【双语有声阅读】改变心态能否使人变得更年轻? How Can We Reverse Aging?

How Can We Reverse Aging?

 

改变心态能否使人变得更年轻？

Imagine that you could rewind the clock 20 years,and you're 20 years younger.

想象一下你能将时钟回拨20年，然后年轻20岁，

How do you feel?

你会感觉如何呢？

Well, if you're at all like the subjects in a provocative¹ experiment by Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer,you actually feel as if your body clock has been turned back two decades.

好吧，如果你跟哈佛心理学家艾伦·兰格曾做过的一项颇具争议性的实验的受试者一样的话，事实上你会感觉自己的生物钟似乎被调回了20年前。

Langer did a study like this with a group of elderly men some years ago,renovating an isolated² old New England hotel so that every visible sign said it was 20 years earlier.

几年前，兰格对一群老年人做了类似的研究，她将一个远离城镇的老式新印哥蓝旅馆进行了整修，以便所有可看到的标志都表明当时是20年前。

The men-in their late 70s and early 80s-were told not to recall the past,but to actually act as if they had traveled back in time.

接受实验的老年人—年龄都接近80岁，或者80岁出头—被告知不要回忆过去，而要假装自己真的回到了过去。

The idea was to see if changing the men's mindset about their own age might lead to actual changes in health and fitness.

实验的目的是想知道，人们看待自己年龄的心态的改变，是否会导致其健康方面的实际改变。

Langer's findings were stunning³:

兰格实验的结果是令人震惊的:

After just one week, the men in the experimental group had more joint⁴ flexibility,increased handiness and less arthritis⁵ in their hands.

实验进行仅仅一周后，与对照组的同龄老人相比，实验组的老人的关节更灵活，手更灵巧，而且关节炎的发病率也更低。

Their mental sensitivity had risen measurably,and they had improved posture⁶.

他们的思维明显更敏锐了，身姿也更矫健了。

Outsiders who were shown the men's photographs judged them to be significantly younger than the controls.

看到他们照片的外人都觉得他们比对照组的人明显年轻。

In other words, the aging process had in some measure been reversed.

换言之，衰老过程在一定程度上被扭转了。

Though this sounds a bit woo-wooey,Langer and her Harvard colleagues have been running similarly inventive experiments for decades,and the accumulated weight of the evidence is convincing.

虽然这听起来有点不可思议，但兰格和她的哈佛同事们进行此类创意性实验已经几十年了，并且积累的实验数据很有说服力。

Her theory, argued in her new book, Counterclockwise,is that we are all victims of our own stereotypes⁷ about aging and health.

她在自己的新书《逆时针》中提到了这月的理论: 我们都对衰老和健康有一些固化的印象和看法，并深受其害。

We mindlessly accept negative cultural cues about disease and old age,and these cues shape our self-concepts and our behavior.

我们不知不觉地接受着关于疾病和衰老的消极文化暗示，而这些暗示又影响了我们的自我意识和行为。

If we can shake loose from the negative clichés that dominate our thinking about health,we can "mindfully" open ourselves to possibilities for more productive lives even into old age.

如果我们能从主导我们对健康的观念的负面陈腐思想中解脱出来，那么即便已步入老年，我们也能有意识地敞开心扉去迎接更富有成就的生活。

Langer's point is that we are surrounded every day by subtle signals that aging is an undesirable⁸ period of decline.

兰格的观点是，我们每天都被微妙的暗示所包围，这些暗示让我们觉得衰老是令人生厌的衰退期。

These signals make it difficult to age gracefully⁹.

由于这些暗示，我们很难优雅地变老。

Similar signals also lock all of us-regardless of age-into pigeonholes¹⁰ for disease.

类似的暗示还把我们所有人—不分年龄地—困在了疾病的分类架上。

We are too quick to accept diagnostic categories like cancer and depression,and let them define us.

我们总是太容易接受诸如癌症和抑郁症等的疾病诊断分类，并且让这些疾病定义我们的健康状态。

That's not to say that we won't encounter illness,bad moods or a stiff back.

这并不是说我们不会遭遇疾病，不良情绪或腰酸背痛。

But with a little mindfulness,we can try to embrace uncertainty¹¹ and understand that the way we feel today may or may not connect to the way we will feel tomorrow.

但如果我们稍微有心一点，我们便可以尝试包容生活中一些不确定的东西，并且明白我们今天的感受可能跟明天的感受有关，也可能无关。

1 provocative   

adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的

参考例句：

• She wore a very provocative dress.她穿了一件非常性感的裙子。
• His provocative words only fueled the argument further.他的挑衅性讲话只能使争论进一步激化。

2 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

3 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

4 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

5 arthritis   

n.关节炎

参考例句：

• Rheumatoid arthritis has also been linked with the virus.风湿性关节炎也与这种病毒有关。
• He spent three months in the hospital with acute rheumatic arthritis.他患急性风湿性关节炎，在医院住了三个月。

6 posture   

n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势

参考例句：

• The government adopted an uncompromising posture on the issue of independence.政府在独立这一问题上采取了毫不妥协的态度。
• He tore off his coat and assumed a fighting posture.他脱掉上衣，摆出一副打架的架势。

7 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 undesirable   

adj.不受欢迎的，不良的，不合意的，讨厌的；n.不受欢迎的人，不良分子

参考例句：

• They are the undesirable elements among the employees.他们是雇员中的不良分子。
• Certain chemicals can induce undesirable changes in the nervous system.有些化学物质能在神经系统中引起不良变化。

9 gracefully   

ad.大大方方地；优美地

参考例句：

• She sank gracefully down onto a cushion at his feet. 她优雅地坐到他脚旁的垫子上。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line. 新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

10 pigeonholes   

n.鸽舍出入口( pigeonhole的名词复数 )；小房间；文件架上的小间隔v.把…搁在分类架上( pigeonhole的第三人称单数 )；把…留在记忆中；缓办；把…隔成小格

参考例句：

• The tidy committee men regard them with horror,knowing that no pigeonholes can be found for them. 衣冠楚楚的委员们恐怖地看着他们，因为他们知道找不到一个稳妥的地方来安置他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All of those who are different those who do not fit the boxes and the pigeonholes? 那些与众不同，不合适常规，不符合传统的人的位置又在哪里？ 来自互联网

11 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。