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阅读理解
You just think you know what will make you happy．Researchers in the new science of happiness know better．They have evidence that married people on average end up being no happier than they were before the wedding．Winning the lottery will probably reduce your pleasure in ordinary events that used to make you happy．And being in good health isn't as much of a factor as the right genes when it comes to satisfaction．
A couple of years ago, Seligman and Diener studied 222 Illinois college students to find out what the happiest 10％ had in common．It turned out they were extroverts(性格外向), had more friendships and romantic relationships, but didn't exercise more and didn't feel they had more good events in their lives than those who weren't as happy．
Some of the results come as a surprise．A classic study of lottery winners and people with spinal cord(脊髓)injuries, for instance, found that neither event changed their lives as much as observers thought they would．
Gilbert is looking into how accurately people predict what will make them happy．It turns out, not accurately at all, what we think will bring us pleasure---a new car, the home teaming winning the NCAA championship, a move to California-usually doesn't bring us as much as we expected, and the positive impact doesn't last as long．The good news is that we also overestimate the impact of catastrophic events．
Even with data from research pouring in, scientists still don't have an easy answer to what we all want to know：How do I get long-term life satisfaction? The answers they do have are often the same ones that philosophers and priests have been giving us for centuries．It's just nice to have them backed up with hard data．
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