管理類聯(lián)考考研英語二外刊選讀（6）

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Coffee Really Does Make You Happier

題材：生活類

出處：The Atlantic《大西洋月刊》

字數(shù)：739 words

[1] Caffeine evolved in certain plants—including coffee shrubs, tea trees, cocoa beans, and kola nuts—as a naturally occurring pesticide to discourage insects from eating them. Stupid bugs. But that doesn’t explain why about 85 percent of Americans consume it in some form each day. (I can only assume that the other 15 percent have no quality of life whatsoever.) The reason is this: When caffeine is ingested, it quickly enters the brain, where it competes with a chemical called adenosine. One of adenosine’s most important jobs is to make you feel tired. Throughout the day, you produce a lot of it to make you eventually relax; neurons shoot it out, and then a receptor, perfectly sized to the adenosine molecule, binds to it, receiving the message that bedtime is approaching.

【咖啡因是從某些植物中提煉而來，這些植物包括咖啡灌木、茶樹、可可豆和可樂果。它作為一種天然的殺蟲劑，能夠防止昆蟲啃食這些植物。愚蠢的蟲子。但這并不能解釋為什么85%的美國人每天都以某種形式攝入咖啡因。(我只能假設(shè)另外15%的人沒有任何生活質(zhì)量。)原因是：當咖啡因被攝入時，它很快進入大腦，在那里它與一種叫做腺苷的化學(xué)物質(zhì)競爭。腺苷最重要的作用之一是讓你產(chǎn)生疲勞感。在一天中，你會產(chǎn)生大量腺苷，它會讓你最終放松下來;神經(jīng)元將它釋放出來，緊接著一個與腺苷分子大小完全一致的受體與它結(jié)合，接收到就寢時間即將來臨的信息。】

【重點詞匯】

caffeine /?k?fi?n/ n. 咖啡因;咖啡堿

shrub /?r?b/ n. 灌木

pesticide /?pest?sa?d/ n. 殺蟲劑

discourage /d?s?k?r?d?/ v. 阻攔;阻止

whatsoever /?w?ts????v?/ adv. 任何 (用于名詞詞組之后，強調(diào)否定陳述)

ingest /?n?d?est/ v. 攝入;食入

adenosine /??den?(?)si?n/ n. 腺苷

neuron /?nj??r?n/ n. 神經(jīng)元

molecule /?m?l?kju?l/ n. 分子

[2] That’s where caffeine comes in. It is shaped very similarly to the adenosine molecule, so it fits into the receptors. The adenosine can’t park where it’s supposed to, because caffeine is already sitting in its parking spots. (That “first sip feeling” Starbucks advertises on the side of its cups sounds a lot more appealing than “blocking morning adenosine,” but that’s what’s really happening.) In truth, caffeine doesn’t pep you up—it simply prevents you from feeling lethargic. Consume enough caffeine, and you’ll have almost no adenosine plugging into your receptors at all, so you’ll feel wired and jittery.

【這就是咖啡因的作用。它的形狀與腺苷分子非常相近，因此可以與受體適配。由于咖啡因已經(jīng)占據(jù)了本該屬于腺苷的位置，因此腺苷就不能停留在其原本的位置上了。(星巴克杯子旁邊宣傳的“第一口的感覺”聽起來比“阻斷清晨的腺苷”更吸引人，但確實就是這種情況。)實際上，咖啡因并不會讓你振奮，它只是防止你感到疲勞。你攝入了足夠多的咖啡因之后，你的受體中幾乎沒有了腺苷，所以你會感到興奮和緊張?！?/p>

【重點詞匯】

sip /s?p/ v. 小口喝 n. 一小口(飲料)

pep sb. up 使興致勃勃;使活躍

lethargic /l??θɑ?d??k/ adj. 沒精打采的

jittery /?d??t?ri/ adj. 緊張不安的

[3] To get to what really matters, though: Coffee makes you happy. Writing in the journal Psychopharmacology, the researcher David M. Warburton observed what I could have told him without writing a study: A low dose of caffeine can lead to a “significant increase in happiness and calmness and decreases in tenseness.” He also noted that, among the study participants, these effects did not come from alleviating a craving from a caffeine addiction; the effect was true, pure, and wonderful. A miracle, really.

【但真正重要的是：咖啡讓你快樂。研究人員大衛(wèi)·M·沃伯頓正在為《精神藥理學(xué)》撰寫稿子，他指出，低劑量的咖啡因可以導(dǎo)致“幸福感和平靜感顯著增加，緊張感降低”，這種發(fā)現(xiàn)即使我沒有做研究也可以告訴他。他還指出，在研究對象身上，這些效果并不是緩解咖啡因成癮的渴望所產(chǎn)生的，而是真正的、純粹的、美妙的效果。這真的是一種奇跡?！?/p>

【重點詞匯】

dose /d??s/ n. (藥的)一劑，一服 v. 給(某人)服藥

tenseness /?tensn?s/ n. 緊張

alleviate /??li?vie?t/ v. 減輕;緩和

craving /?kre?v??/ n. 渴望;熱望

[4] Caffeine is a gift in ways besides happiness. Combined with exercise, it can improve cognitive performance (that means it makes you smarter, in case you haven’t had your coffee yet), and if you’ve been sleeping less than optimally, it can enhance your reaction time and logical reasoning abilities. Remember this as you head out in traffic: The life your coffee saves could be your own.

