Letras

PROVA AFT/2010

INGLÊS

Read the text and answer questions 21-23.

Companies in the rich world are confronted with a rapidly

ageing workforce. Nearly one in three American workers

will be over 50 by 2012, and America is a young country

compared with Japan and Germany. China is also ageing

rapidly, thanks to its one-child policy. This means that

companies will have to learn how to manage older workers

better.

Most companies are remarkably ill-prepared. There was a

flicker of interest in the problem a few years ago but it was

snuffed out by the recession. The management literature

on older workers is a mere molehill compared with the

mountain devoted to recruiting and retaining the young.

Companies are still stuck with an antiquated model for

dealing with ageing, which assumes that people should

get pay rises and promotions on the basis of age. They

have dealt with the burdens of this model by periodically

“downsizing” older workers or encouraging them to take

early retirement. This has created a dual labour market for

older workers, of cosseted insiders on the one hand and

unemployed or retired outsiders on the other.

But this model cannot last. The number of young people,

particularly those with valuable science and engineering

skills, is shrinking. And governments are raising retirement

ages and making it more diffi cult for companies to shed

older workers, in a desperate attempt to cope with their

underfunded pension systems.

Feb 4th 2010 | From The Economist print edition [adapted]

21- According to the text, businesses

a) are fully prepared to deal with an ancient workforce.

b) cannot cope with an influx of elderly workers.

c) are incapable of growing old gracefully.

d) must get rid of older workers through streamlining

operations.

e) must learn to deal with the need to keep older staff

employed.

22- In paragraph 2, the author claims that the recent economic

recession