【Unit 2】Text I Please Marry Me
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【Unit 2】Text I Please Marry Me
Please Marry Me
Say yes, and you’re in for more than love, children and a home. Better health and a
longer life are part of the deal.
Lori Oliwenstein1
【1】Miriam Kamin is feeling a lot better now. It was rough there for a while – the collapse of her nine-year marriage, and four years of single parenting while building a career as a corporate blogger2. Then, last May, she married Mark, a longtime friend. And that, she says, has made all the difference3.
【2】―I’ve struggled with depression for most of my life,‖ she explains. ―Yet, despite the fact that I’ve moved, relocated my kids and am working harder than I have in a very long time, I’m not on medication right now. I had no idea marriage was supposed to be this much fun.‖
【3】Never mind the popular palaver4 about marriage as a source of bliss for the couple, security for the kids and societal stability. Pair up5 any two people with often clashing needs, add the pressure-cooker variables6 of kids, doctor bills, career, housework, and the fact that someone – he knows who he is – can’t pull himself away from7 the TV during college-basketball8 season, and there are bound to be9 problems. Marriage is criticized as a source of stress (and it is), conflict (that too) and endless crises that need to be resolved (guilty there as well).
【4】But it’s also something more. Decades of data collection have shown that marriage – for all10 its challenges – is like a health-insurance policy. Marriage means no more drinking at bars until closing, no more eating ramen11 noodles and calling it a meal. Married people are less likely to smoke or drink heavily than people who are single, divorced or widowed. These sorts of lifestyle changes are known to lower rates of cardiovascular disease12, cancer and respiratory13 diseases. And while you might sometimes gripe14 that your spouse drives you nuts15, just the opposite is true. Married people have lower rates of all types of mental illnesses and suicide. 【5】Researchers have found that all the health benefits of marriage are consistent16 across age, race, education and income groups. Some of the reasons for this are obvious.Smoking and drinking naturally decline if you’ve got a spouse at your side flashing17 you a don’t-you-dare18 look when you reach for a cigarette or a third
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【Unit 2】Text I Please Marry Me
glass of wine. Depression and other emotional ills are less likely to go undiagnosed19 if there’s someone at home who’s mindful20 of your moods and notices if they darken21. But there are other, less self-evident things at work too – things that scientists and doctors are only now beginning to appreciate fully. 【6】For all the safeguards22 spouses erect23 around each other, much of what makes marriage so healthy takes place within our bodies. A lot of those benefits come down to24 the management of stress. The daily stresses of the modern world can throw our bodies into emergency mode and keep us there. That takes a toll25 through high blood pressure, tension headaches and a lot of gnawed26 pencils. Being married somehow helps the body circumvent27 this mess, either by hushing28 the hypothalamus29 or reducing cortisol30 production.
【7】This is especially good news for men. A study published in the January 2008 issue of the journal Health Psychology showed that while married men get relief from their workday barrage31 of stress hormones32 when they come home after a particularly busy day at work, working women are able to de-stress similarly only if they describe their marriage as a happy one.
【8】There may be a simple explanation for this. It may just be that some women are coming home and facing dinner prep and assisting the kids with homework, and they’re not getting the help that the more maritally satisfied women are getting. The full explanation for this gender gap, however, is undoubtedly more complicated than that. Long-term data from an Israeli study, for example, indicate that the life-lengthening powers of marriage have increased over time – but mostly for men. Over nearly two decades, the study found, married men widened the already significant difference in cancer-death incidence between themselves and unmarried men by 25%; married women gained absolutely zero33 ground over their unmarried peers.
