关于孤独的美文_经典英语美文阅读
“孤独”似乎只是一个近现代的问题,随着近代上帝世俗化与世界祛魅的过程而出现,并且在现代消费社会盛行的时代泛滥于全球。下面是小编带来的关于孤独的经典美文阅读,欢迎阅读!
关于孤独的经典美文阅读篇一
调查显示揭秘人为什么会感到孤独
Nobody likes feeling lonely, and some recent research suggests that the ache of isolation isn'tonly a psychological problem; unwanted solitude impacts physical health, too. Lonelinessincreases a person's risk of mortality by 26 percent, an effect comparable to the health risksposed by obesity, according to a study published this spring.
没有人喜欢孤独的感觉。最近某调查显示,孤独造成的痛苦不仅是心理问题,不是出自本意所需的孤独还会影响到身体健康。根据一项今年春季发布的研究,孤独会使一个人的死亡风险提高26%,这与过度肥胖造成的健康风险程度相当。
And because of this new evidence of the serious ramifications of loneliness, some researchersare investigating what it is, exactly, that makes lonely people stay lonely. In particular, couldsome behavior be at the root of their isolation?
由于新发现了这一孤独导致的严重后果,一些研究人员正在着手研究具体是什么东西使人处于孤独之中,特别是,会不会有某些行为是孤独的根源。
In a paper recently published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Franklin& Marshall College professor Megan L. Knowles led four experiments that demonstratedlonely people's tendency to choke when under social pressure. In one, Knowles and her teamtested the social skills of 86 undergraduates, showing them 24 faces on a computer screenand asking them to name the basic human emotion each face was displaying: anger, fear,happiness, or sadness. She told some of the students that she was testing their social skills,and that people who failed at this task tended to have difficulty forming and maintainingfriendships. But she framed the test differently for the rest of them, describing it as a this-is-all-theoretical kind of exercise.
在最近于《个性与社会心理学通报》发表的一篇论文中,富兰克林与马歇尔学院的教授梅根.L.诺尔斯指导了4个实验,这些实验显示出,孤独的人在社交压力之下有不能正常运用社交技巧的倾向。在其中一个实验中,诺尔斯和她的团队对86名大学生的社交技巧进行了测试。她在电脑屏幕上给他们展示了24张人脸图像,并让他们说出每一张脸表达的基本情绪:愤怒、恐惧、快乐或是悲伤。她告诉其中的一些学生,说她测试的是他们的社交技巧,而没有通过测试的人很可能在友谊的建立和维系上有困难。但是她对另外的学生却有不同的说法,她说这完全是个理论性质的练习。
Before they started any of that, though, all the students completed surveys that measuredhow lonely they were. In the end, the lonelier students did worse than the non-lonely studentson the emotion-reading task — but only when they were told they were being tested on theirsocial skills. When the lonely were told they were just taking a general knowledge test, theyperformed better than the non-lonely. Previous research echoes these new results: Past studieshave suggested, for example, that the lonelier people are better at accurately reading facialexpressions and decoding tone of voice. As the theory goes, lonely people may be payingcloser attention to emotional cues precisely because of their ache to belong somewhere andform interpersonal connections, which results in technically superior social skills.
在所有的测试之前,所有的学生都完成了一份衡量他们孤独程度的调查。结果,孤独的学生在情感辨别测试上比不孤独的学生做得要差,但这种情况只有在告诉他们这是个社交技巧测试时才会出现。当孤独的人被告知他们只是在做常识测试时,他们比不孤独的人表现得更好。更早以前的研究也得出过相似的结果:比如过去有研究表明,孤独的人更善于准确识别面部表情,解读说话者语气中蕴含的信息。这个理论认为,孤独的人可能会更细致地关注情感暗示,因为他们渴望得到归属感、建立起人与人之间的联系。确切意义上来讲,这使得他们拥有了更优秀的社交技巧。
But like a baseball pitcher with a mean case of the yips or a nervous test-taker sitting downfor an exam, being hyperfocused on not screwing up can lead to over-thinking and second-guessing, which, of course, can end up causing the very screwup the person was so bent onavoiding. It's largely a matter of reducing that performance anxiety, in other words, andKnowles and her colleagues did manage to find one way to do this for their lonely studyparticipants, though, admittedly, it is maybe not exactly applicable outside of a lab. Theresearchers gave their volunteers an energy-drink-like beverage and told them that any jittersthey felt were owing to the caffeine they’d just consumed. (In actuality, the beveragecontained no caffeine, but no matter — the study participants believed that it did.) They thendid the emotion-reading test, just like in the first experiment. Compared to scores from thatfirst experiment, there was no discernible difference in scores for the non-lonely, but theresearchers did see improvement among the lonely participants — even when the task hadbeen framed as a social-skills test.
