情侣间的完美年龄差决定幸福？

 　The secret to a happy marriage for men is choosing a wife who is smarter and at least five years younger than you, say UK experts.

　　英国专家表示，一桩幸福婚姻的秘诀在于男方要选择一位比自己聪明并且年轻五岁以上的女人做老婆。

　　The researchers studied interviews of more than 1,500 couples who were married or in a serious relationship. Five years later, they followed up 1,000 of the couples to see which had lasted.

　　研究员们早先对超过1,500对夫妻及情侣进行了采访。五年之后，他们对1,000对夫妻进行了追踪采访，看看哪些坚持到了最后。

　　They found that if the wife was five or more years older than her husband, they were more than three times as likely to divorce than if they were the same age. If the age gap is reversed, and the man is older than the woman, the odds¹ of maritalbliss are higher.

　　研究发现，如果妻子比丈夫大五岁甚至五岁以上，那么他们的离婚概率要比同岁的夫妻高出三倍以上。而如果情况刚好相反，即女小男大的话，那么他们成就一桩幸福婚姻的可能性就要大上许多。

　　The work is published in the European Journal of Operational Research.

　　这项研究调查刊登在欧洲运筹学杂志上。

　　Add in a better education for the woman--Beyonce has her high school diploma, unlike husband Jay-Z--and the chances of lasting² happiness improve further.

　　另外，女性是否受过良好教育也决定着婚姻的幸福指数。拿碧昂斯来说，和她的丈夫不同，她拥有高中文凭，这让他们更有可能拥有持久的幸福生活。

　　These pairings are more likely to go the distance, particularly if neither has been divorced in the past, according to the Bath University team. But couples in which one member has been through a divorce in the past are less stable than those in which both members are divorcees.

　　巴斯大学的这个研究小组表示，双方如果都未曾有过离婚经历，幸福指数将会相当之高。而对于有过离婚经历的人来说，如果夫妻中一方曾经离过婚，他们反而没有双方均有过离婚经历的男女更加稳定。

　　Dr Emmanuel Fragniere and colleagues do say that men and women choose partners "on the basis of love, physical attraction, similarity of taste, beliefs and attitudes, and shared values."

　　艾玛纽艾拉·弗拉格涅尔博士和她的同事表示，男女之间选择伴侣是“建立在爱情、身体吸引、志趣相投、信仰、态度和与可分享价值观的基础之上”。

　　But they say that using "objective factors" such as age, education and cultural origin "may help reduce divorce".

　　然而，年龄、教育状况及文化修养等“客观因素”确实“可能帮助减小离婚的概率”。

1 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

2 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。