A medical team once went on a search for the key to longevity, hoping to share its findings with the public. It visited a number of primitive tribes and remote areas, where the inhabitants lived longer than the normal life span and looked younger and more innocent than most people.
以前有一个医学家团体，他们专门去采访长寿的秘方，然后公开给大家看。他们去很多比较原始的部落或是其它不同的地方，因为那些地方的人比较长寿，看起来比较年轻、比较天真，所以他们去那里看看。
On the first leg of its journey, the team visited a tribe of good-looking people. Although some of the tribesmen were well advanced in years, they still looked happy and healthy and had beautiful complexions. "What is your secret?" The doctors asked, "Why is it that you are able to live so long, yet remain young and happy?" They had little to worry about, they said. They had enough to eat, and had no competition, complicated business dealings, or jealousy among them. They just lived together naturally and peacefully. They ate simple food that was neither too spicy nor too sweet. They had no chocolate, for example. They did not even know what candy was, so their teeth were in good condition. (That's what I heard. I don't mean that you cannot eat candy.) So the doctors learned and recorded their findings about the key to longevity, which included not eating too many candies, sweet cookies, or spicy foods, and experiencing no competition, jealousy, business problems, or disputes.
到了第一个部落，那里很多人好漂亮，虽然老了，不过有很漂亮的皮肤、很健康、很快乐，他们就问：「你们的秘方是什么？为什么那么长寿？为什么那么快乐、那么年轻？」他们说出他们的秘方，比如说好像没有担忧、够食物吃、没有竞争压力、没有生意复杂的情况、没有嫉妒，他们很自自然然、很和平的生活在一起。他们吃的食物也很单纯，没有太多辣、没有太多甜、没有巧克力，假如说是这样子；他们不知道糖是什么，所以他们的牙齿都好棒！(听说的，我不是说你们不能吃糖果的啦！)然后他们知道了，原来长寿、快乐的秘方是这样子：不要吃糖、不要吃太多甜的饼干、不要吃辣的东西、不要竞争、不要嫉妒、不要做生意、不要与人计较等等，他们都记录起来。
Then the team moved on to another special place, where the inhabitants revealed a new secret in addition to those the team had already recorded: having less physical relations with one's spouse. They stopped having such relations after they had had two or three children. This way, they saved more energy and lived longer. Well, the doctors recorded this, too.
然后去另外一个地方，那个地方也比较特别，他们长寿的秘方除了前面提到的那些，另外，他们还说他们男女的关系比较减少，如果有二、三个小孩就停了。他们保存他们的精神，所以比较长寿，他们这样子想。好，那些科学家也都写下来。
Then they came to a third place. It was more prosperous, exciting, colorful, busy, and noisy, and was enjoying a business boom. The first local person they met was an old man. Despite his elderly looks, white hair, and wrinkled face, he looked fine. With GREat respect, the doctors asked him what his secret was. He ate, drank, and indulged in daily merrymaking, he said, adding that he also smoked, consumed meat, and had new girlfriends every day. The doctors shook their heads and said, "Wow! This is new to us." The man's comments contradicted all the earlier concepts that they had learned about longevity, which were to eat simply, lead a pure life, and have fewer sexual relations. How come everything was upside down here? In great surprise and admiration, the doctors exclaimed, "Only God knows why this is so!" It was beyond their understanding. So they gave the man a cigarette to make friends with him. Then they took him to a bar, where he drank alcohol as though it were water. The doctors then admired him even more. One of them could not help but ask, "May I ask, uncle, how old you are?" And what was his reply? "Thirty," he said.
他们又去第三个地方，看起来那个地方好富有、好热闹，比前面两个地方更热闹，更多颜色、多生意。然后，他们碰到的第一个当地人是一位老人，不过看起来也还不错，好老、好老，头发都白掉了，这边有很多皱纹，他们就很尊敬，请问他的秘方是怎么样？他说他每天吃喝玩乐，什么都有，酒、肉、烟都有，然后女朋友换好多，每天好几个等等。这些医学家都摇摇头：「喔，第一次听到！」这个把他们医学的观念都弄破了，刚刚他们认为因为吃的食物很单纯、生活很纯朴、或是夫妻关系减少，他们才那么长寿。结果来这里都颠倒、不一样了，他们在那里真的好惊服。他们说：「唉呀！只有上帝才能够知道怎么一回事！（God knows）」然后他们就想不通，在那里给他一根烟抽一抽，交友嘛！然后请他去旁边一个旅馆喝酒，他喝酒跟喝水一样，他们那个时候更佩服，其中一个人就忍不住问他：「请问老伯，你现在几岁了？年纪多高啦？」你们知道他的回答吗？他说他现在三十岁！
