I live in the land of Disney, Hollywood and year - round sun. You may think people in
such an attractive, fun-filled place are happier than others. If so, you have some mistaken
ideas about the nature of happiness.
Many intelligent people still think fun equals happiness. The truth is that fun and happiness
have little or nothing in common. Fun is what we experience during an act. Happiness is
what we experience after an act. It is a deep, long-lasting emotion.
Going to an amusement park or a ball game, watching a movie or television are fun
activities that help us relax, temporarily forget our problems and maybe even laugh. But
they do not bring happiness, because their positive effects end when the fun ends.
I have often thought that if Hollywood stars have a role to play, it is to teach us that
happiness has nothing to do with fun. They have constant access to exciting parties, fancy
cars, expensive homes, everything that spells "happiness". But in memoir(回忆录)after
memoir, they expose the unhappiness hidden beneath all their fun: depression, alcoholism,
drug addiction, broken marriages and loneliness.
Ask a bachelor why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less
satisfying. If he is honest, he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment. For
commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure and excitement.
Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features.
Similarly, couples that choose not to have children are deciding in favor of painless fun
over painful happiness. They can dine out whenever they want and sleep as late as they want.
Couples with babies are lucky to get a whole night" s sleep. I don"t know any parent who
would choose the word fun to describe raising children.
Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the
most liberating realizations we can ever come to. It liberates time: now we can devote more
hours to activities that can truly increase our happiness. It liberates money: buying that new
car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless.
And it frees us from envy: we now understand that all those rich and famous people we were
so sure are happy because they are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.
B. Success and satisfaction.
C. Marriage and commitment.
D. Entertainment and responsibility.
B. long - standing fun may lead to happiness
C. fun is short-lived while happiness is long-lasting
D. fun provides enjoyment while pain leads to happiness
B. It means commitment.
C. It affords greater fun.
D. It leads to raising children.
B. won"t place too much value on money
C. will seek for freedom
D. won"t devote himself to his family
moth come out of the cocoon. On that day a small 2 appeared. He sat and watched the moth
for several hours as the moth struggled to 3 the body through that little hole. Soon it seemed
to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had 4 as far as it could and it could go no
further. It just seemed to be stuck. So the man, out of his kindness, decided to help the moth.
He took a pair of scissors and cut off the 5___ bit of the cocoon. The 6 then came out
easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriven (无用的) wings. The man continued to
watch the moth because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and 7
to be able to support the 8 , which would get smaller in time. Neither happened! In fact,
the little moth spent the rest of its life 9 around with a swollen body and shriven wings. It
was 10 able to fly.
What the man in his kindness 11 was that the small cocoon and the 12__of the moth
to get through the 13 opening was a way to push fluid (液体) 14 the body of moth 15
its wings so that it would be ready to fly 16 it got out of the cocoon. Freedom and 17
would come only after the struggle. By taking the struggle away, he also took away the moth"s
health.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If we were to 18 our lives
without any difficulties, we would become disabled. We would not be as 19 as what we
could have been. Give every opportunity a chance. Leave no room for 20 .
( )2. A. opening
( )3. A. push
( )4. A. got
( )5. A. covering
( )6. A. moth
( )7. A. lessen
( )8. A. standing
( )9. A. flying
( )10 A. already
( )11. A. shouldn"t do
( )12. A. crawling
( )13. A. tiny
( )14. A. in
( )15. A. into
( )16. A. after
( )17. A. courage
( )18. A. stand on
( )19. A. great
( )20. A. regrets
B. line
B. draw
B. done
B. remaining
B. butterfly
B. widen
B. flight
B. crawling
B. certainly
B. thought
B. struggle
B. beginning
B. on
B. to
B. once
B. hope
B. get on
B. determined
B. death
C. moth
C. make
C. tried
C. shell
C. cocoon
C. expand
C. themselves
C. walking
C. never
C. did
C. fight
C. right
C. by
C. in
C. before
C. flight
C. go through
C. brave
C. failure
D. butterfly
D. force
D. struggled
D. skin
D. worm
D. shorten
D. body
D. lying
D. seldom
D. didn"t understand
D. force
D. above
D. from
D. onto
D. until
D. survival
D. live
D. strong
D. wishes
story may have happened a while back, but it was a lesson which has stayed with me and helped
me ever since.
