【英语时差8,16】关爱延寿

Don: Time once again for Surprise Finding. This is where we report on some experiment where you think you know the outcome, but then mother nature surprises us again. Ready?

Ya?l: Ready.

D: Analyzing¹ data from a five-year study, Stephanie Brown, a psychologist at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor², examined social support in elderly folks. Under scrutiny³ was practical support--such as help with the daily chores--as well as emotional support, such as listening to your spouse's troubles. The relative presence, or absence, of these things was correlated with survival rates.

Y: Hold on, I see it coming. She found that elderly folks who get a lot of support live longer than those who don't. So we should remember to be nice to each other, right?

D: Wrong.

Y: Wrong?

D: Well, it's good to be nice. But her study didn't find that people who received support lived any longer on average. Instead, it found that people who gave the support were living longer.

Y: Whoa! You mean the health benefits were reaped by the care-givers more than the care-receivers?

D: That's what her data show. Older folks in the study who were either practical help- givers to neighbors and friends, or emotional support-givers to their spouses⁴, had as little as half the death rate of people who were the receivers of help. Receivers, on the other hand, lived on average no longer than other folks.

Y: That is a surprise!

D: Of course, part of the effect may be that help-givers are just stronger in the first place. But beyond this, there does seem to be something life-giving about helping⁵ other people with their lives.

1 analyzing   

v.分析；分析( analyze的现在分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析n.分析

参考例句：

• Analyzing the date of some socialist countries presents even greater problem s. 分析某些社会主义国家的统计数据，暴露出的问题甚至更大。 来自辞典例句
• He undoubtedly was not far off the mark in analyzing its predictions. 当然，他对其预测所作的分析倒也八九不离十。 来自辞典例句

2 arbor   

n.凉亭；树木

参考例句：

• They sat in the arbor and chatted over tea.他们坐在凉亭里，边喝茶边聊天。
• You may have heard of Arbor Day at school.你可能在学校里听过植树节。

3 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

4 spouses   

n.配偶，夫或妻( spouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Jobs are available for spouses on campus and in the community. 校园里和社区里有配偶可做的工作。 来自辞典例句
• An astonishing number of spouses-most particularly in the upper-income brackets-have no close notion of their husbands'paychecks. 相当大一部分妇女——特别在高收入阶层——并不很了解他们丈夫的薪金。 来自辞典例句

5 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。