词汇大师-- Health Advice for Couples

　　AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: how the words that couples use when they fight could affect their health.
RS: In a new study, forty-two married couples made two overnight visits to a laboratory to discuss their biggest areas of disagreement. Researchers drew blood before and after the sessions to look at levels of proteins known as pro-inflammatory cytokines. These molecules¹ help fight off infections, but their levels can also rise with psychological stress.
AA: And there is evidence that a lot of stress can unbalance the immune system and put us at risk of disease. The study took place at Ohio State University, but Jennifer Graham from Penn State analyzed² the data.

　　JENNIFER GRAHAM: "So I looked at these transcripts³ of what people actually said. And I focused on words that are related to insight and reasoning. The use of these types of words when describing stress and your reactions to stress, has been associated with positive mental and physical health outcomes.
"And so I found that, in fact, the individuals who used the most words indicative of cognitive⁴ processing -- and these are words like think, reason, because, why; things like that -- that those individuals actually showed lower pro-inflammatory cytokine increases over the twenty-four hour period that we observed them. And they actually had lower levels at that twenty-four hour time period as well. So smaller increases and also lower absolute levels."
AA: "First of all, were there any differences between the husbands and wives in who would use more of these sort of thoughtful words, versus⁵ more hostile words?"
JENNIFER GRAHAM: "Yeah, there were some interesting gender⁶ differences. Men and women used an equal amount of words over all, which I think is important, but women used more of the cognitive processing words. And, in fact, women's cognitive word use actually predicted their husband's, at least one of the cytokine's change over time. And then the spousal average cognitive word use predicted husbands' cytokine patterns over time. But the men's cognitive word use did not predict a woman's."
AA: "So what does that mean, in plain English, what does that mean?"
JENNIFER GRAHAM: "I do think it's interesting, I think it may reflect the fact that women seem to be more likely in our society to spend time thinking about these types of conflicts, and maybe resolving them in their minds more often, doing more of that rumination⁸ about some of these conflicts. And so perhaps [they] are already sort of a little farther along down that process, perhaps, and therefore may be more able to influence husbands' by their word use."
RS: "Where do you hope to go with this data? And what are the next steps for you?"
JENNIFER GRAHAM: "What I think this shows is that this sort of process of making meaning from stress, that we're sort of seeing reflected in this word-use pattern, is really important for people. You know, it's impossible to avoid stressors, but if you have to deal with them, finding ways to sort of incorporate them into your worldview and make sense of them, and also be able to articulate that clearly to another, is really important. And I would love to do a study down the road where I'm actually able to try to manipulate that in sort of an intervention⁹ kind of design, and then actually look to see the effects of that manipulation."
AA: "So when you're talking about these words like think, because, reason, why -- I mean, this is, let's say the woman, the wife, saying 'The reason why --
JENNIFER GRAHAM: "Exactly. 'The reason why I'm mad is because ... '
AA: ' -- you bug¹⁰ me so much is the reason why I'm mad.'"
JENNIFER GRAHAM: "But I know you're interested in words, and I think it's fascinating that you could use that same word in a negative way, right? You could say 'I want to tell you why I hate you so much.' Or you could be mean with those words."
AA: "But that's not what you found, you found that the levels in the blood of these stress-related proteins tended to go down the more of these came up in the con⁷ -- "
JENNIFER GRAHAM: "Those words were used, that's right."
RS: "So what advice would you have for both [married] couples and perhaps our listeners who speak English as a [foreign language] "
JENNIFER GRAHAM: "I would just say, when you do find yourself fighting, when possible it really is a very powerful thing if you can find the words to be really clear, not just about how you feel, but why. And being able to articulate that in a way that the other person can understand may not only help your relationship but possibly benefit your health as well."
AA: Jennifer Graham is an assistant professor at Penn State University. Her findings appear in the journal Health Psychology¹¹.
RS: And that's WORDMASTER for this week. Archives are at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

1 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

2 analyzed   

v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句

4 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

5 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

6 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

7 con   

n.反对的观点，反对者，反对票，肺病；vt.精读，学习，默记；adv.反对地，从反面；adj.欺诈的

参考例句：

• We must be fair and consider the reason pro and con.我们必须公平考虑赞成和反对的理由。
• The motion is adopted non con.因无人投反对票，协议被通过。

8 rumination   

n.反刍，沉思

参考例句：

• EA is the theory of rumination about human EA conception. 生态美学是对人类生态审美观念反思的理论。 来自互联网
• The rumination and distress catalyze the growth process, Dr. 这种反复思考和哀伤反而促进了成长的过程。 来自互联网

9 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

10 bug   

n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器

参考例句：

• There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
• The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。

11 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。