【這是原載於《紐約時報》2015年6月28日的專欄文章】
我的微博：Simon教英語
The Joy of (Just the Right Amount of) Sex
多多做愛，會讓你更加幸福嗎？
Researchers long ago established a link between having sex and feeling pleased with yourself and the world. In a representative recent study of 1,000 women, for example, the participants ranked sex as No.1 among the activities that made them the happiest. Data from 16,000 American adults on incomes, sexual activity and happiness led economists to conclude in a much-discussed 2004 study that increasing the frequency of intercourse from once a month to once a week increased happiness to the same extent as having an additional $50,000 in the bank.
很久之前，研究人員就發現了做愛和幸福感的相關性。在最近一項有代表性的調查了1000名女性的研究中，發現她們把做愛排在了另她們感到最幸福的事中的第一位。2004年，經濟學家研究了1.6萬名美國成年人的收入，性生活和幸福感數據，得出結論說，把每月做愛一次的頻率增加到每周一次，對提升幸福感的效果無異於在銀行存款多了5萬美元。這項研究引起了人們的熱議。
1, 這裡的having sex 和 intercourse 都表示做愛，那麼英語中表示做愛的詞有哪些呢？
- have sex, make love 做愛，比較口語化的表達
- get laid 做愛，美國口語中非常常見 (字面上翻譯是不是「被推倒」的意思呢：）)
eg: Dave hasn’t even touched a woman in three months. we have to get him laid.
- intercourse 做愛，比較書面的用法 eg：sexual intercourse
- coitus 做愛，很正式，口語中不常用（當然《生活大爆炸》中的Sheldon經常掛在嘴邊）
- consummate: 圓房，If two people consummate a marriage or relationship, they make it complete by having sex. 這個詞強調通過做愛來表示「完成」。
例句：His wife divorced him for falling to consummate their marriage。
他的妻子因為他未能完婚而和他離婚。
But while these and similar studies, which relied on surveys, revealed an association between sex and happiness, they did not show that more sex actually causes greater happiness. Perhaps happier people just happen to have more sex. To establish causation, scientists needed to get couples to have sex more often and then see if that made them happier.
諸如此類的研究使用了問卷調查的方式，雖然它們揭示了性愛與幸福感之間的關聯，但卻不能說明更頻繁的性愛確實會帶來更大的幸福感。也許是更快樂的人碰巧擁有更頻繁的性生活。要讓因果關係成立，科學家需要讓伴侶們更加頻繁地做愛，然後再看看他們是否變得更快樂了。
2，association 表示兩件事情之間的相關性（correlation），注意和第一段中的link是一個意思。兩件事情有link/association, 並不能說明它們互為因果（causation）。就是說：association 不等於 causation。
比如：研究證明夏天沙灘上的冰淇淋銷售量和被鯊魚咬傷的人數有正相關性（association），但顯然這兩者不互為因果（causation）。同樣，原文中做愛和幸福感有相關性，但是還不能說是做愛導致了幸福感，也可能有別的原因。
Turns out it may not, according to a new study in the August issue of The Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.
《The Journal of Economic Behavior& Organization》8月刊的一項新研究顯示，答案可能是否定的。
For this study, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and elsewhere recruited 64 adult couples, all married and heterosexual, and asked the volunteers how often they had sex, how enjoyable it was and how happy they were in general, based on standard questionnaires that measure mood and energy. Half the couples, picked randomly, were assigned to go about their lives as usual; the rest were told to double the frequency of sexual relations. If they had sex once a month (the minimum rate for inclusion in the study), make it twice; couples who had sex three times a week (the maximum rate for participants) were to go to six.
在這項研究中，卡內基梅隆大學等機構的研究人員招募了64對成人伴侶，他們都已結婚，都是異性戀。研究人員使用衡量心情和能量的標準問卷，調查了志願者們的性生活頻率和質量，以及他們通常狀態下的幸福感。然後隨機挑選一半的夫婦，讓他們像往常一樣生活；並讓另一半夫婦將性愛的頻率增加一倍。如果他們每月做愛一次（參與這項研究的最低頻率），那就增加到兩次；如果每周做愛三次（參與這項研究的最高頻率），那就增加到六次。
3，heterosexual 異性戀
homosexual 同性戀
bisexual 雙性戀
transgender 變性者
The subjects were also tasked with completing a short daily online questionnaire for the experiment’s duration, which was 90 days, about the amount and quality of their sex the previous day and their subsequent moods. Some couples in the experimental group actually did manage to double the rate of intercourse, and on average there was a 40 percent increase.
在90天的實驗期內，受試者還需要每天完成一個簡短的日常在線問卷，回答前一天他們的性生活數量和質量，以及隨後的情緒狀況。實驗組中有些夫婦確實把性愛頻率增加了一倍，但平均增長幅度為40%。
4，在科學研究中的對象一般叫做subject，這個survey中的subjects是這64對伴侶。有些生物試驗中的小白鼠，也同樣叫做subject。
而對於一般的問卷調查，電話調查中的對象，一般用respondant這個詞。
5，manage to do sth：If you manage to do something, especially something difficult, you succeed in doing it. 成功地做成某事
例句：Many of the most precious bacteria manage to survive in extreme environments.
This did not make them happier. In fact, their well-being declined, especially in measures of energy and enthusiasm, as did the quality of the sex. Both men and women reported that the additional intercourse wasn’t much fun. The results surprised the researchers — but they probably shouldn’t have, according to George Loewenstein, a professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon, who led the study.
這並沒有讓他們變得更快樂。事實上，他們的幸福感還降低了，尤其是在能量和熱情的指標上，而且他們性生活的質量也下降了。無論男方還是女方都表示，額外增加性愛沒有太大樂趣。這個結果令研究人員感到驚訝——但他們可能不應該感到驚訝，該研究的負責人George Loewenstein說。他是卡內基梅隆大學的經濟學和心理學教授。
『『It seems that if you’re having sex for a reason other than because you like and want sex,』』 he says, you may undermine the quality of that sex and your resulting mood.
他說，「看來，如果你做愛有其他原因，而不是你喜歡和想做愛，」那可能就會削弱性愛的質量及其產生的情緒。
7， undermine：To make something or someone become gradually less effective, confident, or successful. 削弱，破壞
例句：This may help to undermine the brittle truce that currently exists.
這也許會火上澆油，破壞當前脆弱不穩的休戰局面。
The lesson is not simply to avoid participating in academic sex studies. Instead, Dr. Loewenstein says, concentrate on quality rather than quantity if you wish to be happy. Studies associating sexual frequency and happiness may have missed the underlying link between the two, which is the pleasurability of the sex. People who like their couplings probably have more of them, and it is the pleasure of the act, he says, that raises moods, not how often it happens.
這裡的教訓不只是告訴人們要避免參與性方面的學術研究。洛文斯頓博士說，如果你想獲得幸福感，那就要專注於性愛的質量而不是數量。對性愛頻率和幸福感之間關聯進行的研究，可能沒有注意到兩者之間的基本聯繫，那就是性愛的愉悅性。他說喜歡性愛的人可能會更多地做愛，提升情緒的是性的愉悅，而不是做愛的頻率。
8， underlying 根本的，underlying causes, facts, ideas etc are the real or basic ones, although they are not obvious or directly stated
上面第7條，如果讓你用另外一個詞替換原文中的undermine，你會選擇什麼詞呢？再想一下這個詞是不是合適呢？你可以把你的答案回復在公眾號中。