书城外语英文爱藏:爱只有0.01的距离
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第24章 假如你爱得够深 (8)

1. He knows so____that young men have to have older and more worldly wise men to____them. For____who to trust, how to care for others, and____to live life to the fullest.

2. “John,” I ask. “How do you stick together with someone through 38 years — not to____the sickness? How do I know if I can____to stand by my wife’s side__ she becomes sick One day?”

3. “You can,” he says quietly. “If you love her____ , you can.”

佳句翻译

1. 八年来,她一直在与癌症抗争,最终还是走到了生命的尽头。

译__________________________

2. 对于维持美好婚姻来说,这封情书同样是一剂灵丹妙药。

译__________________________

3. 他对她悉心呵护,她对此心照不宣——对于一个了解一切的人,你很难隐瞒住什么。

译__________________________

短语应用

1. For instance who to trust...

for instance:例如;比如;举例来说

造________________________

2. Even though John always had a ready answer...

even though:即使;纵然;尽管;虽然;甚至

造________________________

幸福指数

Happiness Index

佚名 / Anonymous

In terms of happiness, your spouse — if you have one — is worth $100000 a year.

That’ s the finding of two economists who have tried to put a monetary value on happiness, measuring the emotional value of everything from religion to racial discrimination in dollars.

Such a calculation, admits economist David Blanchflower is “a little bit off the wall” and may prompt wry comments within some marriages on “cashing in”.

The two economists are, of course, speaking of averages. They have used an annual survey of some 1,500 Americans from 1972 to 1998 to measure self-reported happiness and the factors that go with it. But it turns out that the happiness value of a stable marriage is “incredibly high”, says Dr. Blanchflower, a professor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N. H., whose study has just been published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass. “Don’ t give it up lightly.”

Blanch flower and his partner Andrew Oswald, an economist at Warwick University in Britain, begin with this question: “Taken all together, how would you say things are these days — would you say that you are happy, pretty happy, or not so happy?”

The survey results include detailed characteristics of those surveyed-married, divorced, single, income level, race, gender, etc. With that data, they found which factors are associated with greater happiness.

Extra money does buy some happiness. But not as much as many would suspect. Constructing a sort of happiness index that assigns 3 to “very happy”, 2 to “pretty happy”, and 1 to “not too happy”, the two reckon that an extra dollar provides 0.00000409 in additional happiness. Or $10,000 would give you 0.04 units of extra happiness.

The two economists, using this index, assign a dollar value to other factors associated with more or less happiness.

Using that device, a lasting marriage is worth $100,000 per year compared with being widowed or divorced. Being “separated” is the greatest depressant of happiness, followed closely by the death of a spouse.

Second and subsequent marriages are less happy than first marriages on average.

A 16-year-old whose parents divorced has a lower level of well-being in adulthood.

“Marriage is believed by psychologists and psychiatrists to provide a protective effect to mental well-being. ” The authors note.

Blanchflower suspects the decline in the happiness level of Americans from the early 1970s to the late 1990s, despite rising incomes, may be attributed to the rise in divorce.

Other findings include:

To bring African-Americans up to average happiness levels, they would need an extra $30,000 in annual income.

This, the authors speculate, may be the impact of racial discrimination. Over the past few decades, however, their happiness level has risen. “Blacks have made up some ground. ” They say.

Unemployment is highly damaging to men’ s happiness. It would take $60,000 a year to offset being jobless.

Men’ s happiness has trended up. Women’ s sense of well-being, though higher than that of men, has fallen “noticeably”.

Policies aimed at ending discrimination against women apparently have not boosted their happiness overall.

The educated tend to be happier than those less educated, even when separated from the higher income that often accompanies greater education.

Happiness and life satisfaction are U-shaped according to age. In the United States, people’ s sense of well-being sinks to a low around 40 and then rises.

Perhaps, the authors suggest, people adapt to their circumstances, relinquish some unfulfilled aspirations by the middle of their lives, and enjoy life more.

Being religious has a positive effect.

Overall the number of children and siblings a person has doesn’ t have an impact on their happiness. But for those under 30, happiness decreases proportionately to the number of both children and siblings. Blanchflower and Mr. Oswald found it in a separate study, “The Rising Well-Being of the Young”.

Blanchflower suspects this has to do with the stress associated with having lots of kids.

Surveys in Britain give “noticeably similar results” to those in the US. But people’ s level of satisfaction has remained about the same from the early 1970s to the late1990s.

说到幸福,你的伴侣——如果你有的话—— 一年的价值是10万美元。

这是两位试图制订幸福的金钱价值的经济学家得出的,他们以美元为单位,从宗教到种族歧视来对每件事物的情感价值进行测量。

这样的计算“有些离奇”,经济学家大卫?布兰奇弗劳尔表示认可。而这一计算有可能使人产生曲解,认为有些婚姻是以“从中牟利”为目的。

当然,这两位经济学家谈及的只是一般人。从1972年到1998年,他们每年大约调查1500名美国人,根据他们对幸福的认识,以及产生这样认识的影响因素进行测量。布兰奇弗劳尔博士是新罕布什尔州汉诺威市达特茅斯大学的教授,马萨诸塞州剑桥市的全国经济研究局新近发表了他的论文。他说,调查结果表明,稳定婚姻的幸福价值“出奇的高”。他还说:“对婚姻不要轻易地放手。”

安德鲁?奥斯瓦尔德是英国华威大学的经济学家,也是布兰奇弗劳尔的合作伙伴。他们以“总的来说,你会怎样描述近况——是快乐、相当快乐,还是不怎么快乐”为起点,开始合作调查。

调查对象的详细情况:已婚、离异、单身、收入水平、种族和性别等,都包含在他们的调查结果中。根据这些数据,他们找出了与更高层次的幸福相关的因素。

特别的是,某种幸福的确可以用金钱买到,但也并不像人们猜想的那样多。他们设计了这样一种幸福指数:对“非常幸福”赋值3,“相当幸福”赋值2,“不太幸福”赋值1。根据幸福指数,他们估算出,幸福每增值0.00000409,就相应额外增加1美元,或者每增加1万美元,就使你的幸福增值0.04。

用这个指数,两位经济学家以1美元的单位价值,对与幸福或多或少相关的其他因素进行估价。

按这种方式,持久的婚姻与鳏寡或离异相比较,其每年价值为10万美元。对幸福最大的抑制剂是“与配偶分离”,丧偶次之。

第一次婚姻通常会比第二次婚姻和以后的再婚幸福。

一个在他16岁父母就离异的孩子,其成人期的健康快乐程度很低。