首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
When Enoch Powell, a Conservative MP, gave a speech in 1968 calling for an end to immigration, he received so many letters of su
When Enoch Powell, a Conservative MP, gave a speech in 1968 calling for an end to immigration, he received so many letters of su
admin
2017-03-15
78
问题
When Enoch Powell, a Conservative MP, gave a speech in 1968 calling for an end to immigration, he received so many letters of support that the Royal Mail had to assign him a special van, which made several deliveries a day. Race relations in Britain have since improved, in part thanks to laws passed at the end of the 1960s that criminalised racial discrimination. Laws against other types of discrimination followed. Gay, disabled, old, female—most conditions are covered. But what looks like unfair treatment is often hard to distinguish from the choices made by individuals. The Equalities Review, a semi-independent report that came out on February 28th, shows this all too clearly.
The review matters more than many of its kind because it will guide Britain’s new super anti-discrimination agency when it begins life later this year.
Britain relies not only on its laws to prevent unfair treatment but also on specific bodies charged with enforcing them. People need not bring discrimination cases against palaeolithic employers on their own, or club together to bring class-action suits; government-funded organisations sponsor their cases through employment tribunals. The three main quangos, which cover race, disability and sex discrimination, will in October become the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, under the guidance of Trevor Phillips. In a presentation to an all-party parliamentary group last year, Mr. Phillips wryly predicted that this new arrangement would bring "universal happiness" some time in 2009.
In fact the best of all possible worlds may slowly be coming about without the help of the new agency, if a separate report released this week by Richard Berthoud and Morten Blekesaune of the Institute for Social and Economic Research(ISER) at Essex University is right. The Equalities Review suggests that mothers with young children trail the pack in terms of employment; but a far bigger proportion of them are working than 30 years ago.
Women are paid less than men, but the main reason is not that potential employers see an oversized handbag stuffed with nappies and ask the next candidate to come through, but that time out of the workforce reduces wages later on. Bangladeshi and Pakistani women have low levels of employment. But this may reflect a cultural preference for women to stay at home (which plenty of them break) rather than covert racism.
As for the oldies, the ISER report shows that the chances of someone aged between 50 and 60 being in work have picked up a bit since the late 1990s. The one group that has made no progress at all is the disabled, a broad category that includes anyone with a "limiting longstanding illness". They are the hardest to help, due to a combination of time spent out of work, which sometimes means getting stuck on incapacity benefit, and the fact that people with severe disabilities, simply cannot do some sorts of work.
That makes the job of Mr. Phillips and his new organisation harder. The "long-term strategies, with phased targets" that the review calls for will count for little if the wrongs they are designed to right arise from individual choices, unequal results at school, spotty employment histories—or, indeed, from the condition that often underlies all of these: poverty.
Undeterred, Mr. Phillips argues for changes in the law to permit positive discrimination where it benefits the public. When he was head of the Commission for Racial Equality, Mr. Phillips says, he had to prevent London’s police force from running a programme to recruit black officers, which would have been illegal. He also exasperated intelligence officials by asking how they could seek to hire more Muslims without breaking the law.
Mr. Phillips reckons that it might occasionally be necessary to discriminate in favour even of whites. One of the review’s findings is that boys from poor white families are "probably the single group most likely to be shut out of higher education in future decades". Mr. Phillips thinks universities where most of the students are from ethnic minorities and disproportionately female should, for example, be allowed to seek out white boys. As discrimination goes, the notion sounds relatively benign—but out of such good intentions come perverse results.
The word "palaeolithic" in the 2nd paragraph refers to______.
选项
A、vexed
B、ill-mannered
C、reprobative
D、stale
答案
D
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/28SO777K
本试题收录于:
NAETI高级口译笔试题库外语翻译证书(NAETI)分类
0
NAETI高级口译笔试
外语翻译证书(NAETI)
相关试题推荐
WhenFacebooksaiditwouldstartadatingserviceinColombiainSeptember,ErikaRamossignedup.Single,35,livinginBo
Allaroundherthroughthedaypeoplespokequietlyandwept.Andsomeoftherefugeeshavemedicalbackgroundstendedtothewo
Howmuchphysicalactivityshouldteenagersdo,andhowcantheygetenough?Manyteenagersspendalotoftimebeingsedent
Thenewlawrepresentsrecentandcurrentrequirementsfornewfoodadditivesandnewactive________forfoodproducts.
文山壮族苗族自治州位于云南省东南部,东与广西相连,南与越南接壤,边境线长达438公里,总面积3万多平方公里,和海南省差不多。文山州有悠久的历史,境内发现过古人类牙齿化石,说明远古时期就有人类在此生息、劳动。文山州物产丰富,矿业开发前景良好,土特产
A、Lowdomesticdemand.B、Highenergycost.C、Deflation.D、WeakereconomicgrowthintheU.S.andChina.B根据原文第一段最后一句“...Japan’s
A、initiatinginvestigationintoBP’sliabilityforthestate’slossescausedB、callinghearingsintoBP’smaintenancepractices
ArecentstudybytheCenterforEconomicPolicyResearchsaysthat,inordertoeaseimbalances,theEuropeanUnionneedstoma
ArecentstudybytheCenterforEconomicPolicyResearchsaysthat,inordertoeaseimbalances,theEuropeanUnionneedstoma
Therehavebeenagreatmanyexplanations,someofthemverycomplicated,ofthegreatdemandforcollegeeducationinAmerica,
随机试题
表达某地两年几种疾病的患病率可选用的统计图为
最可能的诊断是下列最有助于诊断的是
脓肿成熟的标志是
()是合同当事人一方为保证合同的履行,在合同订立时或履行前,给付对方一定数额金钱的担保方式。
征收耕地的补偿标准为该耕地被征收前( )年平均年产值的6~10倍。
FIDIC合同条件具有()等优点。
根据以下资料,回答下列题。2009年陕西省果品的总产量为()。
科学家研制出了一种新型的纳米涂层材料,这种材料能够促使任何液体从物体表面反弹出去。例如油渍、酒精等表面张力很低的液体溅到用这种材料粉刷的墙壁上时,会立刻被反弹出去,不会弄脏墙壁。因此,有商人预测,这种材料如果大量运用于粉刷墙壁,涂料的销量将大幅下降。以下哪
举例说明相关系数这一指标有何特点。
Because web servers are(31)and application independent, they can send or request data from legacy or external applications inclu
最新回复
(
0
)