【除了帶來快樂之外，咖啡因也是一種禮物。結(jié)合鍛煉，它可以提高人的認知能力(這意味著如果你還沒有喝咖啡，它會讓你更聰明)。如果你睡得不夠好，它可以提高你的反應(yīng)時間和邏輯推理能力。當你在車流中行駛時記住這一點：你的咖啡可以拯救你的生命?！?/p>

【重點詞匯】

cognitive /?k?ɡn?t?v/ adj. 認知的;感知的

optimally /??pt?m?li/ adv. 最佳

[5] Nothing in life is free, of course. Faced with the holy power of the Bean, adenosine’s malevolent forces fight back. As you consume more caffeine over time, adenosine receptors upregulate, increasing in number to accommodate the caffeine molecules and take in their intended guests as well. This leads to a state of tolerance, in which caffeine has a smaller effect after chronic use. However, this “problem” is really just an opportunity to enjoy more coffee.

【當然，生活中沒有什么是免費的。面對豆子的神圣力量，腺苷的邪惡勢力進行了反擊。隨著時間的推移，你攝入更多的咖啡因時，腺苷受體會上調(diào)，增加數(shù)量以適應(yīng)咖啡因分子，并吸收掉這些咖啡因。這就導(dǎo)致了一種耐受狀態(tài)，在這種狀態(tài)下，長期服用咖啡因的效果減少。然而，這個“問題”實際上提供了一個享用更多咖啡的機會?！?/p>

【重點詞匯】

malevolent /m??lev?l?nt/ adj. 有惡意的;有壞心腸的

accommodate /??k?m?de?t/ v. 容納;順應(yīng)，適應(yīng)

chronic /?kr?n?k/ adj. 長期的;慢性的

[6] Some people believe that the solution to tolerance is to hit the reset button. My wife is one of them: Recently, noticing the increases in my consumption over the years, she innocently proposed that I “take a little break” from coffee. The very suggestion made me fly into a rage. “Here’s an idea,” I replied, heart rate soaring. “Why don’t we just live apart for a year so it feels more like it did when we were first married?” An overreaction? I think not.

【有些人認為，解決咖啡因耐受問題的辦法是暫停喝咖啡。我的妻子就是其中之一：最近，她注意到我這些年喝咖啡的次數(shù)在增加，她故作無知地建議我“暫時不要喝咖啡了”。這個建議讓我勃然大怒?！拔矣袀€主意”，我心跳加速，回答她，“為什么我們不分開一年，這樣感覺更像我們剛結(jié)婚的時候?”我這樣做過分嗎?我不這么認為?！?/p>

【重點詞匯】

fly into a rage 大發(fā)雷霆;暴怒

overreaction /???v?ri??k?n/ n. 過度反應(yīng)

[7] I’m at peace with the long-term effects of my devotion to coffee. Sure, my coffee habit is withering my hypothalamus and enervating my adrenal glands, forcing me to take in ever more caffeine as the years go by. But it is well worth it: Research from Japan shows that habitually drinking coffee reduces all-cause mortality. Studies in mice suggest that it does so by, among other things, encouraging autophagy, the biological process of cleaning out cellular trash, which naturally slows as we age. Coffee has also been found to reduce levels of fatty acid in the plasma of aged mice, which has been linked to diabetes and cancer in humans. (People say animal testing is cruel, but if it means giving mice tiny cups of coffee, I am all for it.)

【我很淡然地看待長期喝咖啡帶來的影響。當然，我喝咖啡的習(xí)慣正在削弱我的下丘腦和腎上腺，隨著時間的推移，它迫使我攝入更多的咖啡因。但這是非常值得的：日本有研究表明，習(xí)慣飲用咖啡可以降低全因死亡率。在老鼠身上進行的研究表明，除了其他方式，自噬這一方法可以實現(xiàn)這個目標。自噬是清除細胞垃圾的生物過程，隨著我們年齡的增長，這一過程會自然減慢。研究還發(fā)現(xiàn)，咖啡可以降低老年老鼠血漿中的脂肪酸水平，而脂肪酸與人類的糖尿病和癌癥有關(guān)。(人們說動物實驗很殘忍，但如果這意味著給老鼠喝小杯咖啡，我完全贊成。)】

【重點詞匯】

wither /?w?e?(r)/ v. 變虛弱;(花朵或植物)枯萎

hypothalamus /?ha?p??θ?l?m?s/ n. 下丘腦

enervate /?en?ve?t/ v. 使感到衰弱(或虛弱、無力)

adrenal gland /??dri?nl ɡl?nd/ 腎上腺

all-cause mortality：全因死亡，是種群研究的一種概念，指一定時期內(nèi)各種原因?qū)е碌目偹劳觯ㄋ椎睦斫饩褪遣徽撊魏卧驅(qū)е碌乃劳?，都算作死亡人?shù)。通常用全因死亡率來衡量某時期人群因病、傷死亡危險大小的因素。

autophagy /???tɑf?d?i/ n. 自我吞噬

cellular /?selj?l?(r)/ adj. 細胞的

trash /tr??/ n. 垃圾

plasma /?pl?zm?/ n. 血漿

diabetes /?da???bi?ti?z/ n. 糖尿病

[8] Assuming that coffee does keep me alive for an extra few days or decades, I know how I’ll spend them: drinking more coffee, of darker and darker roasts, whose strong smell helps combat age-related loss of taste and smell. If Starbucks introduces a line of beans called “Indonesian Ashes,” I will be first in line to buy it.

【假如咖啡確實能讓我多活幾天或幾十年，我清楚我將如何度過這段時間：喝更多越來越濃的烘焙咖啡，其強烈的氣味有助于減緩與年齡相關(guān)的味覺和嗅覺喪失。如果星巴克推出了一種名為“印尼骨灰”的咖啡豆，我會第一個排隊購買?！?/p>

【重點詞匯】

roast /r??st/ n. 烤肉 v. 烘，烤，焙(肉等)

combat /?k?mb?t/ v. 防止;戰(zhàn)斗

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