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  3. At the beginning of a country’s rise out of backwardness and poverty, more wealth does make a difference. However, citing survey

At the beginning of a country’s rise out of backwardness and poverty, more wealth does make a difference. However, citing survey

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问题     At the beginning of a country’s rise out of backwardness and poverty, more wealth does make a difference. However, citing surveys from China and South Korea, economist Richard Easterlin points out: "In these countries, per capita income has doubled in 20 years but overall happiness does not seem to have followed the same path." Economists are surprised, because GNP has long been thought the best indicator of human welfare. More GNP generally means more money for most people, and more money improves the quality of life, and that means happiness.
    But, perhaps, the survey suggests that more money can make you happy only if those around you do not share in your good fortune. General prosperity may fail to enhance individual contentment. Perhaps it is a matter of being aware of your advantage, not that you need to get the highest salaries or be the object of envy. Maybe, individual goals vary too much to be generalized. Maybe one has nothing at all to do with the other. Freud was well aware that economic success did not make people happy. Most psychoanalysts and therapists today would agree. He thought only the realization of a deep childhood desire could provide such satisfaction.
    Another problem is that people are poor reporters of their own states of mind. They will usually tell you what they themselves want to believe. To know if someone is really happy or not, you have to catch him or her in the act of happiness. Being happy or acting happy are more reliable indicators than thinking too much about it.
    Professional therapists also know that what makes people happy defies explanation, but what prevents them from being happy doesn’t. Poor self-esteem undermines all feelings of success. Hunger and cold make it harder to relax and enjoy one’s experience. Insecurity and failure to engage in one’s work leave one dissatisfied. Anxiety penetrates all our perceptions and feelings, and brings us down.
    Economists can probably hope to measure how well our basic needs for security and health are met in society, and if those are reasonably OK, people tend to find the happiness they seek. Most of us want to enjoy life, spend time with our children, play at sports, sing, dance and travel.
If we can do those things without dread, the amount of money we have is irrelevant.
According to the second paragraph, individual happiness arises from______.
选项 A、setting a high goal
B、the respect from your neighbors
C、common prosperity
D、your superiority over others
答案D
解析 第二段第一句的内容是有贫富差距才能使富人感到幸福，而第二句更明确说明共同富裕不一定使人满足，因此否定了选项C。该段又谈到个人的目标和赢得他人羡慕与幸福关系不大。第三句有it is a matter of being aware of youradvantage(个人的幸福就是意识到自己的优势)。
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