(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From VOA Learning English, this is the Health Report in Special English.
Are people less happy or more happy the older they get? If you answered more happy, then you were right, based on a study in 2008. It found that people generally become happier and experience less worry after age fifty. In fact, it found that by the age of eighty-five, people are happier with their life than they were at eighteen.
The findings came from a Gallup survey of more than three hundred forty thousand adults in the United States in two thousand eight. At that time, the people were between the ages of eighteen and eighty-five.
A group of retirees in Alta, Utah, enjoy skiing and happiness together in this file photo.
Arthur Stone in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University in New York led the study. His team found that levels of stress were highest among adults between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five. Stress levels dropped sharply after people reached their fifties.
Happiness was highest among the youngest adults and those in their early seventies. But the people least likely to report feeling negative emotions were those in their seventies and eighties.
The survey also found that men and women have similar emotional patterns as they grow older. However, women at all ages reported more sadness, stress and worry than men did.
The researchers also considered possible influences like having young children, being unemployed or being single. But they found that influences like these did not affect the levels of happiness and well-being related to age.
So why would happiness increase with age? One theory is that, as people get older, they become more thankful for what they have and have better control of their emotions. They also spend less time thinking about bad experiences.
The findings appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Happiness is not the only thing that apparently improves with age. In a study, people in their eighties reported the fewest problems with the quality of their sleep.
Researchers surveyed more than one hundred fifty thousand American adults. The study, led by Michael Grandner at the University of Pennsylvania, appeared in the journal Sleep.
The original goal was to confirm the popular belief that aging is connected with increased sleep problems. The survey did find an increase during middle age, especially in women. But except for that, people reported that they felt their sleep quality improved as they got older.
词汇解释
1.negative adj. 消极的；否定的；阴性的
All this had an extremely negative effect on the criminal justice system.
这一切对刑事司法制度产生了极坏的影响。
2.well-being n. 幸福；康乐
His work emphasised the emotional as well as the physical well-being of children.
他的工作不仅重视孩子们的身体健康，同时也关注他们的情感健康。
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。
人越长大幸福越少还是越多呢？如果你的回答是越多，那你就对了！2008年的一份研究表明，人在50岁后通常更快乐，烦恼更少。研究发现，事实上人在85岁时比18岁时更幸福。
这是盖洛普2008年对美国34万成年人的调查得出的结论，当时的被调查者年龄在18岁到85岁之间。
纽约石溪大学精神病学和行为科学系的亚瑟·斯通领导进行了这项研究，他的团队发现，22岁到25岁之间人的压力水平最高。人在50岁后压力水平急剧下降。
最年轻的青年和刚过70岁的人幸福值最高，而最不可能有负面情绪的是七八十岁的人。
调查还发现，随着年龄的增长，男人和女人有着相似的情绪模式。然而，各个年龄的女性经历的悲伤、压力和担忧都比男人多。
研究者还考虑了可能影响因素，诸如有小孩子、失业或单身。但他们发现这些因素并不影响与年龄有关的幸福和快乐水平。
那么，为何年龄越大越幸福呢？一个理论是，随着年龄渐长，人们会对自己所拥有的东西更加感激，能更好地控制情绪。他们用于考虑糟糕体验的时间更少。
这些发现发表在《国家科学研究院学报》。
与年龄明显同时增长的不仅有幸福，在一项研究中，80多岁的人显示的睡眠质量问题最少。
研究者调查了美国15万成年人，由宾夕法尼亚大学格兰德纳领导完成，研究结果发表在《睡眠》杂志上。
研究的最初目的是为证实这么个说法，即睡眠问题增加与年长有关。调查发现这个问题在中年会增多，尤其是女性。但除此之外，人们称在年龄更长时睡眠质量会提高。
