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.
明天就是劳动节了,我想让所有的普通员工提前一小时下班以示友好.你有什么看法?
你说什么?这听起来太荒谬了.劳动节是所有人的节日,不仅仅属于普通员工…而且不管怎么说我们明天都要休息一天,那今天晚上额外给他们一小时的假又有什么意义?
虽然我们大家都把劳动节当做节日,但这个节日真正目的是为了纪念所有从事体力劳动或者其他辛苦工作的人.这是为了赞美这些人,因为他们做着其他人也许不愿意做的工作.为了纪念这些普通工人,我想我们应该做点什么.
那如果我们真的允许普通工人早点儿下班回家,那应该有多少人?
在我们公司,普通员工占60%.我们只是让一半多一点的人早一点下班.
Gesture: something that you do or say to show a particular feeling or intention (表明感情或意图的)姿态,表示
They sent some flowers as a gesture of sympathy to the parents of the child. 他们送了一些花表示对孩子父母的同情.
It was a nice gesture(= it was kind)to invite his wife too. 把他的妻子也请来是友好的表示.
We do not accept responsibility but we will refund the money as a gesture of goodwill. 我们不承担责任,不过我们愿意退款以表示我们的善意.
The government has made a gesture towards public opinion(= has tried to do something that the public will like). 政府已做出顺应民意的姿态.Manual: (of work, etc. 工作等) involving using the hands or physical strength 用手的;手工的;体力的
manual labour/jobs/skills 体力劳动╱活儿;手工技巧
manual and non-manual workers 体力劳动者和非体力劳动者
make up sth: to form something 形成;构成
Women make up 56% of the student numbers. 女生占学生人数的 56%.
