Old age does not sound exciting to most people. But a recent study offers good news for older adults. It found that people become happier and experience less worry after they reach the age of fifty. In fact, by age eighty-five, people are happier with their life than when they are eighteen years old.
对于很多人说，“年老”是一个无法使人激动的词语，但最近的研究结果对于老年人来说是一条好消息。该研究发现当人们到了50岁以后会生活得比以前更加快乐，减少了忧愁和烦恼。事实上，85岁的耄耋老人要比18岁的黄毛丫头或毛头小伙生活得更加开心。
The findings came from a study of more than three hundred forty thousand adults living in the United States. The Gallup Organization questioned them by telephone in two thousand eight. At the time, the adults were between the ages of eighteen and eighty-five years old.
这项发现是通过调查研究34万美国成年居民而获得的。盖洛普组织在2008年通过电话对这些居民进行了询问，他们的年龄在18到85岁之间。
The researchers asked questions about emotions like happiness, sadness and worry. They also asked about mental or emotional tension -- better known as stress.
调查人员提出的题目类似于幸福、忧伤、烦恼等情感问题，同时也询问有关精神和情绪方面的紧张程度，即众所周知的压力感受。
Arthur Stone was a leader of the study. He works for the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University in New York. His team found that levels of stress were highest among adults between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five.
亚瑟·斯通是这项研究的负责人，他是纽约州大学石溪分校精神和行为科学系的老师，他的研究团队发现压力最大的成年人群年龄段为22岁到25岁。
The study found that stress levels dropped sharply after people reached their fifties.
研究发现到了50岁，压力会陡然下降。
Surprisingly, people in their seventies and eighties were least likely to report feeling negative or harmful emotions.
令人惊讶的是，报告称，七八十岁的老人们的消极或有害情绪最少。
Happiness was highest among the youngest adults and those in their early seventies. The study showed that men and women had similar emotional patterns as they grew older. However, women reported more sadness, stress and worry than men at all ages.
幸福感最好的是最年轻的成人和刚进入70岁的老人。研究表明进入老年后男女的情绪类型十分相似。但总体说来，不论是哪一个年龄段，女人比男人忧伤、紧张和忧愁。
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a report about the study.
美国国家科学院论文集收集了这个研究报告。
Researchers do not know why happiness increases as people get older.
研究人员不知道年纪的增大带动了开心程度的提高的原因究竟是什么。
One idea is that, as people age, they grow more thankful for what they have, and have better control of their emotions. They also spend less time thinking about bad experiences.
一种观点认为，随着年龄的增加，人们对自己拥有的一切越来越感激，也能很好地控制自己的情绪。他们也很少回想那些痛苦的经历。
Professor Stone says the emotional patterns could be linked to changes in how people see the world, or maybe even changes in brain chemistry.
斯通教授说，情绪类型可能与人们观察世界的方法，甚至与脑化学的变化相连系。
The researchers considered other possible influences, like having young children, being unemployed and being single. However, such influences did not affect the levels of happiness and well-being related to age.
研究人员考虑了可能存在的其它的影响因素，譬如有未成年的孩子，自己被解雇或单身等。但是这类因素不会影响幸福指数以及与年龄相关的舒适感。
附：
盖洛普公司以著名的盖洛普民意测验而闻名于世，是由美国著名的社会科学家乔治·盖洛普博士于1930年代创立，是全球知名的民意测验和商业调查/咨询公司。乔治·盖洛普是美国数学家，抽样调查方法的创始人、民意调查的组织者，他几乎是民意调查活动的代名词。
1936年，盖洛普公司由于盖洛普民意测验正确地预测罗斯福总统将再次当选而异军突起。在后来的60年，它从一个普林斯顿的小小的学会办公室成长为一个位于新泽西的国际性的盖洛普组织。
乔治·盖洛普
盖洛普公司（Gallup Organization）在美国首都华盛顿办公室离白宫不远，本文译者在华盛顿游览时下榻的万豪酒店（Marriott）就在该组织的旁边：
盖洛普公司（Gallup Organization）在本文译者下榻的万豪酒店（Marriott）的旁边
