时代周刊 人生长寿而精彩的秘诀(1)

HOW TO LIVE LONGER, BETTER

人生长寿而精彩的秘诀

Asterisk¹. (You’re still going to die, though)

星号（虽然你终究还是要死去）

By Jeffrey Kluger and Alexandra Sifferlin

文Jeffrey Kluger/Alexandra Sifferlin

Old age demands to be taken very seriously—and it usually gets its way.

老年这一问题非常值得我们重视，很多时候也的确得到了我们的重视。

It’s hard to be cavalier about a time of life defined by loss of vigor², increasing frailty³, rising disease risk and falling cognitive⁴ faculties⁵.

人们很难不重视精力下降而日加虚弱、患病风险上升而认知能力下降的那个年纪。

Then there’s the unavoidable matter of the end of consciousness and the self—death, in other words—that’s drawing closer and closer.

也很难不重视那个人人有份并且日益逼近的意识和自我停止——换句话说就是死亡—— 的时刻。

It’s the rare person who can confront the final decline with flippancy⁶ or ease.

鲜有人能够轻率或者从容地面对人最后奄奄一息的瞬间。

That, as it turns out, might be our first mistake.

事实证明，这些观念可能是我们错误的开端。

Humans are not alone in facing the ultimate reckoning,

并非只有我们人类才会面对终极清算这一问题，

but we’re the only species—as far as we know—who spends its whole life knowing death is coming.

但我们是唯一，据我们所知，一个一直都知道自己会死的物种。

A clam⁷ dredged from the ocean off Iceland in 2006—and inadvertently killed by the scientists who discovered it—

2006年从冰岛附近的海域打捞上来的蛤——又被发现它的科学家不小心给弄死了——

carried growth lines on its shell indicating it had been around since 1499.

的壳上有生长线记录着它从1499年就活着了。

That was enough time for 185,055 generations of mayfly—which live as little as a day—to come and go.

这相当于蜉蝣繁衍18.5055万代的时间——蜉蝣的寿命只有一天。

Neither clam nor fly gave a thought to that mortal math.

蛤和蜉蝣都没有心思去做这道关于寿命的数学题。

Humans fall somewhere between those two extremes.

而人类的寿命位于这两个极端寿命之间。

Globally, the average life span is 71.4 years; for a few lucky people, it may exceed 100 years.

全世界人口的平均寿命是71.4岁，少部分幸运的人呢能够活到100多岁。

It has never, to science’s knowledge, exceeded the 122 years, 164 days

据科学统计，人类寿命从未超过122岁零164天，

lived by Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who was born when Ulysses S. Grant was in the White House and died when Bill Clinton lived there.

而这位最长寿的人是Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment，他出生的时候尤利西斯·辛普森·格兰特（第18任美国总统）还在白宫，他去世的时候总统已经换成比尔·克林顿了（第42任美国总统）

1 asterisk   

n.星号，星标

参考例句：

• The asterisk refers the reader to a footnote.星号是让读者参看脚注。
• He added an asterisk to the first page.他在第一页上加了个星号。

2 vigor   

n.活力，精力，元气

参考例句：

• The choir sang the words out with great vigor.合唱团以极大的热情唱出了歌词。
• She didn't want to be reminded of her beauty or her former vigor.现在，她不愿人们提起她昔日的美丽和以前的精力充沛。

3 frailty   

n.脆弱；意志薄弱

参考例句：

• Despite increasing physical frailty,he continued to write stories.尽管身体越来越虛弱，他仍然继续写小说。
• He paused and suddenly all the frailty and fatigue showed.他顿住了，虚弱与疲惫一下子显露出来。

4 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

5 faculties   

n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院

参考例句：

• Although he's ninety, his mental faculties remain unimpaired. 他虽年届九旬，但头脑仍然清晰。
• All your faculties have come into play in your work. 在你的工作中，你的全部才能已起到了作用。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 flippancy   

n.轻率；浮躁；无礼的行动

参考例句：

• His flippancy makes it difficult to have a decent conversation with him.他玩世不恭，很难正经地和他交谈。
• The flippancy of your answer peeved me.你轻率的回答令我懊恼。

7 clam   

n.蛤，蛤肉

参考例句：

• Yup!I also like clam soup and sea cucumbers.对呀！我还喜欢蛤仔汤和海参。
• The barnacle and the clam are two examples of filter feeders.藤壶和蛤类是滤过觅食者的两种例子。