阅读练习|女人的职场天花板比较低，我们在生活或者学习中或多或少都使用过metaphor(隐喻)，但是我们可能没有完全意识到，这些隐喻反过来给我们对世界的看法带来了一些潜移默化的影响。

　　01.原文

　　Metaphors powerfully capture our imaginations, and researchers have found that they can even influence our behaviour without us realising. Humans aren’t necessarily aware of what shapes their opinions, or indeed the power that language has over substantive evidence.

　　隐喻有力地控制了我们的想象力，研究人员发现，它们甚至可以在不知不觉中影响我们的行为。人类不能意识到到底是什么形成了他们的观点，也意识不到语言比那些实质性证据更有力量。

　　capture　v. 捕获，引起

　　substantive evidence　实据

　　02.原文

　　In other words, metaphors can help people understand novel and occasionally complex topics, but they are a simplification, offering only a specific angle or viewpoint that isn’t the full picture.

　　换言之，隐喻能帮助人们理解新颖甚或复杂的话题，但隐喻是一种简化，只提供某个特定的角度或视角而并非全貌。

　　novel　新颖的(同义词：new; original; creative等)

　　complex　复杂的(同义词包括：complicated; convoluted; sophisticated; intricate等)

　　simplification　n. 简化，其动词形式是simplify

　　03现在，我们来看看关于女性同时具有局限性的几个隐喻。首先看glass ceiling(玻璃天花板)。

　　原 文

　　You can see similar limitations with the description of ‘glass ceilings’ in the workplace. Originally popularised by Gay Bryant at the height of the feminist movement in the 1980s, it’s a widely used term today that describes an invisible barrier that keeps women from occupying executive positions. The metaphor suggests that women should aspire to ‘break through’ the ceiling – but the problem is that it describes only the women reaching up, rather than, say, the men that are peering down from the top. This arguably places unfair responsibility on women to smash the ceiling, rather than focusing on the role of men in creating and maintaining it.

　　在职场“玻璃天花板”的描述中我们可以看到类似的局限。这个术语是经由Gay Byrant在20世纪80年代女性主义运动高潮中普及的，时到今日仍然被广泛使用，用于描述职场上使得女性难以进入管理层的隐形障碍。这个隐喻暗示着女性应当立志“突破”天花板——但问题是它只描述了向上爬的女性，却没有描述那些在顶端俯视的男性。这可能将不公平的责任强加于女性身上，要求她们去打破天花板，而没有关注男性在创造和加固天花板中的作用。

　　originally　adv. 原先地

　　popularize　v. 使......普及

　　feminist movement　女权运动

　　invisible　adj. 隐形的

　　aspire to　渴望做;立志做

　　smash　v. 打碎

　　04然后看另外几个隐喻：sticky floor(粘性地板)、labyrinth(迷宫 ) 和firewall(防火墙)。

　　原 文

　　It also applies to the various other metaphors that have been proposed to describe women in the workplace. For example, for lower-paid workers, there is the ‘sticky floor’, which describes how women often feel stuck in low-wage jobs where career ascension is unlikely. Then there are ‘labyrinths’ for women to navigate, ‘firewalls’ to cross, and all sorts of variants on glass, from glass doors (a barrier to initial hiring) to glass walls (a barrier to horizontal transfer in a corporation).

　　这种情况同样存在于其它用来描述职场中女性的隐喻。例如，对低收入工人来说，有“粘性地板”一说，它描述了女性常常粘在低工资工作，升值无望。此外，还有需要女性探索的“迷宫”，跨越的“防火墙”，以及“玻璃”的各种变体，从玻璃门(指初始雇佣时的障碍)到玻璃墙(指在公司横向调动时的障碍)。

　　ascension　上升(ascend是动词形式)

　　labyrinth　迷宫

　　navigate　巡游;探索

　　initial　最初的

　　horizontal　横向的(vertical是纵向的)

　　transfer　调动

　　05这些关于职场女性的隐喻背后有哪些性别意味呢，或者说代表了怎样的刻板印象(stereotype)呢?

　　原 文

　　The metaphors we’re using to describe women at work reflect the world’s androcentricism – our insistence that, even in 2017, we consider the male experience as “the norm”.

　　我们用来描述职场女性的这些隐喻反映了世界的男人中心主义——即使到了2017年，我们仍然坚持把男性的经历视为“规范”。

　　androcentricism　男性中心主义(anthropocentricism 人类中心主义)

　　norm　规范，常规

　　06作为比较，我们来看看关于职场男性的隐喻。

　　原 文

　　Interestingly, there is one related metaphor that focuses on men’s careers – the glass escalator. It’s used “to describe the tendency for men in female-dominated industries to ascend to upper ranks more quickly than women in these industries”. Such industries include jobs like nursing or primary school teaching, but the metaphor in itself has only come into being because metaphors are employed when there is an “exception” to the rule or gender stereotype.

　　有趣的是，有一个专门用来描写男性职业的隐喻——玻璃扶梯。它被用来描述“在女性主导行业中男性上升到高层职位比这些行业中女性更快的趋势”。这些行业包括护理或小学教学等工作，但该隐喻的出现本身是因为隐喻是在规则和性别刻板印象出现例外时而使用。

　　dominate　控制

　　employ　v. 运动

　　stereotype　刻板印象

　　07那么，我们应该怎样看待这些隐喻呢?

　　原 文

　　The obvious upside of any these metaphors, however, is that they highlight social phenomena that might otherwise remain invisible and therefore impossible to resolve. But in order to address the circumstances that lead to women being held back, and men rising seamlessly, it shouldn’t be forgotten that metaphors simplify complexity.

　　然而，这些隐喻的明显优势是凸显了那些本可能不为人知因而也无法解决的社会现象。但为了解决导致女性被压制，同时让男性地位无形的现状，我们不应该忘记隐喻简化了复杂性。

　　upside　优势

　　highlight　突出显示;凸显

　　held back　排斥，保留着

　　complexity　复杂性

　　08原 文

　　If, these words can subtly influence how we choose to act, then they may have unintended consequences. The glass ceiling, for example, implies that there’s a single barrier that, if only women work hard enough, can be shattered once and for all. As various social scientists have since pointed out, the reality is that there are countless deeper-rooted problems and pressures that hamper women’s progression in workplaces where male privilege is the norm.

　　如果这些文字能潜移默化地影响我们的行为选择，那它们就可能会产生意想不到的后果。比如，玻璃天花板暗含只有一个障碍，只要女性工作足够努力，就能彻底粉碎它。但正如许多社会科学家早已指出的那样，现实中有无数根深蒂固的问题和压力，妨碍了在以男性特权为标准的工作场所中女性的进步。

　　subtly　细微地，潜移默化地

　　unintended　无意的

　　hamper　阻碍(同义词hinder)

　　privilege　特权