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.

WARM-UPS

1. RETIREMENT: In pairs / groups, talk about what life would be like to be retired. Write down five differences of retiring at 65 and 85 years old. Share these with your partners. What are the benefits of each retirement age? Change partners often.

2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring.

Workers / working lives / experts / retirement / modern medicine / technology / economies / 100-year-olds / keys / genes / pensions / lifespans / dreams

Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

3. AT THE SOCIAL CLUB: You are 100 years old. You have been retired now for 15 years. You are at the retirees social club. Talk to the other 100-year-olds about being 100. What do you do every day? What do you want to do in life? How much longer do you hope to live? Ask each other the questions normal of 100-year-olds.

4. GOLDEN YEARS: Talk about each of these times in our lives. What are the things we typically do during these periods? Would these things change if we lived to be much older and retired at 85 years old?

Teenage years Our twenties Being thirtysomething Our 40s

In our 50s 60 to 69 Being a septuagenarian Over 100

5. LONGEVITY OPINIONS: What do you think about these opinions? Students A agree with them, Students B disagree.

1. Scientists should never try to make us live longer.
2. Increasing our lifespan increases problems linked to overpopulation.
3. It’s better to die naturally than take medicine to live longer and work until 85.
4. People retiring at 85 means a much wiser and experienced workforce.
5. A retirement age of 85 will turn us into slaves.
6. A later retirement age is only good for pension companies.
7. Early retirement is a basic human right.
8. Living to be over 100 would be great.

6. RETIREMENT: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word “retirement”. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

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

a.	The retirement age may soon be 85 for university majors.	T / F
b.	The idea of early retirement may one day completely disappear.	T / F
c.	We will soon be living much longer lives.	T / F
d.	Modern economies can support any number of retired people.	T / F
e.	Many people in the developed world could live to be beyond 100.	T / F
f.	Geneticists will lock the key to ageing.	T / F
g.	We have doubled human lifespan in the past century.	T / F
h.	Dreams of early retirement will remain just dreams.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

a.	major	conference
b.	expert	stay
c.	instead of	developed
d.	convention	greatly
e.	reshape	rather than
f.	industrialized	pay for
g.	unlock	significant
h.	dramatically	change
i.	fund	figure out
j.	remain	specialist

3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

a.	see a major change in the	to be much older than now
b.	the idea of early retirement	lifespan in the last century
c.	people will live	support so many retired people
d.	greatly reshape our	length of their working lives
e.	economies would not be able to	the brink of…
f.	most people living in	fund their retirement
g.	once scientists unlock the key	today’s industrialized societies
h.	we are on	may disappear completely
i.	We have doubled human	to the gene that makes us age
j.	have enough mone