研究：人們最鬱悶的時候出現在星期三
Wednesday – not Monday – is the worst day of the week, according to research by two American applied mathematicians.
Professors Christopher Danforth and Peter Dodds, of Vermont University, analysed words used in 2.4 million internet blogs such as Twitter, giving a score out of nine depending on how positive they were.
Words like free, fun, and rainbow all scored above eight, while words such as betray, cruel, hatred and suffocate all scored less than two.
Saturday and Sunday rated predictably well but, perhaps surprisingly, Monday came out as the second happiest day of the week, partly because people were still reminiscing about the weekend. However by Wednesday, these feelings had subsided.
Professor Danforth said: "People's daily experience is being reflected somewhat in what they're saying. And this is more of a story, we think, for Twitter messages, which we've just started to pay attention to, about a year ago.
"They think they are communicating with friends, but since blogs are public we're just looking over their shoulders.
"The weekends tend to be fairly happy and Wednesday turned out to be the saddest day."
He said using the internet in this way enabled them to rate happiness based on higher numbers of people than previous studies.
"What we're attempting to do is measure collective happiness on a much larger scale, similar to measuring the temperature outside," Professor Danforth said.
"The energy of a few molecules bouncing around doesn't give a good indication of heat, you need billions or more."
美國兩位應用數學家研究發現，一週中最鬱悶的一天是週三，而不是週一。
佛蒙特大學的克里斯托弗•丹福思和彼得•多茲教授對在Twitter等網站上的240萬篇博客中使用的詞語進行了分析，並將其按照積極程度從1到9打分。
自由、樂趣、彩虹等詞語的得分都在8分以上，而背叛、殘忍、仇恨和窒息等詞語的得分都在2分以下。
不出所料，週六和週日得分很高；但可能讓人意外的是，週一在一週的快樂排行榜中名列第二，這部分是因爲人們還沉浸在週末的快樂之中。然而到了週三，這種情緒已漸漸消退。
丹福思教授說：“從某種程度上來說，人們每天的經歷可反映在他們的談話裏。我們認爲，對於Twitter上的那些信息來說，它們更像是一個故事。我們大約在一年前纔開始關注這個問題。”
“他們覺得自己是在和朋友們交流，但因爲博客是公開的，所以我們只是在‘窺探’。”
“週末是一週中非常愉快的兩天，而週三則是一週中最鬱悶的一天。”
他表示，與之前的研究相比，利用網絡進行研究可以讓他們對更多的人展開調查。
丹福思教授說：“我們想評定更大範圍人羣的集體快樂指數，就像測量室外溫度一樣。”
“僅測定幾個活躍分子的熱量無法得出準確的溫度，你需要數十億個分子甚至更多。”
Vocabulary:
subside：to sink to a low or lower level（減退，平息）
look over one's shoulders: be careful;watch for danger（小心提防）
