英调查：人在58岁时步入老年

According to a study, the average Briton believes that youth ends at 35 and old age begins at 58. In between - all 23 years - is your middle age.

The news that 58 is "over the hill" may come as a surprise to anyone who has passed the milestone and feels they are not yet in the twilight of their lives.

They include Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the glamorous actress Jane Seymour, who are both full of energy at 59. Kathryn Bigelow, 58, has just won an Oscar for directing the action-packed movie The Hurt Locker.

The finding that we regard people in their fifties as getting doddery, despite the evidence that older people are living more active lives than ever, was revealed by academics from the University of Kent to a meeting of the Economic and Social Research Council, in London.

Professor Dominic Abrams, who studied data from 40,000 people across Europe, said: "The survey showed that age prejudice – being treated as "too young" or "too old" – is perceived to be a serious or very serious issue by 63 per cent of respondents, so it is obviously important to know what these age labels mean to people."

A survey asked: when does youth end and old age begin? For the UK, the average response was that you stop being young at 35, and start being old at 58.

But the figures also showed that opinions differed among the age groups. Younger people, those aged 15 to 24, thought youth ended at just 28 and old age began at 54.

Not surprisingly, people in their eighties were more generous. They regarded the final year of youth as 42, and the onset of old age as 67.

Professor Abrams, a psychologist, added: "This evidence shows that what counts as young and old is very largely down to the age of the beholder."

Men regarded the end of youth and start of old age to begin two years earlier than women did, according to results from the European Social Survey.

There were also large differences among European countries. Youth was perceived to end earliest among the Portuguese; they said it was at 29, while in Cyprus it was 45. The Portuguese also thought old age began at 51 – whereas Belgians believed it took at lot longer, at 64.

一项研究表明，英国人普遍认为青年时期在35岁结束，老年时期从58岁开始。而这之间的23年则是人的中年时期。

这一结果可能会让那些已过58岁但却尚未感到人生迟暮的人感到吃惊。

这其中包括59岁的英国首相戈登•布朗和魅力女星简•西摩尔，现在的他们依然精力充沛；以及58岁的女导演凯瑟琳•毕格罗，她刚凭借执导动作片《拆弹部队》获得奥斯卡奖。

虽然在英国人看来，五十多岁的人正走向人生暮年，但有证据显示年龄较大的人的生活状态比以往更加积极。这一研究结果由肯特大学研究人员在伦敦召开的经济和社会科学研究委员会会议上公布。

多米尼克•艾布拉姆斯教授在对从欧洲收集的4万人的数据进行了研究。他说：“调查显示，63%的受访者认为年龄偏见（被视为‘太年轻’或‘太老’）是一个严重或十分严重的问题，因此了解人们对这些年龄界限的看法显然十分重要。”

一项调查问到：青年时期何时结束，老年时期何时开始？英国人的普遍回答是前者在35岁时结束，后者从58岁开始。

数据还显示，不同年龄段的人对这一问题的看法也不相同。年龄在15岁到24岁之间的年轻人认为青年时期在28岁时结束，老年时期从54岁开始。

不出意料的是，八十多岁的人对两个界限的理解更为宽松。他们认为青年时期结束于42岁，老年时期开始于67岁。

心理学家艾布拉姆斯教授说：“这表明，对青年和老年起止年龄问题的看法在很大程度上取决于不同人群的年龄。”

根据这一欧洲社会调查的结果，男性所认为的青年和老年的起止年龄比女性早两年。

这一结果在欧洲不同的国家间还存在较大差异。葡萄牙人所认为的青年时期结束得最早，为29岁，而在塞浦路斯人认为青年时期终止于45岁。葡萄牙人还认为老年时期从51岁开始，而比利时人所认为的老年则要晚得多，为64岁。

Vocabulary:

over the hill: 在走下坡路，在衰退中

doddery: 衰弱的，迟钝的，步履蹒跚的