It was Thanksgiving and I was volunteering with my parents at a shelter for the poor. We stood
behind the counter dishing out hot food to whoever came in. most of our dinners looked like they
had been having hard times, their clothes old, worn and dry. In short, they looked poor!
Then, a man came in, who looked anything but poor. He was well dressed, wearing an expensive
suit. I wondered what he was doing there and my jaw dropped in amazement when he joined the
line for food. The closer he came to my service station, the more I muttered. What was this man
doing? I wanted to know. Surely he wasn"t gong to take food.
Then my mother quietly took me to one side. She said, "You have assumed that the needs of the
people who come here must be purely physical: hunger, inadequate shelter and needs are emotional?
What if he needs comfort, friends, or just to be among other human beings?" her words hit me like a
ton of bricks! I felt like I should apologize to the man, but I didn"t.
About a week later the shelter received a large donation from an anonymous source. I can"t help
but wonder if it came from that man.
Now, whether I meet others, I remember my mother"s words and try to send kindness and blessings
to them, regardless of how they look.
Needs aren"t always visible. But kindness always makes a difference.
B. learn life experience there
C. serve hot food to the poor
D. help parents order dishes
B. Pitiful
C. Excited
D. Angry
B. gave the man food much less than others
C. realized something was wrong with the man
D. knew later that the man went there to donate
B. Some needs can"t be known clearly at times
C. Needs can always be met by kindness
D. We should find out others" needs
happier with a bit more money. We are conditioned to want to be richer; we are trained
to want the latest style that television tells us; we want to earn more money because then
we"ll have a good life.
But none of that will make us happier. And the sad thing is that it can take us decades
of pursuing (追求) wealth and expensive things before we realize that. So what will bring
us happiness? Luckily, there are three things that don"t cost anything. Here they are:
Good relationships. We have a human need to be close with other human beings. Having
good, supportive friendships, a strong marriage or loving relationships with our family members
will make us much more likely to be happy. Therefore, take time, today, to stay with your
loved ones, to tell them what they mean to you, to listen to them, and to develop your r
elationships with them.
Positive thinking. Optimism(乐观) is one of the best indicators of people who lead a
happy life. Happy people feel empowered, in control of their lives. So why not make
positive thinking a habit? In fact, this should be one of the first habits you develop.
Flow. This is a popular concept on the Internet these days 一 the state we enter when
we are completely focused on the work or task. Having work and leisure(休闲)that gets
you in this state of flow will almost undoubtedly lead to happiness. People find the greatest
enjoyment not when they"re passively mindless, but when they"re absorbed in a mindful
challenge.
If you are interested in some kind of work and keen on some kind of hobbies, it is not a
bad idea. Turn off the TV 一 this is the opposite of flow 一 and then go outside and do
something that truly makes you active.
romantic relationships,and be__1__.However,when we"re__2__,we want to go back to being
young and we__3__the days when we didn"t have to worry about complex love affairs,__4__
pressure,and money problems.
Young people believe adulthood__5__freedom from parents and schoolwork.When they
get older,they feel that__6__is freedom from work pressure and family responsibilities.To__7__
this feeling,people say,"The grass is always__8__on the other side of the fence."
As__9__,we like to be like adults but as young adults,we__10__to be young again.We think
about staying out late and__11__our own money to spend.Suddenly,they see that love can result
in__12__hearts;staying out late makes it hard to get ready for__13__the next morning.They find
out that adult life is not as__14__as they thought it would be and suddenly,__15__becomes very
scary.
