今年春节，你被催婚了吗

你被催婚了吗？结婚到底有什么好处？

今天你练听力了吗？

🤔️小作业：

1. What does the passage imply about traditional studies comparing married and single individuals?

A. They accurately measure the lifelong impact of marriage by excluding divorced participants.

B. They overstate marriage's benefits by ignoring the long-term outcomes of divorced individuals.

C. They focus excessively on short-term health outcomes rather than life satisfaction.

D. They prioritize subjective well-being over objective health data.

无注释原文：

Get Married, Get Healthy? Maybe Not

From: The New York Times

A new study challenges the claim that people who marry get healthier. In “The Ambiguous Link Between Marriage and Health,” recently published online in the journal Social Forces, the sociologist Matthijs Kalmijn reported findings from the Swiss Household Panel, a 16-year survey of a nationally representative sample of more than 11,000 Swiss adults. Every year, participants were asked one set of questions about their overall health and another about their illnesses.

If marriage makes people healthier, then people who marry should report better overall health and less illness than when they were single. If the purported benefits of marriage are cumulative, then people should get even healthier over the course of their marriages.

That's not what happened. People who married reported slightly worse health than they had when they were single. Over time, their health did not improve — it tended to deteriorate, even after taking into account changes in health as people age. On the measures of illness, marriage made no difference at all. People who married did not become any more or less ill than they were when they were single, and their level of illness did not change over the course of their marriage.

Studies of happiness, relationship satisfaction and life satisfaction in which the same people are followed for years have been piling up for over a decade. A review of 18 of them in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2012 concluded that well-being does not typically improve when people marry. At best, newlyweds enjoy a brief “honeymoon effect” in which they feel a bit more satisfied with their lives at first, but then their satisfaction declines, and they end up feeling as satisfied or dissatisfied as they were when they were single.

The participants in the Swiss study reported their life satisfaction every year, and Professor Kalmijn found that people who married did become a little more satisfied. Over time, their satisfaction eroded, though much more slowly than in most previous studies of marriage. Dr. Kalmijn also examined the implications of divorce and found that people who divorced became significantly less satisfied with their lives. In fact, the negative implications of divorce for life satisfaction were more than three times greater than the positive implications of marrying.

That's important. It helps explain why so many of us have been so sure for so long that marriage makes people happier and healthier. In the typical study, only people who are currently married are included in the married group. Then, if the currently married people do better than people who are not married, single people are told that if they get married, they will do better, too. But many people who marry — probably more than 40 percent — divorce and end up less happy than when they were single. A better way to assess the likely implications of marriage is to compare everyone who ever married to people who never married. Very few studies ever do that.

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注：完整题目见本文开头；中文文本为纽约时报官方译文，仅供参考

含注释全文：

Get Married, Get Healthy? Maybe Not

From: The New York Times

A new study challenges the claim that people who marry get healthier. In “The Ambiguous Link Between Marriage and Health,” recently published online in the journal Social Forces, the sociologist Matthijs Kalmijn reported findings from the Swiss Household Panel, a 16-year survey of a nationally representative sample of more than 11,000 Swiss adults. Every year, participants were asked one set of questions about their overall health and another about their illnesses.

一项新研究动摇了结婚有益健康的说法。前不久，《社会力量》季刊(Social Forces)网站发表了社会学家马泰斯·卡尔敏(Matthijs Kalmijn)的论文《婚姻与健康的模糊关联》(The Ambiguous Link Between Marriage and Health)。卡尔敏在文中报告了瑞士家庭研究小组(Swiss Household Panel)的发现。该小组用时16年对具有全国代表性的1.1万多名瑞士成人进行了调查。参与者每年要回答一套关于自己整体健康状况的问卷，以及另一套关于疾病的问卷。

ambiguous /æmˈbɪɡ.ju.əs/ 表示“含糊不清的；引起歧义的，模棱两可的；不明确的”，英文解释为“having or expressing more than one possible meaning, sometimes intentionally”举个🌰：Her reply to my question was somewhat ambiguous. 她对我的提问回答得有些含糊不清。

sociologist /ˌsəʊ.siˈɒl.ə.dʒɪst/ 表示“社会学家，社会关系研究者”，英文解释为“someone who studies or is an expert in sociology”

If marriage makes people healthier, then people who marry should report better overall health and less illness than when they were single. If the purported benefits of marriage are cumulative, then people should get even healthier over the course of their marriages.

如果婚姻有益健康，那么，人们婚后报告的整体健康状况应该好于单身时，疾病应该少于单身时。如果婚姻所谓的益处具有累积效应，那么，人们应该在婚姻过程中变得更加健康。

purported /pəˈpɔː.tɪd/ 表示“声称的，谣传的”，英文解释为“that has been stated to be true or to have happened, although this may not be the case”举个🌰：A recent study into the purported health benefits of the drink was not conclusive. 最近一项关于饮酒有益健康一说的研究没有明确的结论。

cumulative /ˈkjuː.mjə.lə.tɪv/ 表示“累积的；渐增的”，英文解释为“If a series of events have a cumulative effect, each event makes the effect greater.”举个🌰：It is simple pleasures, such as a walk on a sunny day, which have a cumulative effect on our mood. 诸如在晴朗的日子散步这样简朴的乐趣对我们的情绪有累积性益处。

📍词根/词缀：cumulative由动词cumulate和后缀-ive构成，动词cumulate表示累积、积聚，-ive是一个形容词后缀。词源：来自拉丁语cūmulātus，意为堆积、积累。常用搭配：cumulative effect（累积效应）、cumulative data（累积数据）。

That's not what happened. People who married reported slightly worse health than they had when they were single. Over time, their health did not improve — it tended to deteriorate, even after taking into account changes in health as people age. On the measures of illness, marriage made no difference at all. People who married did not become any more or less ill than they were when they were single, and their level of illness did not change over the course of their marriage.