不过,就像因过度紧张而无法正常发挥的排球发球手或是在考场中紧张的考生一样,总想着不把事情弄糟会使你对事态的进展顾虑重重,如此一来,结果必然还是会搞砸,尽管你已经努力避免把事情弄糟了。换句话说,问题大概还是在于降低对自我表现的焦虑,诺尔斯和她的同事也确实找到了方法帮助参与他们研究的孤独者,虽然不可否认的是,这可能不适用于实验室外的情况。研究人员让志愿者喝下一种看上去像能量饮料的液体,并跟他们说他们的紧张感都是他们刚刚吸收的咖啡因引起的。(实际上那些饮料里不含咖啡因,不过没关系,志愿者相信里面有。)然后他们做了情感识别测试,就像第一个实验那样。与第一个实验的分数比起来,不孤独的人的得分没有明显的变化,但研究者却发现孤独的志愿者得分提高了,甚至在告诉他们这是个社交技能测试后也是如此。
It may be difficult to trick yourself into believing your nerves are from caffeine and not the factthat you really, really, really want to make a good impression in some social setting, but thereare other ways to change your own thinking about anxiety. One of my recent favorites is fromHarvard Business School's Alison Wood Brooks, who found that when she had people reframetheir nerves as excitement, theysubsequently performed better on some mildly terrifying task,like singing in public. At the very least, this current research presents a fairly new way to thinkabout lonely people. It's not that they need to brush up on the basics of social skills — thatthey've likely already got down. Instead, lonely people may need to focus more on getting outof their own heads, so they can actually use the skills they've got to form friendships and beginto find a way out of their isolation.
要欺骗自己去相信紧张感是咖啡因的作用而不是真的、真的、真的想在社交场合中留下好印象,这或许很难,但是我们有其他方法来改变我们对焦虑的看法。哈佛商学院的艾莉森·伍德·布鲁克斯的研究是我最近的最爱之一,她让人们把紧张重新界定为兴奋,之后他们在完成一些稍微有些吓人的任务时表现得更好了,比方说在公共场合唱歌。不管怎样,当前的这项研究给我们展现了一个看待孤独者的新方式。他们并不需要提高基本的社交技巧,他们大都已经掌握了。他们需要的是努力不让自己胡思乱想,这样他们就可以真正地用上自己已经拥有的社交技巧去建立友谊、走出孤独。
关于孤独的经典美文阅读篇二
孤独是一种病 比肥胖更可怕
BLACKPOOL, England — The woman on the other end of the phone spoke lightheartedly ofspring and her 81st birthday the previous week. “Who did you celebrate with, Beryl?” askedAlison, whose job was to offer a kind ear.
英格兰布莱克浦——一位女士在电话里快活地聊着春暖花开,还有她上周刚度过的81岁生日。“是谁和你一起庆生的,贝柔?”艾利森问道;她的工作就是当个耐心的听众。
“No one, I …” And with that, Beryl’s cheer turned to despair.
“没有人。我......”因为艾利森这句话,贝柔的情绪从快活转为低落。
Her voice began to quaver as she acknowledged that she had been alone at home not just onher birthday, but for days and days. The telephone conversation was the first time she hadspoken in more than a week.
当贝柔承认自己不只生日那天独自在家,还有好一段时间都是如此,说话的声音开始颤抖。这通电话是她一个多星期以来首度与人交谈。
About 10,000 similar calls come in weekly to an unassuming office building in this seaside townat the northwest reaches of England, which houses The Silver Line Helpline, a 24-hour callcenter for older adults seeking to fill a basic need: contact with other people.
