Question

When asked about happiness, we usually think of something extraordinary, an absolute delight, which seems to get rarer the older we get.

For kids, happiness has a magical quality. Their delight at winning a race or getting a new bike is unreserved (毫无掩饰的).

In the teenage years the concept of happiness changes. Suddenly it’s conditional on such things as excitement, love and popularity. I can still recall the excitement of being invited to dance with the most attractive boy at the school party.

In adulthood the things that bring deep joy—love, marriage, birth—also bring responsibility and the risk of loss. For adults, happiness is complicated.

My definition of happiness is “the capacity for enjoyment”. The more we can enjoy what we have, the happier we are. It’s easy to overlook the pleasure we get from the company of friends, the freedom to live where we please, and even good health.

I experienced my little moments of pleasure yesterday. First I was overjoyed when I shut the last lunch-box and had the house to myself. Then I spent an uninterrupted morning writing, which I love. When the kids and my husband came home, I enjoyed their noise after the quiet of the day.

Psychologists tell us that to be happy we need a mix of enjoyable leisure time and satisfying work. I don’t think that my grandmother, who raised 14 children, had much of either. She did have a network of close friends and family, and maybe this is what satisfied her.

We, however, with so many choices and such pressure to succeed in every area, have turned happiness into one more thing we’ve got to have. We’re so self-conscious about our “right” to it that it’s making us miserable. So we chase it and equal it with wealth and success, without noticing that the people who have those things aren’t necessarily happier.

Happiness isn’t about what happens to us—it’s about how we see what happens to us. It’s the skillful way of finding a positive for every negative. It’s not wishing for what we don’t have, but enjoying what we do possess.

1.As people grow older, they ________.

A. feel it harder to experience happiness

B. associate their happiness less with others

C. will take fewer risks in pursuing happiness

D. tend to believe responsibility means happiness

2.What can we learn about the author from Paragraphs 5 and 6?

A. She cares little about her own health.

B. She enjoys the freedom of traveling.

C. She is easily pleased by things in daily life.

D. She prefers getting pleasure from housework.

3.What can be inferred from Paragraph 7?

A. Psychologists think satisfying work is key to happiness.

B. Psychologists’ opinion is well proved by Grandma’s case.

C. Grandma often found time for social gatherings.

D. Grandma’s happiness came from modest expectations of life.

4.People who equal happiness with wealth and success ________.

A. consider pressure something blocking their way

B. stress their right to happiness too much

C. are at a loss to make correct choices

D. are more likely to be happy

5.What can be concluded from the passage?

A. Happiness lies between the positive and the negative.

B. Each man is the master of his own fate.

C. Success leads to happiness.

D. Happy is he who is satisfied.

Answer 1