Pre-reading

Question: What can gossip tell us?

Intensive Reading

Some people think that gossip is bad. But scientists say that it is good. We gossip to get important information. The gossip tells us who to trust. This helps us because we live in very big groups.

有些人认为八卦不好。但科学家说八卦有好处。我们通过八卦来获取重要信息。八卦告诉我们该信任谁。这帮助了我们，因为我们生活在一个大的社群中。

Gossip also helps us to live longer. When we gossip, we bond with our family. We bond with our friends. If we bond, we can know more people. If we know a lot of people, we can live longer.

八卦还能帮助我们延长寿命。当我们八卦时，我们和家人建立联系。我们和朋友建立联系。当我们与他人有联系，我们就认识了更多人。如果我们认识很多人，我们就能更长寿。

People think gossip is bad now. But this idea is new. It used to be a good thing. It still is good!

人们现在认为八卦不好。但是这种观点很新颖。它曾经是一件好事。现在仍然是。

Notes:

1. gossip：n. 八卦，闲言碎语，也可以作动词。

2. bond：v. 增强（与某人的）信任关系；建立（与某人的）互信关系，通常与with搭配，bond with sb.。

3. used to：过去常常，后面接动词原形，注意与be/get used to doing sth.区分，后者的意思是“习惯了做某事”。

Exercise:

请根据文章内容，回答下述问题：

Why can gossip helps us to live longer?