背景介绍：
英国是一个长寿的国家。如果按人口预期寿命来看，英国人预期寿命为81岁，排名世界第29位；但如果按每十万人的百岁老人数量来看，英国则排名世界第7位。而在英国小镇锡德茅斯，百岁老人更是随处可见。那么，英国长寿村的秘密究竟是什么？
How to live to
one hundred
如何活到一百岁
Have good
genes and move to East Devon
拥有好基因，并搬到东德文郡
“Easy to find and hard to leave.” That is how
Sidmouth’s tourism website describes the small seaside town in East Devon,
where the red cliffs turn the ocean water pink. The tagline could apply to
lives as well as holidays.
“易来难走。”这是锡德茅斯旅游网站对该小镇的描述，锡德茅斯位于东德文郡，那里红色的悬崖将海水映成了粉红色。这个标语既可以形容度假，也可以形容生活。
Almost a third of residents are over 75; locals refer to Sidmouth as “God’s Waiting Room”. “We get a lot of people well into their 90s, 100s,” says a woman in a funeral parlour as an undertaker in a top hat tiptoes past. A card shop has sold “three or four” 100th-birthday cards since it opened in November.
锡德茅斯三分之一以上的居民年龄都超过75岁，当地人把锡德茅斯称作“上帝的候车室”。殡仪馆里一位戴着高帽的殡仪员踮着脚尖走过时，一位妇女说道：“我们这里有很多90多岁、甚至100多岁的老人。”自去年11月开业以来，一家贺卡店已经卖出“三四张”百岁生日卡片。
Life expectancy in Britain has been
stagnating
for a
decade but the country still produces a lot of very old folk. Britain ranks
29th in the world for life expectancy (at 81 years) but seventh for
centenarians per 100,000 people.
过去十年，英国的预期寿命停滞不前，但该国依然有很多长寿老人。按预期寿命来看，英国排名世界第29位（预期寿命为81岁），但按每十万人的百岁老人数量来看，英国排名第7位。
That puts it ahead of Italy and Greece, both of which are known for their “blue zones”, a term used to describe areas where people claim to live exceptionally long lives.
这意味着英国超过了意大利和希腊，这两个国家都以“蓝区”（是指人口寿命特别长的地区）闻名。
The secret to Sidmouth’s long-lived population is not
the food. Islands like Sardinia and Icaria have the Mediterranean diet—heavy in
olive oil, seafood and fresh vegetables. East Devon, which is home to the
highest concentration of centenarians in England, has the pensioner’s special:
a small fish and chips and a large pot of tea.
锡德茅斯的长寿秘诀并不在于食物。像撒丁岛和伊卡里亚岛这样的地方以地中海饮食（富含橄榄油、海鲜和新鲜蔬菜）为主。东德文郡是英格兰百岁老人最集中的地方，当地老人的特色饮食是：一小份炸鱼薯条和一大壶茶。
The sea air must help, says Graham Brooks, a
76-year-old who helps look after Sidmouth’s antiques shop and whose mother,
Audrey, turned 100 last November. (Mrs Brooks probably owes more to genes, luck
and the fact that she never smoked and does not drink, with the exception of
half a glass of wine at Christmas.)
现年76岁的格雷厄姆·布鲁克斯说，海边的空气一定有助于长寿，他帮忙照看锡德茅斯的古董店，他的母亲奥德丽去年11月刚满100岁。（布鲁克斯夫人之所以长寿，可能更多地要归功于基因、运气，以及她从不吸烟、除圣诞节时喝半杯葡萄酒外滴酒不沾的习惯。）
There are lots of opportunities in Sidmouth for old
people to stay active and socially connected, both good ways to delay the grim
reaper. At Fields, the local department store, the café is music-free, the
better to hear elderly friends.
在锡德茅斯，老年人有很多机会保持活跃和社交，这都是延缓死神到来的好方法。在菲尔德百货公司，咖啡馆里不放音乐，以便更好地听到老年朋友的声音。
There are brass-rubbing classes, a ukulele club and jazz evenings. In the window of Toto’s, a dog-toy shop “for dapper dogs”, is a poster for a film screening of “A Matter of Life and Death”, a classic released in 1946.
这里还有铜管乐班、尤克里里俱乐部和爵士乐之夜。在狗狗玩具店“托托”（专为时髦狗狗提供玩具）的橱窗里，张贴着 1946 年上映的经典影片《平步青云》的放映海报。
But places like Sidmouth are the silver lining to a
darker story. Although some of its citizens enjoy very long lives, Britain
excels at producing much shorter ones, too. Britain’s middling life-expectancy
figures
disguise
extremes. Centenarians tend to cluster more on the south
coast, in areas like Bournemouth and Bognor Regis as well as in East Devon.
但像锡德茅斯这样的地方，只是更黑暗故事中的一线希望。尽管有些居民寿命很长，但英国也擅长制造短命者。英国中等水平的预期寿命掩盖了极端情况。百岁老人往往更集中在南海岸地区，如伯恩茅斯、博格纳里吉斯以及东德文郡。
But in many other coastal towns, such as Blackpool, life expectancy is much lower than the national average. London is also not a place for the very old: of the eight local authorities in England and Wales with fewer than ten centenarians per 100,000 population, six are in the capital.
但在许多其他沿海城镇，如布莱克浦，预期寿命远低于全国平均水平。伦敦也不是长寿老人的理想之地：在英格兰和威尔士的八个地方当局中，每十万人口中百岁老人不足十人，其中六个位于地方首府。
Rather than blue zones, where a specific environment is
associated with greater longevity, it seems more likely that Britain
has silver zones, places which attract longer-lived people in middle age or
upon retirement.
与其说蓝区（指的是特定环境与长寿有关的地区），倒不如说英国有更多“银区”（指的是吸引中年或退休后长寿者的地方）。
Marjorie Hodnett, who grew up in London, will be 110 in April. Her biggest health complaint relates to a
prescription
toothpaste sent to the wrong pharmacy (at 105 she still had 26 of her own teeth; now she is down to 21).
马乔里·霍德内特在伦敦长大，今年4月将满110岁。她最大的健康问题是处方牙膏被送错了药店（105岁时，她还有26颗自己的牙齿；现在只剩下21颗了）。
She left Sidmouth for Merseyside in 2020, but only to be nearer relatives after six decades in the area. “It’s a lovely place,” she says wistfully. The first thing she asks your correspondent is whether the daffodils are out.
2020年，她离开锡德茅斯前往默西赛德郡，只是为了在该地区居住了六十年后离亲戚更近一些。“那是个可爱的地方，”她满怀惆怅地说。她问记者的第一件事是水仙花就是水仙花开了吗？
重难点词汇
：
stagnate
[ˈstæɡneɪt] v. 不流动；停滞
disguise
[dɪsˈɡaɪz] v. 假扮；化装；伪装；掩饰
prescription