【9】Why this somatic34 sexism? ―This is a gross35 generalization, but women are really the mental- and physical-health housekeepers for a marriage,‖ says psychologist Janice Kiecolt-Glaser of the Ohio State University College of Medicine. ―They are often the ones who prod36 men to go to a doctor or to eat more healthily.‖ Miriam Kamin’s husband Mark agrees. ―As a man, I’m more concerned with making sure the oil has been changed in the last 3,000 miles than with whether I had a physical lately,‖ he says. ―Miriam’s much more likely to notice something is wrong
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【Unit 2】Text I Please Marry Me
with me than I am.‖
【10】For all its benefits, marriage is not a gift certificate for good health. For one thing, it’s fattening37. According to a CDC38 study, married men are nearly 20% more likely to be overweight or obese39 than are men who have never married – perhaps because they simply have someone to sit down to dinner with each night or perhaps because the often empty refrigerator of a onetime40 bachelor fills up fast when someone is making sure to do the shopping.
【11】Data also show that the stress of a bad marriage can undo41 much of the good that comes with a happy one. In a series of studies, Kiecolt-Glaser and her husband, immunologist42 Ronald Glaser, also of the Ohio State University College of Medicine, found that ―negative marital interaction,‖ such as arguments, name-calling43 and nonverbal cues44 like eye-rolling lead to increases in cortisol and decreases in immune45 function and even wound-healing. The effects were observed in both sexes, but particularly strongly in women.
【12】And when the protective bonds of marriage break, watch out. Those tales of spouses who die within days of each other have more than a little truth to them. A 2007 British study found that a bereaved46 spouse has a greater risk of death from just about any cause (except, oddly47, lung cancer) than a still married person. ―Over time,‖ says neuroscientist48 James Coan of the University of Virginia, ―your brain becomes used to the other person as part of your emotional-regulation strategy. You take that person away, and you become what we dryly49 call dysregulated50 – weepy, mournful, staying up half the night. This can come from death, divorce, even a long business trip. When those bonds break, it can cause a lot of pain and emotional suffering.‖
【13】Certainly not all suddenly single spouses are fated51 to languish52 this way – no more than all people who never pair off53 are destined54 for a shortened life filled with illness and stress. Humans are resourceful creatures who build and rebuild networks of relationships, getting the attention, hand-holding55 and even scolding they need in a lot of different ways. Still, it’s hard to argue with an institution that keeps a companion and caretaker constantly nearby, even if now and again56 – when a wet towel has once again been dropped on the floor or a tube of toothpaste has been squeezed all wrong – we may lose sight of57 that happy fact.
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【Unit 2】Text I Please Marry Me
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Lori Oliwenstein: an independent writing and editing professional who is currently
the Co-Director of News and Senior Science Writer at California Institute of Technology. He used to be the Editor and Community Manager, ParentsConnect.com., a science Writer at Health Sciences Public Relations, University of Southern California (USC), a senior Health Editor at Living Fit and a Senior Editor at Discover Magazine.
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corporate blogger: 企业博客
made all the difference: to have an important effect on sb/sth; to make sb feel
better 关系重大，大不相同，使更好受
● A few kind words at the right time make all the difference.
make a/no/some/…difference (to/in sb/sth): to have an/no/some/… effect on sb/sth 有（或没有，有些等）作用，关系，影响
● Your age shouldn’t make any difference to whether you get the job or not.
Changing schools made a big difference to my life.
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palaver: n. talk that does not have any meaning; nonsense 空谈，废话 (P28) pair up: to come together or to bring two people together to work, play a game, etc.
● He’s talking palaver.
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● They asked us to pair up with the person next to us and form teams. ● Smokers and nonsmokers are paired up as roommates.
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the pressure-cooker variables高压变量 pull himself away from:
pressure-cooker: 压力锅
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1) pull away (from sth): (of a vehicle) to start moving 开动
● They waved as the bus pulled away. 公共汽车开动时他们挥手告别。 2) pull away from sb/sth: if you pull away from someone/something that you have had close links with, you deliberately become less close to them. ● She tried to pull away from the man who was holding her.
● Though her baby was unwell, she managed to pull away from him to attend an
important meeting.
pull out: (of vehicle or its driver) to move away from the side of the road 驶离路边，驶出
pull over: (of vehicle or its driver) to move to the side of the road in order to stop or let sth pass 驶向路边，向路边停靠（或让车）
pull sth down: to destroy a building completely 拆毁，摧毁（建筑物） SYN
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