2015考研英语阅读双胞胎母亲更幸福_大学英语阅读

2015考研英语阅读双胞胎母亲更幸福

　　To test their theory that the bearers of twins are supermums, Dr Robson and Dr Smith scouredthe records for women born between 1807 and 1899 who survived past the age of 50, whenthe menopause typically strikes. They excluded those married more than once, those widowedbefore they were 50 and also those wives who were part of one of thepolygamous marriages once legal among the states Mormon settlers. This left them with some 59,000 women, around 4,600 of whom had given birth to twins atleast once.

　　为了检验他们关于双胞胎母亲是超级妈妈的说法罗伯森博士和史密斯博士搜集了关于超过50岁的更年期正常来临并在1807年到1899年进行生产的妇女的资料。她们只结过一次婚，在50岁以前就守寡并且这些妻子是一夫多妻制婚姻的一部分，而这在这一地区的摩门教徒中是合法的。这样的妇女大约有59000名，其中4600名至少一次的生产双胞胎。

　　To assess the effects of the demographictransition, the two researchers split the sampleinto women born before 1870 and those born in orafter it. The results, just published in theProceedings of the Royal Society, confirm theirhypothesis. Mothers of twins in the pre-1870 batchgave birth, on average, to 1.9 more children than themothers of singletons. Those in the post-1870 batchhad 2.3 more. More importantly, from anevolutionary point of view, more of their childrenmade it to maturity. The mothers of twins in thepre-1870 batch had 1.24 more children who survived past the age of 18 than did othermothers. After that date the figure was 1.56.