Coffee Really Does Make You Happier
题材：生活类
出处：The Atlantic《大西洋月刊》
字数：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.
【咖啡因是从某些植物中提炼而来，这些植物包括咖啡灌木、茶树、可可豆和可乐果。它作为一种天然的杀虫剂，能够防止昆虫啃食这些植物。愚蠢的虫子。但这并不能解释为什么85%的美国人每天都以某种形式摄入咖啡因。(我只能假设另外15%的人没有任何生活质量。)原因是：当咖啡因被摄入时，它很快进入大脑，在那里它与一种叫做腺苷的化学物质竞争。腺苷最重要的作用之一是让你产生疲劳感。在一天中，你会产生大量腺苷，它会让你最终放松下来;神经元将它释放出来，紧接着一个与腺苷分子大小完全一致的受体与它结合，接收到就寝时间即将来临的信息。】
【重点词汇】
caffeine /ˈkæfiːn/ n. 咖啡因;咖啡碱
shrub /ʃrʌb/ n. 灌木
pesticide /ˈpestɪsaɪd/ n. 杀虫剂
discourage /dɪsˈkʌrɪdʒ/ v. 阻拦;阻止
whatsoever /ˌwɒtsəʊˈɛvə/ adv. 任何 (用于名词词组之后，强调否定陈述)
ingest /ɪnˈdʒest/ v. 摄入;食入
adenosine /əˈdenə(ʊ)siːn/ n. 腺苷
neuron /ˈnjʊərɒn/ n. 神经元
molecule /ˈmɒlɪkjuːl/ 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.
【这就是咖啡因的作用。它的形状与腺苷分子非常相近，因此可以与受体适配。由于咖啡因已经占据了本该属于腺苷的位置，因此腺苷就不能停留在其原本的位置上了。(星巴克杯子旁边宣传的“第一口的感觉”听起来比“阻断清晨的腺苷”更吸引人，但确实就是这种情况。)实际上，咖啡因并不会让你振奋，它只是防止你感到疲劳。你摄入了足够多的咖啡因之后，你的受体中几乎没有了腺苷，所以你会感到兴奋和紧张。】
【重点词汇】
sip /sɪp/ v. 小口喝 n. 一小口(饮料)
pep sb. up 使兴致勃勃;使活跃
lethargic /ləˈθɑːdʒɪk/ adj. 没精打采的
jittery /ˈdʒɪtəri/ adj. 紧张不安的
[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：咖啡让你快乐。研究人员大卫·M·沃伯顿正在为《精神药理学》撰写稿子，他指出，低剂量的咖啡因可以导致“幸福感和平静感显著增加，紧张感降低”，这种发现即使我没有做研究也可以告诉他。他还指出，在研究对象身上，这些效果并不是缓解咖啡因成瘾的渴望所产生的，而是真正的、纯粹的、美妙的效果。这真的是一种奇迹。】
【重点词汇】
dose /dəʊs/ n. (药的)一剂，一服 v. 给(某人)服药
tenseness /ˈtensnəs/ n. 紧张
alleviate /əˈliːvieɪt/ v. 减轻;缓和
craving /ˈkreɪvɪŋ/ n. 渴望;热望
[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.
【除了带来快乐之外，咖啡因也是一种礼物。结合锻炼，它可以提高人的认知能力(这意味着如果你还没有喝咖啡，它会让你更聪明)。如果你睡得不够好，它可以提高你的反应时间和逻辑推理能力。当你在车流中行驶时记住这一点：你的咖啡可以拯救你的生命。】
【重点词汇】
cognitive /ˈkɒɡnətɪv/ adj. 认知的;感知的
optimally /ˈɒptɪməli/ 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.
【当然，生活中没有什么是免费的。面对豆子的神圣力量，腺苷的邪恶势力进行了反击。随着时间的推移，你摄入更多的咖啡因时，腺苷受体会上调，增加数量以适应咖啡因分子，并吸收掉这些咖啡因。这就导致了一种耐受状态，在这种状态下，长期服用咖啡因的效果减少。然而，这个“问题”实际上提供了一个享用更多咖啡的机会。】
【重点词汇】
malevolent /məˈlevələnt/ adj. 有恶意的;有坏心肠的
accommodate /əˈkɒmədeɪt/ v. 容纳;顺应，适应
chronic /ˈkrɒnɪk/ adj. 长期的;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.
【有些人认为，解决咖啡因耐受问题的办法是暂停喝咖啡。我的妻子就是其中之一：最近，她注意到我这些年喝咖啡的次数在增加，她故作无知地建议我“暂时不要喝咖啡了”。这个建议让我勃然大怒。“我有个主意”，我心跳加速，回答她，“为什么我们不分开一年，这样感觉更像我们刚结婚的时候?”我这样做过分吗?我不这么认为。】
【重点词汇】
fly into a rage 大发雷霆;暴怒
overreaction /ˌəʊvəriˈækʃn/ n. 过度反应
[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.)
【我很淡然地看待长期喝咖啡带来的影响。当然，我喝咖啡的习惯正在削弱我的下丘脑和肾上腺，随着时间的推移，它迫使我摄入更多的咖啡因。但这是非常值得的：日本有研究表明，习惯饮用咖啡可以降低全因死亡率。在老鼠身上进行的研究表明，除了其他方式，自噬这一方法可以实现这个目标。自噬是清除细胞垃圾的生物过程，随着我们年龄的增长，这一过程会自然减慢。研究还发现，咖啡可以降低老年老鼠血浆中的脂肪酸水平，而脂肪酸与人类的糖尿病和癌症有关。(人们说动物实验很残忍，但如果这意味着给老鼠喝小杯咖啡，我完全赞成。)】
【重点词汇】
wither /ˈwɪðə(r)/ v. 变虚弱;(花朵或植物)枯萎
hypothalamus /ˌhaɪpəˈθæləməs/ n. 下丘脑
enervate /ˈenəveɪt/ v. 使感到衰弱(或虚弱、无力)
adrenal gland /əˈdriːnl ɡlænd/ 肾上腺
all-cause mortality：全因死亡，是种群研究的一种概念，指一定时期内各种原因导致的总死亡，通俗的理解就是不论任何原因导致的死亡，都算作死亡人数。通常用全因死亡率来衡量某时期人群因病、伤死亡危险大小的因素。
autophagy /ɔːˈtɑfədʒi/ n. 自我吞噬
cellular /ˈseljələ(r)/ adj. 细胞的
trash /træʃ/ n. 垃圾
plasma /ˈplæzmə/ n. 血浆
diabetes /ˌdaɪəˈbiːtiːz/ 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.
【假如咖啡确实能让我多活几天或几十年，我清楚我将如何度过这段时间：喝更多越来越浓的烘焙咖啡，其强烈的气味有助于减缓与年龄相关的味觉和嗅觉丧失。如果星巴克推出了一种名为“印尼骨灰”的咖啡豆，我会第一个排队购买。】
【重点词汇】
roast /rəʊst/ n. 烤肉 v. 烘，烤，焙(肉等)
combat /ˈkɒmbæt/ v. 防止;战斗
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