TED演讲:老年人更快乐(3)

Now social scientists call this the paradox¹ of aging.

社会学家称这种现象为老龄化悖论。

I mean, after all, aging is not a piece of cake.

老龄化可不是小事。

So we've asked all sorts of questions to see if we could undo² this finding.

我们问了各种各样的问题，试图推翻这个研究结论。

We've asked whether it may be that the current generations of older people are and always have been the greatest generations.

我们提出这可能是因为现在正值老年的这一代人一直以来都是最伟大的一代人。

That is that younger people today may not typically experience these improvements as they grow older.

而现在的年青一代可能不会在成长过程中经历同样的进步。

We've asked, well, maybe older people are just trying to put a positive spin on an otherwise depressing existence.

我们也提出，也许老年人只是在发扬阿Q精神，来应对令人沮丧的事实。

But the more we've tried to disavow this finding, the more evidence we find to support it.

然而我们越是想要颠覆这个结论，反而找到越多的证据来支持这个结论。

Years ago, my colleagues and I embarked³ on a study where we followed the same group of people over a 10-year period.

很多年前，我和同事一起开始了一项研究，我们对同一组人进行跟踪调查长达十年。

Originally, the sample was aged⁴ 18 to 94.

这组人最开始的年龄从18岁到94岁不等。

And we studied whether and how their emotional experiences changed as they grew older.

我们研究了他们的情绪体验是否随着岁月而改变。

Our participants would carry electronic pagers for a week at a time,

研究参与者随身携带电子纸张，每次持续一周时间，

and we'd page them throughout the day and evenings at random⁵ times.

我们在早晚的任意时间呼叫他们。

And every time we paged them, we'd ask them to answer several questions

每一次我们呼叫他们，我们会问他们几个问题，

"On a one to seven scale, how happy are you right now?"

“用1到7的量表来衡量你们现在高兴的程度。”

"How sad are you right now?" "How frustrated⁶ are you right now?"

“你们现在悲伤的程度。你们现在沮丧的程度。”

so that we could get a sense of the kinds of emotions and feelings they were having in their day-to-day lives.

这样我们就能监测到他们情绪和感觉上的日常状况。

1 paradox   

n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物)

参考例句：

• The story contains many levels of paradox.这个故事存在多重悖论。
• The paradox is that Japan does need serious education reform.矛盾的地方是日本确实需要教育改革。

2 undo   

vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销

参考例句：

• His pride will undo him some day.他的傲慢总有一天会毁了他。
• I managed secretly to undo a corner of the parcel.我悄悄地设法解开了包裹的一角。

3 embarked   

乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事

参考例句：

• We stood on the pier and watched as they embarked. 我们站在突码头上目送他们登船。
• She embarked on a discourse about the town's origins. 她开始讲本市的起源。

4 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

5 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

6 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》