原文标题：
Britain’s silver zones
How to live to one hundred
Have good genes and move to East Devon
英国的银发区
如何活到一百岁
拥有长寿基因，并搬到东德文郡
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“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.
“易寻难舍”，这是东德文郡小海滨城市西德茅斯旅游网站对这座城市的宣传。这里的红崖将海水染成了粉色，风景如画。
The tagline could apply to lives as well as holidays. Almost a third of residents are over 75; locals refer to Sidmouth as “God’s Waiting Room”.
这句标语既适用于生活，也适用于度假。近1/3的居民年龄超过75岁；当地人将西德茅斯称为“上帝的等候室”。
“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.
当殡仪馆里戴着高顶礼帽的殡仪员悄悄走过时，一位女士说："我们这里有很多90多岁和100多岁的老人。
A card shop has sold “three or four” 100th-birthday cards since it opened in November.
一家贺卡店自去年11月开业以来，已经售出了“3-4张”百岁贺卡。
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Life expectancy in Britain has been stagnating for a decade but the country still produces a lot of very old folk.
10年来，英国人的预期寿命一直停滞不前，但英国仍然涌现出了许多高龄老人。
Britain ranks 29th in the world for life expectancy (at 81 years) but seventh for centenarians per 100,000 people.
按预期寿命来看，英国在全球排名第29位（81岁），但按每10万人中的百岁老人数量来看，则排名第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.
这使得英国超越了以“蓝色区域”闻名的意大利和希腊，“蓝区”这一术语用来描述是世界上最长寿人群生活的地区。
The secret to Sidmouth’s long-lived population is not the food.
西德茅斯长寿人口的秘诀并不在于食物。
Islands like Sardinia and Icaria have the Mediterranean diet—heavy in olive oil, seafood and fresh vegetables.
意大利撒丁岛和希腊伊卡利亚岛等长寿区域都遵循地中海饮食--以橄榄油、海鲜和新鲜蔬菜为主。
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.
东德文郡是英国百岁老人最集中的地方，这里有着专属于老年人的特色饮食：一小份炸鱼薯条和一大壶茶。
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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.
76岁的格雷厄姆·布鲁克斯说，海边的空气肯定有益于健康长寿。他帮忙打理西德茅斯的古董店，而他的母亲奥黛丽去年11月迎来了百岁寿辰。
(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.)
（布鲁克斯夫人之所以如此长寿，可能更多地归功于长寿基因、运气以及她从不抽烟、不喝酒的习惯，只有在圣诞节时，她才会喝上半杯葡萄酒。）
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There are lots of opportunities in Sidmouth for old people to stay active and socially connected, both good ways to delay the grim reaper.
在西德茅斯，老年人有很多机会保持活力和社交联系，这两种方式都是推迟死神到来的好方法。
At Fields, the local department store, the café is music-free, the better to hear elderly friends.
在菲尔兹百货公司的咖啡厅里，为了让老年人更好地聆听彼此的交谈，特意提供了无音乐环境。
There are brass-rubbing classes, a ukulele club and jazz evenings.
这里有铜管乐班、尤克里里俱乐部和爵士乐晚会。
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.
托托是一家 "专卖时髦狗狗 "的狗玩具店，橱窗里张贴着《平步青云》的放映海报，这是1946年上映的经典影片。
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But places like Sidmouth are the silver lining to a darker story.
然而，像西德茅斯这样的地方，却为更沉重的话题带来了一线希望。
Although some of its citizens enjoy very long lives, Britain excels at producing much shorter ones, too.
虽然有些英国人寿命很长，但英国短命人也多。
Britain’s middling life-expectancy figures disguise extremes.
英国中等水平的预期寿命掩盖了极端现象。
Centenarians tend to cluster more on the south coast, in areas like Bournemouth and Bognor Regis as well as in East Devon.
百岁老人多集中在南部沿海地区，比如伯恩茅斯、博格诺里吉斯、东德文郡等地区。
But in many other coastal towns, such as Blackpool, life expectancy is much lower than the national average.
但在许多其他沿海城镇，如布莱克浦的预期寿命远低于全国平均水平。
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.
伦敦也不是一个适合高龄老人居住的地方：在英格兰和威尔士的8个行政区中，每10万人口中百岁老人不到10人，首都有6人。
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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.
比起与长寿密切相关的特定环境区域——即所谓的“蓝色区域”，英国似乎更拥有“银发区域”，这些地方吸引了中年或退休后的长寿人群。
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).
玛乔丽·霍德内特在伦敦长大，将于今年4月迎来110岁生日。她最大的健康困扰与一次处方牙膏寄错药店的经历有关（她105岁时仍有26颗真牙，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.
2020年，她离开了生活60年的西德茅斯，前往默西塞德郡，但只是为了离亲戚更近一些。
“It’s a lovely place,” she says wistfully. The first thing she asks your correspondent is whether the daffodils are out.
她怀念地说：“那是一个可爱的地方。”她向本报记者询问的第一件事就是“水仙花开了吗？”
（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量596左右）
原文出自：2024年2月17日《The Economist》Britain版块
精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路
本文翻译整理: Irene
本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。
Blue zones蓝色区域是世界上最长寿人群生活的地区，对于蓝区有官方的划分标准：1.人的寿命最长2.超过100岁的老人最多3.中年人死亡率最低。根据这三个标准，世界上有5个地区符合标准：意大利撒丁岛，日本冲绳，哥斯达黎加尼科亚，美国加州的罗马琳达，希腊伊卡利亚岛。
地中海饮食（Mediterranean diet），是泛指希腊、西班牙、法国和意大利南部等处于地中海沿岸的南欧各国以蔬菜水果、鱼类、五谷杂粮、豆类和橄榄油为主的饮食风格。研究发现地中海饮食可以减少患心脏病的风险，还可以保护大脑免受血管损伤，降低发生中风和记忆力减退的风险。现也用“地中海式饮食”代指有利于健康的，简单、清淡以及富含营养的饮食。
Grim reaper（或简称reaper）就是死神的英文名称，形象穿黑斗篷的骷髅，手持镰刀。这是西方的一个典故，圣经中耶稣把信徒比作麦子，等时候到了就要来收割（进入天堂），所以后来西方已收割为死亡的代称，镰刀也就成了死神的武器。
Islands like Sardinia and Icaria have the Mediterranean diet—heavy in olive oil, seafood and fresh vegetables.
意大利撒丁岛和希腊伊卡利亚岛等长寿区域都遵循地中海饮食--以橄榄油、海鲜和新鲜蔬菜为主。
There are lots of opportunities in Sidmouth for old people to stay active and socially connected, both good ways to delay the grim reaper.
在西德茅斯，老年人有很多机会保持活力和社交联系，这两种方式都是推迟死神到来的好方法。
Britain’s middling life-expectancy figures disguise extremes.
英国中等水平的预期寿命掩盖了极端现象。
自由英语之路