調查：女性晚年比男性幸福

Researchers questioned nearly 9,800 people over the age of 50 about their lives and found women were more optimistic than men.

Report co-author Dr Elizabeth Breeze said that women could become happier as they get older as they no longer have to worry about looking after their families.

She said: "There is a difference between the way men and women view their quality of life and they are influenced by slightly different things."

"Women are affected negatively by caring for someone else or if they are not in employment but if they see their children and family more they are positively affected."

"A weird thing happens to male actors, especially movie stars, in my experience," said Helen Mirren, a 62-year-old Hollywood actress.

"A young male actor feels that all the girls want him - he's a star. As actors get older that sense of not being in control of their destiny grates on them and they get grumpy."

Wealth also helps you live longer with the poorest people more than twice as likely to die at any given age than the richest, researchers at University College London discovered.

Researchers found that the poorest fifth of the population were over twice as likely to have died by 2008 as those in the wealthiest fifth. Those people were born before 1952.

In some age groups, the difference was even greater with the poorest women between 60 and 74 six times more likely to have died than the richest women of the same age.

According to the study, you have more chance of living longer if you are married, educated to degree level and a professional.

Single people are twice as likely to die early as those who are married or living with a partner.

近日，研究人員對近9800位年齡在50歲以上的人開展了一項生活觀大調查。調查結果顯示，女性比男性樂觀。

研究報告撰寫者之一伊麗莎白•布麗茲博士說，就女性而言，她們的幸福感會隨着年齡的增長而增強，因爲她們再也不用爲照顧家人而操心了。

她說：“男性和女性對於生活質量的體會有所不同，影響他們幸福感的因素也略有不同。”

“照顧家人或失業會影響女性的幸福感，但如果她們能經常與家人和孩子在一起，情況則相反。”

好萊塢女星、62歲的海倫•米倫說：“我在男演員身上發現了一個奇怪的現象，尤其是電影演員。”

“年輕的男演員會覺得所有美女都在圍着自己轉——他就是明星。而隨着年齡的增長，他們會越來越覺得自己逐漸失去了從前的主控地位，這會讓他們感到不安，脾氣也會變得暴躁。”

此外，倫敦大學學院的研究人員發現，富有也能讓人長壽。在任何年齡段，窮人的死亡機率爲富人的兩倍。

研究人員對1952年以前出生的人進行調查後發現，最窮的五分之一人口在2008年前已死亡的機率爲最富裕五分之一人口的兩倍多。

這種差別在一些年齡段更爲顯著。調查發現，年齡在60歲至74歲之間的最窮女性死亡的機率爲同齡富裕女性的六倍。

調查表明，已婚人士、高學歷人羣和專業人士的壽命更長。

單身人士早逝的機率爲已婚或同居人士的兩倍

Vocabulary:

grumpy: cranky（暴躁的）