揽瓜阁俱乐部第二期 Day10 2020.06.24
【社会科学-就业】 The case for free speech at work （614字 精读 必做篇）
Can you really lose your job for posting an opinion on Twitter, or even for clicking “like” on somebody else’s message? Surprising though it may be to employees who expect firms to indulge their odd working hours, their tastes in coffee and their pets, the answer is often yes. Pascal Besselink, an employment lawyer in the Netherlands, reckons that about one in ten abrupt sackings there is connected to behaviour on social media.
Controversial opinions were once expressed in bars after work, and went no further. Today Twitter and other social media broadcast employees’ thoughts; they also make it easy for anyone who is offended to put together a mob and retaliate against the poster and their employer. Jittery firms respond by sacking the offender. Some, like General Motors, have introduced conduct codes which police workers’ speech even when they are not at work.
A firm may judge its self-interest correctly when it punishes workers who speak out. America’s National Basketball Association probably lost hundreds of millions of dollars this season because of a Chinese blackout imposed after the general manager of the Houston Rockets tweeted in support of democracy in Hong Kong. Sacking him would have been costly, too—but not that costly.
Though it is not necessarily in companies’ interests to allow the free expression of opinion, it is clearly in society’s interest. Free speech, including by employees, is a cornerstone of democracy. At the moment workers are too easily gagged.
In countries such as America most employees have scant protection against punitive employers. In others, laws written to protect religious freedom are being extended to govern other beliefs and views. British judges have decided that ethical veganism deserves legal protection. A think-tank was ruled to have acted legally when it did not renew the contract of a researcher after she tweeted that biological sex is immutable. This case-by-case evolution leaves employees and employers unsure which views are acceptable and where.
In laying down clearer rules, legislators should remember that offending and harassing are different. It is not reasonable for companies to try to prevent their employees from expressing displeasure at gay marriage, no matter how strongly others disagree—at least if that is not relevant to the job they do. But an employee who repeatedly says at work that gays are damned, even after being told to stop, has crossed the line into harassment. That should be grounds for dismissal.
There is also a difference between what people do at work and what they do outside. Speech is like a dress code. Just as companies can demand that their employees look the part while at work, they should be able to restrict what they say there, provided they are clear and fair about it. After people go home, though, they should be able to express their opinions freely, just as they are free to change into jeans and a t-shirt. A woman fired in 2004 by a housing firm for displaying a sticker backing John Kerry on her car was poorly treated. The situation is more complicated when it comes to public figures such as sports stars, who in effect sell their image as well as their labour.
Firms will lobby to preserve their freedoms. But robust laws against unfair dismissal that protect speech would help them stand up to complaints from angry mobs and the Chinese government. Politicians should hold their nerve. Many complain that their constituents have become so ideological and tribal that they have forgotten how to talk to those with opposing views. Geographical and technological spaces are increasingly segregated. That makes it all the more important that people encounter different views at work—and especially outside it.
Source: The Economist
【社会科学-医疗】 Inaugural Observance of World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day （356字 2分54秒 精听 必做篇）
先做精听再核对原文哦~
温馨提示：音频中如听到专有名词不用逐一写下，可以缩写来区分和代替。比如：
Lymphatic Filariasis淋巴丝虫病 Trachoma 沙眼 Onchocerciasis 盘尾丝虫病 Schistosomiasis 血吸虫病
January 30th marks the first-annual observance of World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day. The hope is that raising awareness of these crippling diseases will increase support as well as investment in the fight against them, particularly in the areas most directly affected.
Neglected tropical diseases, or NTDs, are maladies of the poorest of the poor. They are chronic disabling illnesses that thrive in areas with inadequate sanitation and lack of clean drinking water.
NTDs have blinded, disabled, disfigured and killed their victims for centuries. Today, more than 1 billion people suffer with these illnesses. Furthermore, NTDs undermine the future of both the affected individuals and their communities. They lower children’s chances of thriving and of staying in school, as well as the ability of adults to work and be fully active in their communities, thus perpetuating the cycle of poverty.
Nonetheless, most NTDs are frequently preventable or treatable, often with low-cost medications. So, back in 2006, the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, launched the Neglected Tropical Diseases Program, a public-private partnership to treat those who suffer from NTDs, and to help prevent the spread of these diseases by identifying at-risk communities, distributing medicines through mass campaigns, and measuring results.
The program targets the most prevalent neglected tropical diseases that have proven, cost-effective health interventions. These include Lymphatic Filariasis, also known as elephantiasis; blinding Trachoma; Onchocerciasis, or River Blindness; Schistosomiasis, which is sometimes called snail fever; and illnesses caused by the Soil Transmitted Helminths hookworm, roundworm, and whipworm.
Since the program began in 2006, USAID has helped leverage 22 billion dollars in donated drugs from five pharmaceutical companies. That has allowed 2.6 billion treatments of medicine to go to 1.3 billion people, or 1 out of every 6 people around the globe. Thus far, 10 USAID-supported countries have eliminated at least one neglected tropical disease as a public health problem.
The United States believes that the first-annual World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day kicks off an important year in the fight against neglected diseases of poverty. Reducing the burden of disease and disability caused by NTDs is essential to improving the lives of the world’s poorest people.
Source: VOA
【笔记格式要求】
精读笔记格式要求： 1.总结文章中心大意 2.总结分论点或每段段落大意 3.摘抄印象深刻或者觉得优美的句子 4.总结文章中的生词 5.记录阅读时间、总结时间、总时间
精听笔记格式要求： 1.逐句听写整篇文章 2.对照原文修改听写稿，标记出错原因 3.总结文章中心大意 4.总结精听过程中的生词 5.记录听写时间、总结时间、总时间
这里也给大家两点学习小建议哦~ 精读：如遇到读不懂的复杂句，建议找出句子主干，分析句子成分，也可以尝试翻译句子来帮助理解~ 精听：建议每句不要反复纠结听，如果听 5 遍都没听出来，那就跳过，等完成后再回听总结原因，时间宝贵，不要过于执着哦~
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发表于 2020-6-23 20:28:02
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