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本周五（12月7日）地点教三308，时间6：30，期待您的到来。。。。 Civil service exams -Economist Nov 24th to 30th AS CHINA’S economy has boomed over the past 30 years, the number of young people going into private business has grown accordingly. “Diving into the sea” of commerce, orxia hai as it is known, became accepted as the way to make money and get ahead, and interest in government jobs declined. Over the past decade, though, in an extraordinary reversal（翻转, 倒转, 反转）, young jobseekers（求职者） have been applying in droves（大批量） for government posts, even as the economy has quadrupled in size. On November 25th the national civil-service examinations will take place, and about 1.4m people will sit（参加考试） them, 20 times more than a decade ago. Of that number, only 20,800 will be hired by government (millions more sit the equivalent provincial exams with similarly long odds of(可能性很小) being hired). This increase is due in part to a surge in the number of university students entering an intensely competitive market for jobs—nearly 7m graduated this year, compared with 1.5m a decade ago. It is also thanks to health, pension and (sometimes) housing benefits, which are seen as generous and permanent in a society with an underfunded safety net—a modern version of the unbreakable Maoist “iron rice-bowl” of state employment. Some civil-service jobs, and almost all senior jobs, require membership of the Communist Party. This helps account for the resurgent复活的 appeal of the party as a conveyor输送机, 运送者of status, connections and spoils战利品, 奖品. Other routes exist into plum美差事 state jobs—having a well-placed friend or relative in government always helps—but, in a faint echo of China’s ancient imperial exam system, civil-service tests, introduced on a national level in 1994, offer a relatively merit-based way to get in. Successful applicants may be disappointed once they show up for work, but the perception persists, among both aspirants and detractors, that being an official is the road to security and wealth. Not as fun as it sounds Zhang Minfu does not have a mistress. He does not even have a girlfriend. In fact, he is a sobering example of just what is awaiting many of those hopeful applicants. Mr Zhang (not his real name) is bespectacled戴眼镜, with chubby cheeks, his sleeves rolled up as he eats dinner and chain-smokes. The cigarettes are an unglamorous provincial brand and his mobile phone is a low-end Nokia. He owns no flat and, he says, does not have much of a life outside his work. Mr Zhang, who is 27, is beginning his climb up the bureaucracy in the capital of a province, Shanxi, south-west of Beijing, which is reputed to be among the most corrupt and least competently governed. The jobs are hard to get, says Mr Zhang, but they are not the cushy简单的 sinecures闲差事 that many assume. He works from 8am until midnight on most days, he says, compiling dry reports on topics like coal production and sales for higher-level officials. He commands a modest salary by urban standards—about 2,800 yuan ($450) a month, in a city where a decent flat near his office rents for two-thirds that much. This way of life does not impress the ladies, he says; he has been on two blind dates in four years, both of them failures. This picture of dedication and loneliness stands in sharp contrast to the popular image. Mr Zhang says he is as disgusted as the general public is with official corruption. He notes that, like many civil servants, he works in a job without the kind of power that could be abused. The leaders in his office work longer hours than he does and still ride bicycles to work. A noodle-vendor once asked a friend of Mr Zhang’s, who works in a local prosecutor’s office, what his salary was and, when he heard, said he would rather sell noodles. Mr Zhang counters that he took the exam precisely so that he would not end up like the noodle-vendor. It is about social status, he explains. “If you’re an official, there’s a chance of promotion. The chance is small, but Chinese culture is deeply influenced by official cadre culture.” The chance of advancement is small indeed. Of China’s 6.9m civil servants, about 900,000 are, like Mr Zhang, at the lowest official rung of government above entry-level. Roughly 40,000 civil servants serve at the city or “bureau” level. Many promotions are handed out on the basis of relationships, gifts and the outright sale of offices. Even when they compete for promotions on merit, some officials will pad their CVs with fake graduate degrees. If college graduates knew what careers awaited them after the civil-service exam, they might reconsider the roiling seas of commerce. 会就这篇文章提一些问题。。。。如： 1, If possible, do you want to be a civil servant in the future?如果可能，你愿意成为公务员吗？ 2, what do you want to be in the future? What do you look for in your ideal job? 你长大想做什么职业？你心目中的理想工作应该有哪些特征? 3, Since corruption is so common in China, will you lower the standards of a qualified civilian and say that even a corrupt civil servant can deserve to be called a good official as long as he has really done something for the people? 鉴于在中国，贪污较为普遍。你会放低好官员的标准，认为，即使一个人贪污受贿，只要他为人民办了实事，他依然是一个好官员吗？ 4, Can you think of some ways to prohibit corruption? Or what do you think is the key to clamping down on corruption？

英语俱乐部英语角： 本周五（12月7日）地点教三308，时间6：30

英语俱乐部英语角：本周五（12月7日）地点教三308，时间6：30