leisure facilities at the factory in Shenzhen to help its staff, as well as increasing salaries to boost morale.
宾语从句
counsellors 咨询师
install 安装,布置
as well as 以及
boost morale 提升士气
People who have worked at or visited the plant describe the working atmosphere which many have blamed for the suicides.
双定语从句
plant 工厂
working atmosphere 工作气氛
blame for 造成
The deaths at Foxconn are being discussed by everyone here and people are keeping a macabre score of how many young people have leapt to their deaths.
现在进行时的被动语态
keep a score of … 计算、计数
macabre 恐怖的,令人毛骨悚然的
leap to one’s death 跳楼自杀
There is a suspicion being floated that some of the people who committed suicide, did it for money.
定语修饰结构和定语从句
suspicion 猜疑,怀疑(同义词:doubt)
float 浮动,散播(同义词:spread)
committed suicide 自杀
If one wanted to enter any of the manufacturing or training areas within the campus, there would be further checkpoints to be negotiated and additional passes issued.
条件状语从句
manufacturing 制造的
checkpoint 检查站
negotiate 谈判
issue 发放
从以上这些内容中我们学到了很多的表达方式和句型,这样一来对于雅思阅读的理解力和速度的提高有很大的帮助。而且从此文中我们也可以学到阅读文章的结构:文章的开头是Foxconn suicides: “Workers feel quite lonely”,然后是Anonymous Foxconn worker,最后是Anonymous former Foxconn employee。文章按照作者的自身观点,匿名现任员工和匿名前员工的观点把文章结构很清楚地展现在读者前面。
分析发现,在剑桥雅思真题中也有相关类型的文章供考生阅读理解和训练:剑五Nature or Nurture;剑五儿童心理研究;剑六Bullying,以上三篇文章都是社会心理学类别的,考生可以精读加考题训练。
【真题预测】根据刚才关于富士康的原版文章,我们来练习一下雅思阅读的常考题型之一 — 是非无判断题:
TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN
1 It is confirmed that people committed suicide in order to get money.
2 The recreation centre is constructed for the engineers to use.
3 The workers are lonely because they don’t want to talk to one another.
(key: 1 not given 2 false 3 false)