最幸福的事情莫過於住在鄉間

Several times a year, I repair to my bolthole in a small village on the coast of Northumberland, where I spent my childhood. It's a happy place and just the right antidote to busy, noisy, grimy London. It's beautiful, which helps, and it's hardly changed from the way it was when I went to school there.

我每年都會去諾森伯蘭郡海岸的一個小村莊，去修繕我兒時長大的地方（每年都會去好幾次）。那兒的生活無憂無慮，是一劑靈丹妙藥，能讓人忘了忙碌、嘈雜而又髒亂的倫敦。那兒很美，自打我上學開始，那兒就沒怎麼變。

What makes it so magical? I think it's the sense of community. Everyone knows everyone else and everyone cares. When I arrive, I trot up the village street and drop in to the shops to say: "Hi, I'm back" for a few joyful minutes of chat. It feels like family. It's this quality, Canadian researchers say, that gives country living a considerable edge over town life. In fact, it offers eight times the happiness.

那它爲何如此神奇？我想是因爲社區意識吧。那兒的人們彼此熟悉、相互關心。每次到那兒，我都會走過鄉間街道，路過商店的時候會打聲招呼："嗨，我又回來啦"，然後愉快地和當地人聊上幾分鐘。整個村子就像一個大家族。加拿大研究員稱，正是這種品質才讓鄉間生活比城鎮生活更令人嚮往。事實上，鄉間生活能使人們的幸福感提高8倍。

Cities have higher salaries, higher education levels and lower unemployment rates, but when the researchers surveyed 400,000 people across Canada using a happiness scale, they found those things meant nothing in terms of joy.

城市的工資水平更高、教育程度更高，且失業率更低，但當研究員對40萬加拿大人的幸福度進行調查時，他們發現這些對於他們而言，根本算不上快樂。

People who lived in the countryside were, on average, eight times happier than people in urban areas. The researchers attributed the findings to the undeniable importance of strong communities over social isolation. Life is significantly less happy in urban areas. To assess happiness, the researchers asked people how satisfied they were with their lives on a scale of one to 10.

平均而言，生活在鄉間的人比生活在城市的人更幸福，幸福指數是他們的8倍。研究員認爲這是因爲強大的社區意識比社會隔離更重要。顯然，生活在城鎮的人並不快樂。爲了評估幸福感，研究人員請受試者對自己的生活滿意度打分，1-10分。

In general, most people scored between 7.04 and 8.94 - just 5% fell below a rating of five out of 10. They found that people in cities were 800% less happy than those in small towns or rural areas. The reasons for this, the authors said, are many, but are mainly driven by the lack of a strong community base.

一般來說，大多數人的打分都在7.04至8.94分之間--只有5%的人打了5分以下。他們發現城市人口的幸福度比小鎮人口或農村人口的幸福度低800%。作者表示，造成這一現象的原因很多，但主要是因爲缺乏強大的社區基礎。

There's a raft of information showing that city-dwellers tend not to have as much regular contact with family or friends. And, as a recent study found, social isolation can literally change the brain. It floods the brain with a chemical which fuels fear and aggression.

大量信息表明：城市居民與家人和朋友的聯繫往往並不密切。最近的一項研究發現：與社會脫節真的會改變人們的大腦。使人變得恐懼和咄咄逼人的化學物質會侵佔人們的大腦。