如何尋找理想伴侶?

I'm sure we all remember a time when we fell in love. For some it was a gradual realisation that the person you knew was actually amazing. For others, it was love at first sight – an instant lightning-bolt moment that you knew you'd met your perfect match.

我相信我們都記得相愛的時光。有人日久生情，有人一見傾心——一剎那的火花，你就知道遇見了命定之人。

What is it that makes someone instantly love someone? Physical attraction is an obvious answer but there are other reasons that can create affection for someone; compatibility, personality and a good sense of humour to name just a few.

是什麼讓一個人立即愛上另一個人？身體吸引是一個顯而易見的答案，但還有其他的因素可以同樣的建立感情：舉例如包容大度，個性和好的幽默感。

But according to one expert, there is a more scientific explanation. Dr Anna Machin, an Evolutionary Anthropologist at the University of Oxford says men look for signs of fertility and good health in a partner "and the major indicator of that in women is the waist-hip ratio… the absolute ideal." This is believed to be 0.7 which is "really your classic hourglass figure." And what do women look for in men? Well other experts have discovered they look for men who are taller, with broad shoulders and a relatively narrow waist – so a 'V' shaped torso.

但是按照某位專家觀點，還有更科學的解答。牛津大學人類進化學家AM博士表示，男性看重有利生產和健康身體擇偶，所以主要指標是女性細腰肥臀，這樣最理想不過。據信只有0.7腰臀比真正符合你理想的沙漏型身材。那麼女性如何擇偶呢？有些專家發現女性青睞高挑，寬肩和細腰的V型身材男士。

If you're worried your figure isn't the perfect shape, there could be other factors that will cause someone to fall head over heels in love with you – people also use their sense of smell to sniff out their ideal mate. Apparently, we can detect whether people are genetically different to us by the way they smell.

如果你擔心你的身材不是完美的，還有其他的因素會導致某人愛上你-人們也會用嗅覺去嗅出他們理想的伴侶。顯然，我們可以通過人們的嗅覺來檢測他們是否在基因上與我們不同。

Even if a potential partner's smell is a passion-killer, their facial expressions might make you infatuated with them. According to Professor David Perrett, at the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at St Andrews University, "we can change our faces by interacting with others and doing so in a pleasant manner, and that will aid our attractiveness and make others interested in us."

即使潛在伴侶的氣味是激情殺手，他們的面部表情也會讓你迷戀上他們。聖安德魯斯大學心理學和神經科學學院的大衛·佩雷特教授說：“我們可以通過與他人互動並以一種愉快的方式改變自己的容貌，這將有助於我們的吸引力，並使其他人對我們感興趣。

So it's good to know there are many reasons why we might be smitten with someone, but there is a problem; will the feeling be mutual and if it is, how long will it last? Nothing is guaranteed and, we know from Shakespeare, the course of true love never ran smoothly!

所以，很高興知道爲什麼我們會被某個人迷住，但也有一個問題：這種感覺是相互的嗎？如果是的話，這種感覺會持續多久？沒有什麼是可以保證的，我們從莎士比亞那裏知道，真愛的過程從來沒有順利進行過！