在英格兰西北区的这个海滨小镇,每周都有大约1万通类似的电话打进此地一栋不起眼的办公大楼。它是SilverLine求助热线的所在地。这是一个为老人服务的24小时热线中心。这些老人家打电话来,是为了满足生活的某种基本需求:与他人保持联系。
Loneliness, which Emily Dickinson described as “the Horror not to be surveyed,” is a quietdevastation. But in Britain, it is increasingly being viewed as something more: a serious publichealth issue deserving of public funds and national attention.
诗人艾米莉•狄金森(Emily Dickinson)把孤独感描述为“不可丈量的恐怖”,那是一种悄无声息的伤害。不过在英国,人们逐渐认为,它的危害甚至更严重:它是应该被严肃对待的公共卫生课题,值得公共资金的投入和举国关注。
Working with local governments and the National Health Service, programs aimed at mitigatingloneliness have sprung up in dozens of cities and towns. Even fire brigades have been trainedto inspect homes not just for fire safety but for signs of social isolation.
与地方政府和国家医疗服务体系(National Health Service)合作、致力于减缓孤独现象的计划正在数十个城镇兴起。就连消防队也受了相关训练,除了查看民宅的防火安全,他们也要注意屋主是否有与世隔绝的迹象。
“There’s been an explosion of public awareness here, from local authorities to the Departmentof Health to the media,” said Paul Cann, chief executive of Age UK Oxfordshire and a founderof The Campaign to End Loneliness, a five-year-old group based in London. “Loneliness has tobe everybody’s business.”
“从地方当局、卫生署到媒体,各界对这件事的关注在迅速提高,”保罗‧坎恩(Paul Cann)表示。他是老龄英国(Age UK)牛津郡分部的行政主管,也是有五年历史的伦敦“终结孤独”倡议行动(The Campaign ot EndLoneliness)的发起人。“每个人都该关心孤独这件事。”
Researchers have found mounting evidence linking loneliness to physical illness and tofunctional and cognitive decline. As a predictor of early death, loneliness eclipses obesity. “The profound effects of loneliness on health and independence are a critical public healthproblem,” said Dr. Carla M. Perissinotto, a geriatrician at the University of California, SanFrancisco. “It is no longer medically or ethically acceptable to ignore older adults who feellonely and marginalized.”
学者已经发现,越来越多的证据显示,孤独与生理疾病还有行为与认知能力下降都有关联。孤独也比肥胖更可能预示人的早逝。“孤独对个人健康与自主生活能力的深刻影响,是很重要的公共卫生问题,”加州大学旧金山分校的老龄医学专家卡拉‧M‧佩里西诺托(Dr. Carla M. Perissinotto)说。“不论从医学或道德的眼光来看,我们都不能再忽略那些觉得自己孤单或不受重视的长者了。”
In Britain and the United States, roughly one in three people older than 65 live alone, and in theUnited States, half of those older than 85 live alone. Studies in both countries show theprevalence of loneliness among people older than 60 ranging from 10 percent to 46 percent.
在英国与美国,65岁以上的民众大约每三人里就有一人独居,而美国年龄在85岁以上的人,有一半是独居。两国的研究都显示,60岁以上者老境孤独的比例在10%到46%之间。
While the public, private and volunteer sectors in Britain are mobilizing to address loneliness,researchers are deepening their understanding of its biological underpinnings. In a paperpublished earlier this year in the journal Cell, neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology identified a region of the brain they believe generates feelings of loneliness. Theregion, known as the dorsal raphe nucleus, or DRN, is best known for its link to depression.
就在英国的公共部门、私人机构、义工团体都动员起来对付孤独的时候,研究人员也在更深入了解它的生物学基础。在今年稍早发表于《细胞》(Cell)期刊的一篇报告里,麻省理工学院(Massachusetts Institute ofTechonology)的神经科学家认为他们找到了人脑产生孤独感的区域。这个叫做中缝背核(dorsal raphenucleus, DRN)的部位最为人所知的是它和忧郁症的关联。
Kay M. Tye and her colleagues found that when mice were housed together, dopamine neuronsin the DRN were relatively inactive. But after the mice were isolated for a short period, theactivity in those neurons surged when those mice were reunited with other mice.
