这两天“延迟退休年龄的消息”在办公室炸开了锅，据说从2021年起就要开始实施“渐进式延迟法定退休年龄”。一时间，甭管是小年轻儿还是老大叔们都在心里打起了小算盘，而这到底是个好事儿还是坏事儿众说纷纭谁也说服不了谁......

唉~政策的事儿谁也说不准，咱们呐还是好好学英语吧。那今天就跟大家来说一下这个“延迟退休”中的关键词“延迟”用英语如何来表达。一看到这儿，肯定好多同学都会抢答了——我知道，我知道，是"Delay retirement"! 抢答的精神可嘉，但是呢，答错了~

也许是大家经常坐飞机被延误的缘由，"delay=延迟"已经深深地固化在心中到了脱口而出的地步，但这个delay用在延迟退休上却不合适了，正确的应该是"postponed retirement"。下面我就给大家比较一下 delay 和 postponed 的区别吧。

• delay 作动词讲时，的确有"延迟；推迟；延期；使迟到”的含义，当名词用时则有 "耽误; 耽搁；延迟（或耽搁、拖延）的时间"意思。但是重点来了，delay 所表示的是指因为碰到了客观上的问题，在不可控因素的作用下被动推迟，所以多用于形容由于各种原因而导致的“被延搁”、“被拖延”，带有“不情愿”的感觉在里面哟。

• 而“postpone”则表示的是主动地去推迟事先安排好的计划，将其推迟到原计划之后的某一个时间来进行。强调的是主动提出延期的要求或做出推迟的决定，并不是因为有意外或者由于不确定因素而导致不得不需要延期。所以像“延迟退休”这种主观上的推迟应该用"postponed retirement "才可以。

postpone /poʊstˈpoʊn/

v. 延期；延迟；延缓；展缓; 推迟；使延期；

【En】To delay an event and plan or decide that it should happen at a later date or time. 推迟一件事，并计划或决定它应该在以后的某个日期或时间发生。To change the date or time of a planned event or action to a later one. 把计划好的事情或行动的日期或时间改到以后。

还是老规矩，先来听几句例子，顺道儿练练听力吧！

1\ The match had to be postponed until next week.

比赛不得不推迟到下周举行。

2\ They've decided to postpone having a family for a while.

他们决定推迟一段时间再成家。

3\ His trial has been postponed indefinitely.

他的审判被无限期地推迟了。

4\ He decided to postpone the expedition until the following day.

他决定把探险推迟到第二天。

5\ The visit has now been postponed indefinitely.

这次访问现在已被无限期推迟。

【活学活用 give an example】

• He had postponed going to Beijing.

他已推迟了去北京的日期。

• They decided to postpone their holiday until next year.

他们决定将假期推迟到来年。

• Nom's intended visit was postponed.

尼姆原打算的访问就延期了。

• I've postponed my leave.

我已延期了我的休假。

• We postponed the match from March 5th to March 19th.

我们把比赛从3月5日推迟到3月19日举行。

• He gave me to understand that the meeting would be postponed.

从他的话里我了解到会议将延期。

• The election was postponed and he held his office over.

选举推迟,他继续留任。

• In order to cross the time that the shop has all postponed to shut the door in New Year.

为了过新年商店都延迟了关门的时间。

• The meeting arranged for tomorrow has been postponed.

原定明天开的会已经延期。

• Visit Postponed and Tickets Remain Valid

参观改期，门票有效

• Be postponed for an hour

延迟一小时

• He proposed that the trip should be postponed.

他建议把这次旅行推迟。

• Much to the students'relief, the exam was postponed.

学生们深感宽慰的是考试推迟了。

• We've had to postpone going to France because the children are ill.

因为孩子们生病了，我们不得不推迟去法国的行程。

• I was just informed that Mr. Smith has taken ill, so we had best postpone until he has recovered.

我刚听说史密斯先生病了，所以我们最好推迟到他康复后再做决定。

• We'll have to postpone the barbecue until next weekend if the weather doesn't improve.

如果天气不好转，我们将不得不把烧烤推迟到下周末。

• Can we postpone our meeting until tomorrow?

我们能把会议推迟到明天吗?

• The picnic was postponed until Saturday.

野餐被推迟到了星期六。

• The game was postponed because of heavy snow.

比赛因大雪而推迟。

• We had to postpone the trip because of my father's illness.

由于我父亲生病，我们不得不推迟旅行。

• The trial has been postponed until November.

审判被推迟到11月。

• In the event of rain, the game will be postponed.

要是下雨，球赛就延期。

• The meeting was postponed on account of the chairman's illness.

由于主持人生病，会议延期了。

• We may reasonably conclude that the meeting has been postponed.

我们可以推断会议推迟了。

• Since he is eight years old, his education must be no longer postponed.

鉴于他已8岁，不可再耽搁受教育。