Retirement age may be extended to 85

Workers may soon see a major change in the length of their working lives. An American expert on society and work said yesterday that the age at which people retire might one day be 85 instead of 65. This means the idea of early retirement may disappear completely. Stanford University biologist Shripad Tuljapurkar told scientists at a convention in the USA that modern medicine and technology will mean people will live to be much older than now. He said this would greatly reshape our image and reality of work. He added economies would not be able to support so many retired people.

Professor Tuljapurkar believes that most people living in today’s industrialized societies will live to be 100. He said once scientists unlock the key to the gene that makes us age, society will change dramatically. “Some people believe we are on the brink of being able to extend human lifespan significantly…We have doubled human lifespan in the last century”, he said. He has warned that many workers will discover their pension companies do not have enough money to fund their retirement. He added that dreams of early retirement will remain just dreams.

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

2. VOCABULARY:

MAJOR – LENGTH – RESHAPE – ADDED – UNLOCK – ON THE BRINK LIFESPAN – DOUBLE – WARNED – TO FUND – EARLY RETIREMENT

3. DISCUSSION:

1. Did the headline make you want to read the article?
2. Do you think scientists should extend our lives?
3. Do you think scientists are playing the role of God in increasing our lifespans?
4. What would society be like if most people were over fifty?
5. What do you think of 85 as a retirement age?
6. When do you want to retire?
7. Would you like to live to be 150?
8. Would life be different if we knew we had to work until we were 85?
9. What new industries would there be if we retired at 85 and lived to be over 100?
10. Do you think scientists should unlock the key to the ageing gene?

4. COMPLETE THE SENTENCES:

1. If I lived to be a hundred I would ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1. When you’re old you can’t _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1. When you’re old you should __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________