M: With tomorrow being Labur Day and all, I think it would be a nice gesture to let all the memebers of laborial staff leave work an hour early. What do you say?
F: What! That sounds perfectly ridiculous! Labour Day is a holiday for everyone,not just laborial staff... and we get a whole day off tomorrow anyway, so what's the point of an extra hour tonight?
M: Well, we all get Labour Day off as a holiday, the real purpose of the holiday is to remember all the people who do manual or other hard labor. It's to celebrate those who work doing what other people might not be willing to do. I think we ought to do something in honor of the common worker.
F: So if we did allow the laborial force to go home early, how many people are we talking about?
M: In our company, the loborial force makes up 60% of our workers. We'd just be letting slightly over half the folks out a little early.
明天就是勞動節了,我想讓所有的普通員工提前一小時下班以示友好.你有什么看法?
你說什么?這聽起來太荒謬了.勞動節是所有人的節日,不僅僅屬于普通員工…而且不管怎么說我們明天都要休息一天,那今天晚上額外給他們一小時的假又有什么意義?
雖然我們大家都把勞動節當做節日,但這個節日真正目的是為了紀念所有從事體力勞動或者其他辛苦工作的人.這是為了贊美這些人,因為他們做著其他人也許不愿意做的工作.為了紀念這些普通工人,我想我們應該做點什么.
那如果我們真的允許普通工人早點兒下班回家,那應該有多少人?
在我們公司,普通員工占60%.我們只是讓一半多一點的人早一點下班.
Gesture: something that you do or say to show a particular feeling or intention (表明感情或意圖的)姿態,表示
They sent some flowers as a gesture of sympathy to the parents of the child. 他們送了一些花表示對孩子父母的同情.
It was a nice gesture(= it was kind)to invite his wife too. 把他的妻子也請來是友好的表示.
We do not accept responsibility but we will refund the money as a gesture of goodwill. 我們不承擔責任,不過我們愿意退款以表示我們的善意.
The government has made a gesture towards public opinion(= has tried to do something that the public will like). 政府已做出順應民意的姿態.Manual: (of work, etc. 工作等) involving using the hands or physical strength 用手的;手工的;體力的
manual labour/jobs/skills 體力勞動╱活兒;手工技巧
manual and non-manual workers 體力勞動者和非體力勞動者
make up sth: to form something 形成;構成
Women make up 56% of the student numbers. 女生占學生人數的 56%.