Life is__16__.It gives us time to__17__but also requires us to work.The time will come when
we must grow up and we will always look back wishing we__18__being young a bit longer.That
time will not come back.It is normal to want what we cannot have but the__19__is that to be happy
is to appreciate what we have.That is the first step to grow up.__20__life becomes more complex,
we will not regret the time we wasted wishing we were adults.
( )2.A.older
( )3.A.like
( )4.A.study
( )5.A.creates
( )6.Achildhood
( )7.A.reduce
( )8.A.greener
( )9.A.researchers
( )10.A.wish
( )11.A.making
( )12.A.healthy
( )13.A.breakfast
( )14.A.rich
( )15.A.life
( )16.A.long
( )17.A.study
( )18.A.stopped
( )19.A.reason
( )20.A.If
B.defeated
B.forget
B.job
B.shows
B.adulthood
B.describe
B.thinner
B.teenagers
B.decide
B.having
B.ambitious
B.school
B.busy
B.love
B.shor
B.thin
B.enjoyed
B.result
B.When
C.married
C.regret
C.age
C.means
C.parenthood
C.experience
C.yellow
C.adults
C.return
C.worrying about
C.broken
C. exercise
C.free
C.career
C.fair
C.play
C.imagined
C.dream
C.Unless
D.confident
D.miss
D.health
D.limits
D.romanticism
D.understand
D.colorful
D.elders
D.stop
D.showing off
D.excited
D.work
D.easy
D.future
D.beautiful
D.live
D.tried
D.truth
D.Before
something__2__to say.In his opinion, the bottom line is your choice__3__you live a life.
One morning, he did something you are never__4__to do in the restaurant business: he left
the back door open and was__5__up at gunpoint by three armed robbers.While trying to open
the__6__, with his hand shaking from__7__, he input the wrong code.The robbers beat him
and even__8__him.Luckily, Jerry was found__9__quickly after the robbers had fled and he
was rushed to the local first aid center.After 18 hours of operation and weeks of good care,
he was out of hospital with fragments (碎片) of the bullets still in his body.
Jerry told me what happened after he was sent to hospital.He said the doctors were__10__.
They kept telling him he was going to be fine and__11__him into the emergency room.But when
he saw the__12__on the faces of the doctors and nurses, he got really__13__.In their eyes, he
__14__, "He"s dying." He knew he needed to take__15__.There was a big,burly nurse shouting
questions at him.She asked if he was allergic (过敏的) to anything, and the doctors and nurses
stopped working as they waited for his reply.Jerry__16__for a while and then he decided to live.
He took a deep breath and said, "Yes.__17__!" Over their laughter, Jerry told them to operate
on him__18__he wouldn"t die.
Jerry lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing__19__.I learnt
from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.
Attitude, __20__, is everything.
( )2.A.positive
( )3.A.how
( )4.A.advised
( )5.A.pulled
( )6.A.box
( )7.A.nervousness
( )8.A.knocked
( )9.A.probably
( )10.A.excited
( )11.A.rolled
( )12.A.surprise
( )13.A.scared
( )14.A.knew
( )15.A.notice
( )16.A.thought
( )17.A.Medicine
( )18.A.unless
( )19.A.reply
( )20.A.to be honest
B.funny
B.where
B.imagined
B.put
B.safe
B.worry
B.killed
B.relatively
B.organized
B.carried
B.expressions
B.embarrassed
B.found
B.order
B.wondered
B.Operation
B.even if
B.attitude
B.in that case
C.new
C.whether
C.asked
C.held
C.counter
C.unwillingness
C.knifed
C.merely
C.hard-working
C.wheeled
C.feeling
C.disappointed
C.meant
C.breath
C.judged
C.Bullets
C.as if
C.opinion
C.after all
D.different
D.why
D.supposed
D.done
D.door
D.pressure
D.shot
D.reasonably
D.great
D.forced
D.puzzles
D.annoyed
D.read
D.action
D.stopped
D.Fragments
D.before
D.determination
D.strictly speaking
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