TED演讲:老年人更快乐(1)

People are living longer and societies are getting grayer.

人们现在越活越久，社会也逐渐变得老龄化。

You hear about it all the time. You read about it in your newspapers.

你可能总是听到别人这么说。你从报纸上如是读到。

You hear about it on your television sets.

你也可以从电视上看到。

Sometimes, I'm concerned that we hear about it so much

有时候我很担心，我们听过长寿太多次，

that we've come to accept longer lives with a kind of a complacency, even ease.

以至于人们带着自满甚至安逸的情绪开始接受长寿的事实。

But make no mistake, longer lives can -- and, I believe, will improve quality of life at all ages.

但是请别搞错，长寿能够--而且我相信，它肯定会--改善所有年龄的人们的生活品质。

Now to put this in perspective, let me just zoom¹ out for a minute.

现在让我们先拉个远景，从宏观的角度来看。

More years were added to average life expectancy² in the 20th century than all years added across all prior millennia³ of human evolution combined.

人们的平均寿命在整个20世纪增加的年数要比上千年来人类进化过程中所增加的总和还要多。

In the blink of an eye, we nearly doubled the length of time that we're living.

就在眨眼之间，我们已经将我们的寿命延长了一倍。

So if you ever feel like you don't have this aging thing quite pegged⁴, don't kick yourself. It's brand new.

所以，如果你觉得你对变老这件事并不关心，不要自责。这个话题太新了。

And because fertility rates fell across that very same period that life expectancy was going up,

因为在同一时期内生育率下降了，平均寿命增加了，

that pyramid that has always represented the distribution of age in the population, with many young ones at the bottom

那个用来表示人口年龄分布的金字塔形底部的年轻人口总是很多，

winnowed⁵ to a tiny peak of older people who make it and survive to old age, is being reshaped into a rectangle.

延伸到老龄人口的尖顶，那些是成功存活到高龄的人（人口金字塔）形状发生了改变，变成了长方形。

And now, if you're the kind of person who can get chills from population statistics, these are the ones that should do it.

如果你是那种对人口统计感到恐惧的人，这些变化应该会让你感到难受。

Because what that means is that for the first time in the history of the species,

因为这变化表明在人类种族历史上头一回，

the majority of babies born in the developed world are having the opportunity to grow old.

大多数在发达国家出生的婴儿有机会活到老年。

1 zoom   

n.急速上升；v.突然扩大，急速上升

参考例句：

• The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
• I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近，昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。

2 expectancy   

n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额

参考例句：

• Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
• The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。

3 millennia   

n.一千年，千禧年

参考例句：

• For two millennia, exogamy was a major transgression for Jews. 两千年来，异族通婚一直是犹太人的一大禁忌。
• In the course of millennia, the dinosaurs died out. 在几千年的时间里，恐龙逐渐死绝了。

4 pegged   

v.用夹子或钉子固定( peg的过去式和过去分词 )；使固定在某水平

参考例句：

• They pegged their tent down. 他们钉好了账篷。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She pegged down the stairs. 她急忙下楼。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 winnowed   

adj.扬净的，风选的v.扬( winnow的过去式和过去分词 )；辨别；选择；除去

参考例句：

• Administration officials have winnowed the list of candidates to three. 行政官员将候选名单筛减至3人。 来自辞典例句
• I had winnowed the husk away when he came in. 他进来时，我已把糠筛去了。 来自辞典例句