Whatmakesagoodlife.docx

What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness
What keeps us /healthy and happy as we go through life? If you were going to invest· vt. 投资；覆盖；耗费；授予；包围vi. 投资，入股；花钱买

now/ in your future best selfn. 自己，自我；本质；私心adj. 同一的vt. 使自花授精；使近亲繁殖
, where would you put your time /and your energy? There was a recent survey of millennials· n. 千禧世代；千禧之子；千禧一代（millennial的复数）
/asking them what their most important life goals were, and over 80 percent said /that a major life goal for them was to get rich. And another 50 percent of those same young adults /said that another major life goal /was to become famous.在我们的一生中，是什么让我们保持健康和快乐？如果你将投资自己在未来更强大，你会将你的时间和精力放在那里？这里有一份调查，他们人生中最重要的目标是什么的调查结果，超过百分之80的人说对他们而言主要人生目标是成为有钱人，在这个群体中的百分之50的年轻成人说另外一个主要人生目标是出名。

00:49(Laughter)
00:51And we're constantly· adv. 不断地；时常地
told to lean· vt. 使倾斜vi. 倾斜；倚靠；倾向；依赖
in to work, to push harder /and achieve more. We're given the impression that these are the things that we need to go after in order to have a good life. Pictures of entire lives, of the choices that people make and/ how those choices work out for them, those pictures are almost impossible to get. Most of what we know about human life/ we know from asking people to remember the past· n. 过去；往事
, and as we know, hindsight· n. 后见之明；枪的照门
is anything but 20/20. We forget vast· adj. 广阔的；巨大的；大量的；巨额的n. 浩瀚；广阔无垠的空间
amounts of what happens to us in life, and sometimes memory is downright· adj. 明白的；直率的；显明的adv. 完全，彻底；全然
creative· adj. 创造性的
.
01:35But /what if we could watch entire lives as they unfold· vt. 打开；呈现vi. 展开；显露
through time? What if we could study people /from the time that they were teenagers all the way into old age/ to see what really keeps people happy and healthy?
我们不断地告诉去努力工作，更加的努力并实现更多，我们定视的认为这些我们需要追求的东西是为了得到一个更好的生活。纵观我们整个人生，所做的决定以及这些决定怎么为他们实现，图片上的风采是不可能得到的。我们所知道的大多数关于人类生命，我们要求人去记住过去，正如我们所知，后见之明是一件五五开的事情。我们忘记大量发生在我们生命中的事，有时记忆是具有创造性的。但是我们怎么能观察一个人的整个人生呢？我们怎么能够研究人类从刚出生一直到老去去观测到底是什么保持人类快乐和健康。
01:54We did that. The Harvard Study of Adult Development may be/ the longest study of adult life that's ever been done. For 75 years, we've tracked · n. 轨道；足迹，踪迹；小道vt. 追踪；通过；循路而行；用纤拉vi. 追踪；走；留下足迹
the lives of 724 men, year after year, asking about their work, their home lives, their health, and of course asking all along the way without knowing how their life stories were going to turn out.
02:24Studies like this are exceedingly· adv. 非常；极其；极度地；极端
rare· adj. 稀有的；半熟的；稀薄的adv. 非常；极其vi. 用后腿站起；渴望
. Almost all projects of this kind fall apart within a decade because too many people drop out of the study, or funding for the research dries up, or the researchers get distracted· adj. 心烦意乱的；思想不集中的
, or they die, and nobody moves the ball further down the field· n. 领域；牧场；旷野；战场；运动场vi. 担任场外队员adj. 扫描场；田赛的；野生的vt. 把暴晒于场上；使上场
. But through a combination· n. 结合；组合；联合；[化学] 化合
of luck and the persistence of several generations of researchers, this study has survived. About 60 of our original 724 men are still alive, still participating in the study, most of them in their 90s. And we are now beginning to study the more than 2,000 children of these men. And I'm the fourth director of the study.
03:14Since 1938, we've tracked the lives of two groups of men. The first group started in the study when they were sophomores· n. 大学二年级生（sophomore的复数）
at Harvard College. They all finished college during World War II, and then most went off to serve in the war. And the second group that we've followed was a group of boys from Boston's poorest neighborhoods, boys who were chosen for the study specifically because they were from some of the most troubled and disadvantaged families in the Boston of the 1930s. Most lived in tenementsn. 公寓房间（tenement的复数形式
, many without hot and cold running water.
03:53When they entered the study, all of these teenagers were interviewed. They were given medical exams.We went to their homes and we interviewed their parents. And then these teenagers grew up into adultswho entered all walks of life. They became factory workers and lawyers and bricklayers and doctors,one President of the United States. Some developed alcoholism· n. 酗酒；[内科] 酒精中毒
. A few developed schizophrenia· n. [内科] 精神分裂症
. Some climbed the social ladder· n. 阶梯；途径；梯状物vi. 成名；发迹vt. 在……上装设梯子
from the bottom all the way to the very top, and some made that journey in the opposite direction.
04:34The founders of this study would never in their wildest dreams have imagined that I would be standing here today, 75 years later, telling you that the study still continues. Every two years, our patient and dedicated· adj. 专用的；专注的；献身的v. 以…奉献；把…用于
research staff calls up our men and asks them if we can send them yet one more set of questions about their lives.
04:59Many of the inner· adj. 内部的内心的；精神的n. 内部
city Boston men ask us, "Why do you keep wanting to study me? My life just isn't that interesting." The Harvard men never ask that question.
05:10(Laughter)
05:19To get the clearest picture of these lives, we don't just send them questionnaires. We interview them in their living rooms. We get their medical records · n. 记录，录音；[电子] 唱片，档案（record的复数形式）
· v. 记录，记载（record的第三人称单数形式
from their doctors. We draw their blood, we scan· vt. 扫描；浏览；细看；详细调查；标出格律vi. 扫描；扫掠n. 扫描；浏览；审视；细看