戴琦(Kay M. Tye)与她的同事发现,实验用小鼠住在一起的时候,鼠脑中缝背核里的多巴胺神经元比较不活跃。不过老鼠被隔离一小段时间再放回鼠群里的时候,这些神经元的活动会大幅增加。
“This is the first time we’ve found a cellular substrate for this experience,” said Tye, anassistant professor at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT and a seniorauthor of the paper. “And we saw the change after 24 hours of isolation.”
“这是我们第一次发现孤独感的细胞学根源,”戴博士说。她是麻省理工学院皮考尔学习和记忆研究所(PicowerInstitute for Learning and Memory)助理教授,也是该篇报告的主要作者。“在小鼠隔离了24小时之后,我们开始看到这种变化。”
John T. Cacioppo, a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago and director of theuniversity’s Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, has been studying loneliness since the1990s. He said loneliness is an aversive signal much like thirst, hunger or pain.
约翰•T•卡奇奥波(John T. Cacioppo)是芝加哥大学(University of Chicago)心理学教授,也是该校认知与社会神经科学中心(Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience)主任。他自20世纪90年代以来就一直在研究孤独感。他说,孤独感与口渴、饥饿、疼痛很相似,是一种反向讯号。
“Denying you feel lonely makes no more sense than denying you feel hunger,” he said. Yet thevery word “lonely” carries a negative connotation, Cacioppo said, signaling social weakness,or an inability to stand on one’s own.
卡奇奥波表示:“拒绝承认自己的孤独感,就像拒绝承认自己饿了一样,没有意义。”不过他也说,“孤独”这个字本身有负面涵义,意味着一个人不善社交或无法自立更生。
The unspoken stigma of loneliness is amply evident during calls to The Silver Line. Most peoplecall asking for advice on, say, roasting a turkey. Many call more than once a day. One womanrings every hour to ask the time. Only rarely will someone speak frankly about loneliness.
这种没有被言说的污名,从打给Silver Line的电话里很能看得出来。大部分去电寻求建议的人,问的都是,比方说,“怎么烤火鸡”这种问题;有些人一天会打上好几通。有位女性每小时都会打这条专线问时间。只有极少数人会坦诚地讨论自己的孤单感受。
Yet the impulse to call in to services like The Silver Line is a healthy one, Cacioppo said.
不过卡奇奥波说,想给这类服务热线打电话的冲动是健康的。
Sophie Andrews, chief executive of The Silver Line, said she was surprised by the explosion ofcalls shortly after the service began operating nearly three years ago. The Blackpool call centernow receives some 1,500 calls a day.
Silver Line的执行主管苏菲‧安德鲁斯(Sophie Andrews)表示,这条专线在近三年前开通后,很快就涌入大量电话,她很惊讶。如今他们在布莱克浦的中心每天接听大约1500通电话。
Andrews said she was most concerned not about those who called The Silver Line, but thosewho were too depressed by their isolation to pick up the phone. “We need to raise awarenesswith the people who are the hardest to reach,” she said.
安德鲁斯还说,她最担心的不是那些打电话来的人,而是那些因为孤独而过度抑郁,以至于连电话也不想打的人。“对于最难接触到的人群,我们需要引起更多的重视,”她说。
Cacioppo lauds efforts like The Silver Line, yet he warns that the problem of loneliness isnuanced and the solutions not as obvious as they might seem. That is, a call-in line can helpreduce feelings of loneliness temporarily, but is not likely to reduce levels of chronicloneliness.
卡奇奥波对Silver Line这类努力表示赞许,但他也警告,孤独的问题还有很多细分,解决之道也不如表面看来那么显而易见。也就是说,电话专线能帮人暂时缓解孤独的感觉,却不太可能降低长期的孤独感。
In his research, Cacioppo has shown that loneliness affects several key bodily functions, at leastin part through overstimulation of the body’s stress response. Chronic loneliness, his workhas shown, is associated with increased levels of cortisol, a major stress hormone, as well ashigher vascular resistance, which can raise blood pressure and decrease blood flow to vitalorgans.
