36 | P a g e
H The best way to tempt the old to go on working may be to build on such “bridge” jobs:
part-time or temporary employment that creates a more gradual transition from full-time
work to retirement. Mr Quinn, who has studied the phenomenon, finds that, in the United
States, nearly half of all men and women who had been in full-time jobs in middle age
moved into such “bridge” jobs at the end of their working lives. In general, it is the best-
paid and worst-paid who carry
on working: “There are”, he says, “two very different types
of bridge job-holders - those who continue working because they have to and those who
continue working because they want to, even though they could afford to retire.”
I If the hob market grows more flexible, the old may find more jobs that suit them. Often,
they will be self-employed. Sometimes, they may start their own businesses: a study by
David Storey of Warwick University found that, in Britain, 70% of businesses started by
people over 55 survived, compared with an average of only 19%. To coax the old back
into the job market, work will not only have to pay. It will need to be more fun than touring
the country in an Airstream trailer, or seeing the grandchildren, or playing golf. Only then
will there be many more Joe Clarks.
Questions 1-4 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE
if the statement is true
FALSE
if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN
if the information is not given in the passage
1. Insurance company Sun Life of Canada made decision that it would hire more
Canadian employees rather than British ones in order to get fresh staffs.
2. Unlike other places, employees in Japan get paid according to the years they are
employed
