VOA慢速英语:For Lots of People, Getting Older Means Getting Happier

Old age may not sound exciting. But recent findings offer good news for older people and for people worried about getting older.
老年听上去可能没那么令人兴奋。但是最近的研究结果为老年人和担心变老的人带来了好消息。

Researchers found that people become happier and experience less worry after they reach the age of fifty. In fact, they say by the age of eighty-five, people are happier with their life than they were when they were eighteen years old.
研究人员发现，到了50岁以后，人们会更加开心，以及更少的忧虑。事实上，他们说，到了85岁高龄的时候，人们的生活比18岁的时候更加幸福。

The findings came from a survey of more than three hundred forty thousand adults in the United States. The Gallup Organization questioned them by telephone in two thousand eight. At that time, the people were between the ages of eighteen and eighty-five.
这项调查结果来自盖洛普2008年对美国超过34万成年人的电话调查，调查人群年龄在18岁到85岁之间。

The researchers asked questions about emotions like happiness, sadness and worry. They also asked about mental or emotional stress.
研究人员询问了关于幸福，悲伤和忧虑等关于情绪的问题。他们还询问了精神或情绪紧张的问题。

Arthur Stone in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University in New York led the study. His team found that levels of stress were highest among adults between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five.
Arthur Stone在纽约大学石溪分校的精神病与行为学院负责这项研究。他的研究团队发现，22岁至25岁的成年人的压力水平是最高的。

The findings showed that stress levels dropped sharply after people reached their fifties.
研究结果表明，人们到了50岁以后，压力水平大幅下降。

Happiness was highest among the youngest adults and those in their early seventies. The people least likely to report feeling negative emotions were those in their seventies and eighties.
最年轻的成年人和刚过70岁的人是最幸福的。这些人不会像70岁末80多岁的人那样有消极的情绪。

The study also showed that men and women have similar emotional patterns as they grow older. However, women at all ages reported more sadness, stress and worry than men.
该研究也表明，随着年龄增长，男性和女性情绪模式类似。但是，在所有年龄段中，女性都比男性更多地报告悲伤、压力和担心。

The findings appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
该研究结果发表在美国国家科学院院刊上。

Researchers say they do not know why happiness increases as people get older. One theory is that, as people grow older, they grow more thankful for what they have and have better control of their emotions. They also spend less time thinking about bad experiences.
研究人员称他们不知道为什么随着人们变老幸福度反而提升。其中一种理论认为，随着人们年龄的增长，他们对当前拥有的一切更加知足，也能更好地控制自己的情绪。同时也更少去想那些不幸的遭遇。

Professor Stone says the emotional patterns could be linked to changes in how people see the world, or maybe even changes in brain chemistry.
Stone教授称，情绪的改变可能与人们世界观的转变有关，或者与大脑中化学物质的变化有关。

The researchers also considered possible influences like having young children, being unemployed or being single. But they found that influences like these did not affect the levels of happiness and well-being related to age.
研究人员还考虑了其他可能的影响，例如像小孩子，失业或单身。但是他们发现，这种影响因素不会影响与年龄有关的幸福感。