卡奇奥波的研究显示,孤独感会影响许多身体重要功能,至少部分是因为人体应激反应被过度激发造成的。他的研究工作显示,长期感觉孤独与皮质醇浓度上升有关(这是一种主要的应激荷尔蒙),也与较高的血管阻力有关;血管阻力能使血压上升、减少流入主要器官的血液量。
Cacioppo’s research has also shown that the danger signals activated in the brain by lonelinessaffect the production of white blood cells; this can impair the immune system’s ability to fightinfections.
卡奇奥波的研究还显示,脑部受孤独感刺激所释放出的警示讯号会影响白细胞的生成,而这有可能损及免疫系统对抗感染的能力。
It is only in the past several years that loneliness been examined through a medical, rather thanpsychological or sociological, lens. Perissinotto, the University of California, San Franciscogeriatrician, decided to study loneliness when she began to sense there were factors affectingher patients’ health that she was missing.
人们透过医学而非心理学或社会学的角度研究孤独感,不过是近几年的事。前面提到的老龄医学医师佩里西诺托决定要投入孤独感的研究,是因为她开始觉得有些因素在影响她的病人的健康状况,但她却不知是什么。
Although plenty of research into loneliness takes place in the United States, Britain remains wellahead in addressing the problem.
虽然有很多孤独感的研究是在美国做的,不过在应对这个问题方面,英国还是领先许多。
“In the U.S., there isn’t much recognition in terms of public health initiatives or the averageperson recognizing that loneliness has to do with health,” said Julianne Holt-Lunstad, aprofessor of psychology at Brigham Young University, whose studies also link loneliness todeteriorating health.
“美国的公共卫生行动还不怎么认可这个问题,一般人也不太了解孤独感会影响健康,”杨百翰大学(BrighamYoung University)的心理学教授茱莉安‧浩特─朗斯泰德(Julianne Holt- Lunstad)说。她的研究也显示出孤独感与健康损害有关。
Age UK, an organization similar to AARP in the United States, oversees an array of programsaimed at decreasing loneliness and coordinates efforts with fire brigades to look for signs ofloneliness and isolation in the homes they enter.
老龄英国是一个与美国退休人员协会(AARP)相似的组织,他们监督一系列旨在减轻老人孤独处境的项目。该组织也与消防队合作,让消防人员在上门检查时,也注意屋主是否有孤独或与世隔绝的迹象。
Another charity, Open Age, runs some 400 activities each week in Central London — sewingcircles, current events discussions, book clubs and exercise and computer classes, held atchurch halls, sport centers, housing projects — and its employees also visit people in theirhomes to try to get them out and about.
另一个慈善组织Open Age每周在伦敦市中心组织400多种活动:缝纫团体、时事讨论会、阅读俱乐部、体能锻炼、电脑班。活动举办地点则在教堂大厅、运动中心或社会住宅。该组织员工也会上门探视,想办法让老人出门走走。
“We try to work out what it is that’s preventing them from leaving the house,” said HelenLeech, the organization’s director.
“我们会去了解是什么原因使他们不愿出门,”Open Age的主任海伦‧利奇(Helen Leech)说。
Men and women differ greatly in how they grapple with loneliness. Seventy percent of the callsto The Silver Line are from women.
男女应付孤独感的方式大不相同。打给Silver Line的有70%是女性。
关于孤独的经典美文阅读篇三
Solitude --Ella Wheeler Wilcox
孤独
Laugh,and the world laughs with you;
Weep,and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow it's mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.
笑则天下笑,
泣则独自泣。
因悲哀的旧世界须借贷欢笑,
而它自身的麻烦不少。
唱则群山应,
叹则空散尽。
回声反射成欢欣,
倾诉忧虑无回音。
Rejoice,and men will seek you;
Grieve,and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad,and your friends are many;
Be sad,and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's gall.
喜则人寻你,
悲则众人离。
他们要度量你的欢快,
但他们不要你的悲哀。
你高兴,朋友会多起来,
你悲伤,他们转身走开。
无人会拒绝你的佳酿,
但你要独自把生活的苦酒品尝。
Feast,and your halls are crowded;
Fast,and the world goes by.
Succeed and give,and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.
设宴,高朋满盈,
斋戒,无人问津。
成功和慷慨能助你生,
但是他人救不了你死。
娱乐大厅里有一间房,
长长豪华列车停中央,
但我们都必须鱼贯上,
通过狭长痛苦的走廊。