their brains, we talk to their children. We videotape· n. 录像带vt. 将…录到录像带上

them talking with their wives about their deepest concerns. And when, about a decade ago, we finally asked the wives if they would join us as members of the study, many of the women said, "You know, it's about time."
05:49(Laughter)
05:50So what have we learned? What are the lessons that come from the tens of thousands of pages of information that we've generated on these lives? Well, the lessons aren't about wealth· n. 财富；大量；富有
or fame or working harder and harder. The clearest message that we get from this 75-year study is this: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period.
06:22We've learned three big lessons about relationships. The first is that social connections are really good for us, and that loneliness kills. It turns out that people who are more socially connected to family, to friends, to community, are happier, they're physically healthier, and they live longer than people who are less well connected. And the experience of loneliness turns out to be toxic· adj. 有毒的；中毒的
. People who are more isolated· adj. 孤立的；分离的；单独的；[电] 绝缘的v. 使孤立；使绝缘；脱离
than they want to be from others find that they are less happy, their health declines earlier in midlife, their brain functioning· n. 运行，运作；[计] 功能；机能；起酌（function的动名词）v. 运行，起作用
declines sooner and they live shorter lives than people who are not lonely. And the sad fact is that at any given time, more than one in five Americans will report that they're lonely.
07:18And we know that you can be lonely in a crowd and you can be lonely in a marriage, so the second big lesson that we learned is that it's not just the number of friends you have, and it's not whether or not you're in a committed relationship, but it's the quality of your close relationships that matters. It turns out that living in the midst of conflict· n. 冲突，矛盾；斗争；争执vi. 冲突，抵触；争执；战斗
is really bad for our health. High-conflict marriages, for example, without much affection· n. 喜爱，感情；影响；感染
, turn out to be very bad for our health, perhaps worse than getting divorced· adj. 离婚的
. And living in the midst of good, warm relationships is protective.
07:56Once we had followed our men all the way into their 80s, we wanted to look back at them at midlife and to see if we could predict who was going to grow into a happy, healthy octogenarian· n. 八十岁到八十九岁的人adj. 八十岁到八十九岁的
and who wasn't.And when we gathered together everything we knew about them at age 50, it wasn't their middle age cholesterol· n. [生化] 胆固醇
levels that predicted how they were going to grow old. It was how satisfied they were in their relationships. The people who were the most satisfied in their relationships at age 50 were the healthiest at age 80. And good, close relationships seem to buffer us from some of the slings· n. [机] 吊索；吊物机（sling的复数）v. 用投石器投掷；用吊钩钓上
and arrows· n. 箭，箭头；箭状物；箭头记号vt. 以箭头指示；箭一般地飞向
of getting old. Our most happily partnered men and women reported, in their 80s, that on the days when they had more physical pain, their mood stayed just as happy. But the people who were in unhappy relationships, on the days when they reported more physical pain, it was magnified· adj. 放大的v. 放大；
by more emotional pain.
09:03And the third big lesson that we learned about relationships and our health is that good relationships don't just protect our bodies, they protect our brains. It turns out that being in a securely· adv. 安全地；牢固地；安心地；有把握地
attached relationship to another person in your 80s is protective, that the people who are in relationships where they really feel they can count on the other person in times of need, those people's memories stay sharper longer. And the people in relationships where they feel they really can't count on the other one,those are the people who experience earlier memory decline. And those good relationships, they don't have to be smooth all the time. Some of our octogenarian couples could bicke· vi. 闪动；斗嘴；潺潺而流n. 吵嘴；口角；（水的潺潺声
r with each other day in and day out, but as long as they felt that they could really count on the other when the going got tough,those arguments didn't take a toll· n. 通行费；代价；钟声；伤亡人数vt. 征收；敲钟vi. 鸣钟；征税
on their memories.
10:00So this message, that good, close relationships are good for our health and well-being, this is wisdom that's as old as the hills. Why is this so hard to get and so easy to ignore? Well, we're human. What we'd really like is a quick fix, something we can get that'll make our lives good and keep them that way.Relationships are messy and they're complicated and the hard work of tending to family and friends, it's not sexy or glamorous· adj. 迷人的，富有魅力的
. It's also lifelong. It never ends. The people in our 75-year study who were the happiest in retirement were the people who had actively worked to replace workmates with new playmates. Just like the millennials in that recent survey, many of our men when they were starting out as young adults really believed that fame and wealth and high achievement were what they needed to go after to have a good life. But over and over, over these 75 years, our study has shown that the people who fared the best were the people who leaned in to relationships, with family, with friends, with community.
11:20So what about you? Let's say you're 25, or you're 40, or you're 60. What might leaning in to relationships even look like?
11:30Well, the possibilities are practically endless. It might be something as simple as replacing screen time with people time or livening up a stale relationship by doing something new together, long walks or date nights, or reaching out to that family member who you haven't spoken to in years, because those all-too-common family feuds· n. 不和；争执；封地
· vi. 长期不和；长期争斗
take a terrible toll on the people who hold the grudges· n. 怨恨；积怨（grudge的复数）v. 嫉妒
.
12:03I'd like to close with a quote· vt. 报价；引述；举证
· vi. 报价；引用；引证
from Mark Twain. More than a century ago, he was looking back on his life, and he wrote this: "There isn't time, so brief is life, for bickerings· n. 争吵；争论
· v. 争吵

, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. There is only time for loving, and but an instant, so to speak, for that."
12:33The good life is built with good relationships.
12:38Thank you.
12:39(Applause)