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pilferage n.偷窃。可以和pelf一起记忆，pelf的意思是钱财，偷窃往往和钱财有关。 Milton Friedman, the American economist, acknowledged as much in a famous article published in 1970. “It may well be in the long-run interest of a corporation that is a major employer in a small community to devote resources to providing amenities to that community or to improving its government. That may make it easier to attract desirable employees, it may reduce the wage bill or lessen losses from pilferageand sabotage or have other worthwhile effects.” Friedman never said the only social responsibility was “the bottom line”, and neither do today’s responsible CEOs. 美国经济学家米尔顿弗里德曼（Milton Friedman）在1970年发表的一篇著名文章中承认了这一点。“小型社区主要雇主公司投入资源为社区提供便利设施或改善治理很可能符合其长期利益。这样的公司可能会更容易吸引到理想的员工，减少工资支出、盗窃和破坏造成的损失，或者产生其他有价值的影响。”弗里德曼从来没有说过唯一的社会责任是“利润”，今天负责任的CEO们也没有这样说过。 Extenuate vt. 使…显得轻微。原始印欧语词根-ten表示拉伸，extenuate本义是使变细，引申为使显得轻微。 Unless they have extenuatingcircumstances, all South Korean men must serve at least 18 months in the country’s 550,000-strong armed forces, starting before they turn 28. BTS’s megastardom is arguably such a circumstance. South Korea’s parliament therefore passed a law in 2020 to allow those who “excel in popular culture and art” to postpone their service. 除非有情有可原的情况，否则所有韩国男性必须在28岁之前在该国55万人的军队中服役至少18个月。韩国防弹少年团(BTS)的超级明星地位可以说就是这样一种情况。因此，韩国国会在2020年通过了一项法律，允许那些“在流行文化和艺术方面表现出色”的人推迟服役。 Scrupulous adj. 严谨的，讲究的。Scruple本义是鞋子里的小石头，引申为顾忌、犹豫。Scrupulous本义表示过度谨慎的、注意细节的。unscrupulous则反过来，表示肆无忌惮的。 Governments also need to step up. Particularly in Anglo-Saxon countries, too many unscrupulous employers flout labour law. Many of the most egregious violations relate to gig-economy companies, which pretend that their workers are self-employed contractors when they are in fact more like employees. These firms have not found loopholes in existing employment law, as is often believed. Instead they act with impunity mainly because enforcement of existing labour law is weak and punishment is feeble. That calls for more inspections of suspicious firms and tougher fines for rule-breakers. 政府也需要加强努力。尤其是在盎格鲁-撒克逊国家，太多肆无忌惮的雇主公然藐视劳动法。许多最令人震惊的违法行为与零工经济公司有关，这些公司假装其工人是自雇承包商，而实际上他们更像雇员。这些公司并没有像人们通常认为的那样，在现行劳动法中找到了漏洞。相反，他们的行为不受惩罚主要是因为现行劳动法执行不力，惩罚力度也很弱。这要求政府对可疑公司进行更多的检查，对违规者处以更严厉的罚款。 |
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