2022年12月六级第3套仔细阅读 Passage 1 原文翻译及答案解析

How can one person enjoy good health, while another person looks old before her time? Humans have been asking this question for thousands of years, and recently, it's becoming clearer and clearer to scientists that the differences between people's rates of aging lie in the complex interactions among genes, social relationships, environments and lifestyles. Even though you were born with a particular set of genes, the way you live can influence how they express themselves. Some lifestyle factors may even turn genes on or shut them off.

为什么一个人能享受健康，而另一个人却未老先衰？人类数千年来一直在问这个问题，最近，科学家越来越清楚，人们衰老速度的差异在于基因、社会关系、环境和生活方式之间的复杂相互作用。尽管你出生时带有一组特定的基因，但你的生活方式会影响它们的表达方式。一些生活方式因素甚至可能开启或关闭基因。

Deep within the genetic heart of all our cells are telomeres, or repeating segments of noncoding DNA that live at the ends of the chromosomes (染色体). They form caps at the ends of the chromosomes and keep the genetic material together. Shortening with each cell division, they help determine how fast a cell ages. When they become too short, the cell stops dividing altogether. This isn't the only reason a cell can age—there are other stresses on cells we don't yet understand very well, but short telomeres are one of the major reasons human cells grow old. We've devoted most of our careers to studying telomeres, and one extraordinary discovery from our labs is that telomeres can actually lengthen.

在我们所有细胞的遗传核心深处是端粒，即位于染色体末端的重复非编码DNA片段。它们在染色体末端形成帽子，将遗传物质保持在一起。随着每次细胞分裂而缩短，它们帮助决定细胞衰老的速度。当它们变得太短时，细胞就完全停止分裂。这不是细胞衰老的唯一原因——我们对细胞的其他压力还不甚了解，但短端粒是人类细胞变老的主要原因之一。我们职业生涯的大部分时间都致力于研究端粒，我们实验室的一个非凡发现是端粒实际上可以变长。

Scientists have learned that several thought patterns appear to be unhealthy for telomeres, and one of them is cynical hostility. Cynical hostility is defined by high anger and frequent thoughts that other people cannot be trusted. Someone with hostility doesn't just think, "I hate to stand in long lines"; they think, "Others deliberately sped up and beat me to my rightful position in the line!" and then get violently agitated. People who score high on measures of cynical hostility tend to get more heart disease, metabolic disease and often die at younger ages. They also have shorter telomeres. In a study of British civil servants, men who scored high on measures of cynical hostility had shorter telomeres than men whose hostility scores were low. The most hostile men were 30% more likely to have short telomeres.

科学家发现，几种思维模式似乎对端粒有害，其中之一是愤世嫉俗的敌意。愤世嫉俗的敌意被定义为高度愤怒和经常认为他人不可信任。有敌意的人不仅仅是想，“我讨厌排长队”；他们会想，“其他人故意加速，抢走了我在队伍中的正当位置！”然后变得极度激动。在愤世嫉俗敌意测量中得分高的人往往更容易患上心脏病、代谢疾病，并且通常在更年轻时死亡。他们的端粒也更短。在一项对英国公务员的研究中，在愤世嫉俗敌意测量中得分高的男性比敌意得分低的男性端粒更短。最具敌意的男性拥有短端粒的可能性高出30%。

What this means: aging is a dynamic process that could possibly be accelerated or slowed—and, in some aspects, even reversed. To an extent, it has surprised us and the rest of the scientific community that telomeres do not simply carry out the commands issued by your genetic code. Your telomeres are listening to you. The foods you eat, your response to challenges, the amount of exercise you get, and many other factors appear to influence your telomeres and can prevent premature aging at the cellular level. One of the keys to enjoying good health is simply doing your part to foster healthy cell renewal.

这意味着：衰老是一个动态过程，可能被加速或减缓——在某些方面甚至可以逆转。在某种程度上，端粒并不简单地执行遗传密码发出的指令，这让我们和科学界其他人士感到惊讶。你的端粒正在倾听你。你吃的食物、你对挑战的反应、你获得的运动量以及许多其他因素似乎都会影响你的端粒，并可以在细胞水平上防止过早衰老。享受健康的关键之一就是尽你所能促进健康的细胞更新。