Work VS Play: The Easter Blues
工作vs娱乐：万圣节的烦恼
Despiting Kris Chocolate Russians, Children would rather be at school.
尽管可以吃巧克力，孩子们还是想在学校待着。
English schoolchildren enjoy 13 weeks of holiday a year.
英国的在校生每年享有13周的假期。
To jaded office workers (and perhaps the Green Party) that may sound ideal.
这对疲惫的上班族(也可能是绿党)来说是非常不错的待遇了。
Indeed, few children complain that they spend too much time away from exams, homework and the possibility of detention.
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。
Yet a new research paper suggests that maybe they should: for children are happier when at school than during the holidays.
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。
The Easter break, which begins this week at many schools, is the gloomiest time of the year.
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.
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。
As children are surveyed at different times of the year, Gundi Knies, the author, is able to compare their cheeriness across the calendar.
每年都在不同的时间段去调查这些家庭的孩子，作者甘地·柯尼斯(Gundi Knies)就可以在时间上比较他们的活泼程度了。
She finds that younger children are happier than teenagers, and that teenage girls are moodier than teenage boys.
她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.
这些数据似乎可以解释假期抑郁(这一现象)。
One possibility is that it is caused by a mild form of separation anxiety.
其中的一种可能便是分离的焦虑。
Ms Knies notes that although children's reported satisfaction with their family does not decline during the holidays, their satisfaction with their friends does.
柯尼斯(Knies)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。
Distance may breed discontent.
和朋友的分离可能产生失落感。
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.
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。
And many extra-curricular activities are suspended, which means less time playing football or hanging out at drama club.
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。
“Everyone needs something meaningful to fill their day,” says MsKnies.
“每个人都需要一些有趣的事儿来让他们的一天变得充实”，柯尼斯说道。
Unemployed adults are less happy than their peers.
所以没有工作的成人要比他们的同龄人更不快乐。
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.
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留在家中的孩子。
As for why Easter holidays are worst of all, one possible explanation jumps out: exams.
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。
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) .
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)。
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.
萨默斯塞特郡一所学校的校长史蒂夫·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。
Foreign jaunts are more common in the summer; Christmas brings families together in the winter.
炎夏，国外旅游更是习以为常;寒冬，欢度圣诞共享天伦之乐。
Easter eggs, it seems, are insufficient compensation for the horrors of revision.
看来，复活节彩蛋无法修复应试之惧。
重点词组：
1.office workers 上班族
例句:Few of the office workers dared to approach the director about their working conditions.
职员中很少有人敢向主任提出工作条件方面的要求。
2.as to 至于，关于
例句:This gave me a clue as to the source of the problem.
这件事给我提供了找出问题根源的线索。
3.the ups and downs 起起落落
例句:The novel mirrors the ups and downs of the city.
这本小说反映了城市的兴衰。
4.looks at 研究
例句:He looks at all jimmy's teeth.
他检查了吉米所有的牙齿。
5.in front of 在...前面
例句:I stood for a few moments in front of the nearest shop window.
我在最近的一家商店的橱窗前站了一会儿。
6.Easter eggs 复活节彩蛋
例句:The warehouse will hold more than 90,000 pallets storing 30 million Easter eggs.
那间仓库将用9万多个货盘装3,000万只复活节彩蛋。
7.swot up 刻苦攻读
例句:I have to swot up on phrasal verbs for a test tomorrow.
我不得不为明天的测验努力温习短语动词。
8.jump out 跳出
例句:He let down the tailgate so the dog could jump out.
他放下后背门，好让狗跳出来。
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