但事实并非如此。人们婚后报告的健康状况比单身时更差了一点。随着时间的推移，他们的健康状况没有改善，而是往往在恶化——即使将衰老引起的健康状况变化考虑在内。在疾病方面，婚姻根本没有产生任何影响。与单身时相比，婚后人们所患的疾病并没有增加或减少，他们的疾病水平也没有随着婚姻的延续而发生变化。

deteriorate /dɪˈtɪə.ri.ə.reɪt/ 表示“恶化，变坏”，英文解释为“to become worse”举个🌰：She was taken into hospital last week when her condition suddenly deteriorated. 她是在上周病情突然恶化时被送进医院的。

Studies of happiness, relationship satisfaction and life satisfaction in which the same people are followed for years have been piling up for over a decade. A review of 18 of them in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2012 concluded that well-being does not typically improve when people marry. At best, newlyweds enjoy a brief “honeymoon effect” in which they feel a bit more satisfied with their lives at first, but then their satisfaction declines, and they end up feeling as satisfied or dissatisfied as they were when they were single.

十多年来，出现了很多关于幸福、对夫妻关系以及对生活满意程度的调查。这些调查对同一批人进行了数年的追踪记录。2012年发表在《个性与社会心理学杂志》(Journal of Personality and Social Psychology)上的一项对18项此类调查的回顾性研究表明，婚后，人们的健康状况并不会改善。最多只是新婚者会享受短暂的“蜜月效应”，刚开始对自己的生活感觉更满意了一点，但之后，他们的幸福感会慢慢下降，最终对生活的满意程度与单身时没有差异。

pile up表示“（使）（不好的事物）增加，（使）累积”，英文解释为“(of something bad) to increase”举个🌰：Unpaid bills began to pile up alarmingly. 未支付的账单越积越多，数目惊人。

newlywed /ˈnjuː.li.wed/ 表示“新婚者”，英文解释为“someone who has recently married”举个🌰：The hotel has a special discount rate for newlyweds. 这家宾馆为新婚夫妇提供特别优惠。

The participants in the Swiss study reported their life satisfaction every year, and Professor Kalmijn found that people who married did become a little more satisfied. Over time, their satisfaction eroded, though much more slowly than in most previous studies of marriage. Dr. Kalmijn also examined the implications of divorce and found that people who divorced became significantly less satisfied with their lives. In fact, the negative implications of divorce for life satisfaction were more than three times greater than the positive implications of marrying.

瑞士的这项研究的参与者每年都要报告自己对生活的满意程度。卡尔敏发现，人们刚结婚时，的确会对生活更满意一点。但随着时间的推移，他们的满意程度开始降低，虽然降低的速度比之前大多数关于婚姻的研究中所报告的速度要慢得多。卡尔敏还研究了离婚的影响，发现人们在离婚后对生活的满意程度大幅下降。实际上，离婚对生活满意程度的负面影响是结婚所产生的正面影响的三倍多。

erode /ɪˈrəʊd/ 表示“降低，削弱”，英文解释为“If the value of something erodes or is eroded by something such as inflation or age, its value decreases.”举个🌰：Competition in the financial marketplace has eroded profits. 金融市场的竞争降低了利润。

还可以指“（气候）侵蚀，腐蚀；（岩石、土壤）风化”等（if the weather erodes rock or soil, or if rock or soil erodes, its surface is gradually destroyed）如：soil erosion 水土流失。

implication /ˌɪm.plɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/ 1）表示“可能的影响（或作用、结果）”，英文解释为“a possible effect or result of an action or a decision”举个🌰：The development of the site will have implications for the surrounding countryside. 这个地点的开发将会影响周围的乡村。

2）表示“含意；暗指，暗示”，英文解释为“an occasion when you seem to suggest something without saying it directly”举个🌰：From what she said, the implication was that they were splitting up. 她的话中暗示他们将要分手。

That's important. It helps explain why so many of us have been so sure for so long that marriage makes people happier and healthier. In the typical study, only people who are currently married are included in the married group. Then, if the currently married people do better than people who are not married, single people are told that if they get married, they will do better, too. But many people who marry — probably more than 40 percent — divorce and end up less happy than when they were single. A better way to assess the likely implications of marriage is to compare everyone who ever married to people who never married. Very few studies ever do that.

这一点很重要。它可以帮助解释为什么这么久以来，我们这么多人深信，婚姻让人更幸福、更健康。在典型的调查中，只有那些目前处于婚姻状态的人被归入已婚人士群体。然后，如果目前处于婚姻状态的人比处于非婚状态的人过得更好，那么，单身人士就被告知，如果他们结婚，他们也会过得更好。但是，很多结了婚的人——很可能超过40%——会离婚，最终比单身时更不快乐。评估婚姻可能产生的影响的更好方式，是把结过婚的人与从未结过婚的人进行比较。可是很少有研究这样做。

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