新奇事件簿

Retiring from your job at an early age may not help people to live longer. There is a strong possibility early retirement¹ may even shorten one's life. This is the conclusion of a study published on October 21 by the British Medical Journal. The research followed more than 3,500 employees working for Shell Oil in Texas. The workers retired² at 55, 60 or 65 and were monitored for 26 years. Researchers studied the effect their age at retirement had on their lifespan. The team considered factors such as gender³ and economic status to find out whether retiring early is connected with better survival.

过早退休可能不利于长寿。太早退休甚至很有可能会缩短寿命。这是《英国医学杂志》10月21日发表的一份研究得出的结论。这份研究追踪调查了得克萨斯州壳牌石油3500多名雇员的情况。这些员工分别在55岁，60岁或65岁退休，经过了26年的观察。研究人员分析了退休年龄对寿命产生的影响。这个团队考虑了性别，经济状况等因素，希望查明过早退休与寿命长短有没有关联。

The results were surprising. The life expectancy⁴ of employees who retired at 55 was much lower compared with people who retired at 65. The researchers concluded that: “Retiring early at 55 or 60 was not associated with better survival than retiring at 65.” In fact, the study found that people who retired at 55 often died earlier than those who continued working. Leader of the research team Shan Tsai said: “Although some workers retired at 55 because of bad health, these results clearly show that early retirement is not associated with increased survival.”

研究结果非常令人惊讶。与65岁退休的人相比，55岁退休的雇员的寿命要短得多。研究人员得出结论：“55岁或60岁退休的人生存状况并不会比65岁更好。”实际上，研究发现，55岁退休的人通常比继续工作的人更早离世。研究团队负责人Shan Tsai表示：“尽管有些工作人员由于健康状况不佳而在55岁的时候提前退休，结果表明，早点退休并不能增加寿命。”

1 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

2 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

3 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。

4 expectancy   

n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额

参考例句：

• Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
• The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。