【经济学人】不开心的假期|2017.04.08|总第862期

ENGLISH schoolchildren enjoy 13 weeks of holiday a year. To jaded office workers (and perhaps the Green Party—see article) that may sound ideal. Indeed, few children complain that they spend too much time away from exams, homework and the possibility of detention. Yet a new research paper* suggests that maybe they should: for children are happier when at school than during the holidays. The Easter break, which begins this week at many schools, is the gloomiest time of the year.

英国的在校生每年享有13周的假期。这对疲惫的上班族（也可能是绿党——见文章）来说是非常不错的待遇了。事实上，很少有孩子抱怨他们在考试，作业和留校之前花了太多的时间。然而一篇新的学术论文建议也许他们应该让孩子在学校里比在假期中更开心。许多学校在本周开始放复活节假，这是一年中最灰暗的时期。

The analysis looks at data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, which has tracked the ups and downs of 40,000 households since 2009. As children are surveyed at different times of the year, Gundi Knies, the author, is able to compare their cheeriness across the calendar. She finds that younger children are happier than teenagers, and that teenage girls are moodier than teenage boys.

分析员查阅了英国家庭纵向研究的资料，这些资料自2009年起前后追踪了40000户家庭的起起落落。每年都在不同的时间段去调查这些家庭的孩子，作者甘地·克里埃斯（Gundi Knies）就可以在时间上比较他们的活泼程度了。他发现小一点的儿童会比青少年更开心，而十几岁的男孩子会比十几岁的女孩子更开心。

The data offer a clue as to what explains the holiday glumness. One possibility is that it is caused by a mild form of separation anxiety. MsKnies notes that although children’s reported satisfaction with their family does not decline during the holidays, their satisfaction with their friends does. Distance may breed discontent.

这些数据似乎可以解释假期抑郁（这一现象）。其中的一种可能便是分离的焦虑。克里埃斯（MsKnies）解释道，虽然与父母呆在一起会让孩子们感到满足，然而他们却也想与朋友也待在一起。和朋友的分离可能产生失落感。

• Glumness    n.忧郁

• breed   vt.产（后代），生;产生，导致;优生交配;养育，训练   vi.产仔;繁殖，旺盛生长   n.属;种类;类型;血统

Another reason may be that, when not distracted by schoolwork, children spend more time in front of a screen, which research suggests makes them less happy. And many extra-curricular activities are suspended, which means less time playing football or hanging out at drama club. “Everyone needs something meaningful to fill their day,” says MsKnies. Unemployed adults are less happy than their peers. Crucially, those children who were on holiday abroad would not have been surveyed, so the ones included in the study were those left hanging around at home.

另一个原因可能就是：孩子们一旦没有了作业束缚，他们就会开始玩电子产品，而这并不会让他们快乐。没有了丰富的课外活动，就意味着孩子们没有多少时间能够踢球或是在戏剧俱乐部溜达。“每个人都需要一些有趣的事儿来让他们的一天变得充实”，MsKnies说道。所以没有工作的成人要比他们的同龄人更不快乐。值得一提的是，那些假期外出的孩子并没有接受调查，因此这份报告研究的是（假期）留在家中的孩子。

• suspended  adj.暂停的，缓期的（宣判），悬浮的v.暂停;悬( suspend的过去式和过去分词 );延缓;使暂时停职（或停学等）

As for why Easter holidays are worst of all, one possible explanation jumps out: exams. The main ones tend to be in the summer term, so the Easter break is spent swotting up (or feeling guilty about not doing so). Steve Jackson, the head teacher of a school in Somerset, frets that the pressure piled on children by exams has “increased exponentially over the years”, to the extent that they may now be damaging to young people’s health. Foreign jaunts are more common in the summer; Christmas brings families together in the winter. Easter eggs, it seems, are insufficient compensation for the horrors of revision.（读者试译句）

至于为什么说复活节假期最难过，有这样一个解释：就是考试。主要的考试都集中在夏季学期，所以复活节假期基本就是在各种复习之中(或者对于没有复习充满罪恶感)。萨默斯塞特郡一所学校的校长史蒂夫ž杰克逊（Steve Jackson）十分担忧各种考试给孩子们带来的成堆的压力“这几年孩子们的压力已经在呈指数级别上升”，甚至已经到了会损害年轻人身体健康的程度。（期待您的翻译，明天会有针对这句话的长难句解析哟~）

“Income effects on children’s life satisfaction: Longitudinal Evidence for England” by Gundi Knies of the University of Essex, Institute for Social and Economic Research Working Paper Series.

作者甘地·克里埃斯（Gundi Knies）在埃塞克斯大学，社会与经济学院调查研究论文系列中提到：“英国的纵向对比数据显示，家庭收入会影响儿童的生活满意度。”

翻译 ▍毛毛 小情人 似水流年

审核 ▍小情人

编辑 ▍且听风吟