French Government Unveils Plan to Grow Jobs, Economy

 　　As the World Bank warns Wednesday that Europe probably is already in recession, France's government has announced a series of measures to grow the country's economy and make it more competitive.

　　Five days after Standard & Poor's downgraded France and eight other eurozone countries, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced new steps to turn around Europe's second-largest economy.

　　Speaking after a meeting with top unions and employers, Sarkozy outlined a strategy to retrain workers, offer apprenticeships and part-time jobs, and get more young people into the work force.

　　France's conservative government is using neighboring Germany as its role model to try to cut unemployment and boost growth. The German economy, Europe's largest, is doing well and Berlin escaped an S&P downgrade.

　　Sarkozy hopes the new measures also will give him a boost in the polls. Presidential elections are in May and he is trailing his Socialist¹ challenger Francois Hollande. Not surprisingly, Sarkozy's rivals blame him for France's economic problems.

　　But the reforms face resistance. Ordinary French citizens oppose efforts to slice their generous benefits and the 35-hour work week.

　　In a French radio interview, CFDT union president Francois Cherque ruled out what he called quick "gadget² reforms."  Real reforms, he said, take time.

　　But France and other European nations are being pressured to deliver solutions soon. A new World Bank report warns that Europe is probably in recession, and the eurozone debt crisis could push the rest of the world into a slump³.

　　"We ran some scenarios⁴ here. Were that crisis to become more serious, growth in developing countries could decline by almost some four percentage points, GDP be lower by four percentage points. That is a very significant slowdown," said Andrew Burns, the report's lead author.

　　Sarkozy has promised major economic reforms before. But he has made slow progress during his presidency⁵, in the face of stiff resistance from unions, workers and leftist politicians.

1 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

2 gadget   

n.小巧的机械，精巧的装置，小玩意儿

参考例句：

• This gadget isn't much good.这小机械没什么用处。
• She has invented a nifty little gadget for undoing stubborn nuts and bolts.她发明了一种灵巧的小工具用来松开紧固的螺母和螺栓。

3 slump   

n.暴跌，意气消沉，（土地）下沉；vi.猛然掉落，坍塌，大幅度下跌

参考例句：

• She is in a slump in her career.她处在事业的低谷。
• Economists are forecasting a slump.经济学家们预言将发生经济衰退。

4 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

5 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。