【英语时差8,16】乐观的代价

（单词翻译）

Is being an optimist¹ really good for you? That's the question Don and Yael discuss on this Moment of Science.   D: Has anyone ever told you that if you keep frowning your face is going to stick like that?

Y: My grandmother. She's Miss Sunshine; always looking on the bright side of things, even now that she's ninety-eight years old. It's rather extraordinary. Seems to me there couldn't be much to be happy about at that age, except that you're still alive I suppose.

D: That's exactly what I'm talking about. Research shows that whether a person is an optimist or a pessimist² is related to their quality of life, including their physical health. The subjects involved first took personality tests in the 1960's and then thirty years later they completed a follow-up self-assessment of their health status. Researchers found that not only did the optimists³ from the 1960's report better physical and mental functioning thirty years later, but that optimists also lived longer on average than pessimists⁴. It's hardly clear that there is a causal relationship between optimism and health; it could be that they are related to the same underlying⁵ gene⁶ complex or set of mechanisms⁷. Still, it sure is tempting⁸ to surmise⁹ that it's partly your grandmother's positive attitude that has kept her alive this long. It may actually be possible that a lot of what my parents have been telling me for years is true. If you think positively¹⁰, good things may happen to you. If you think negatively, then you may doom¹¹ yourself.

Y: They also say that a positive or negative attitude can be contagious¹². If that's true then I guess I ought to spend more time with my grandmother. I'm not getting any younger.

D: Can I come too?