Knowing that you are paid less than your peers has two effects on happiness. One is negative: a thinner pay packet hurts self-es

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问题     Knowing that you are paid less than your peers has two effects on happiness. One is negative: a thinner pay packet hurts self-esteem(自尊). The other is called the "tunnel" effect: the income gap is seen as improving your own chances of similar riches.
    A paper co-authored by Felix FitzRoy of the University of St. Andrews separates the two effects using data from household surveys in Germany. Previous work showed that the income of others can have a small, or even positive, overall effect on employees’ satisfaction in individual firms in Denmark or in very dynamic economies, such as Eastern Europe. But Mr. FitzRoy’s team proposed that older workers, who largely know their lifetime incomes already, will enjoy a much smaller tunnel effect. The negative effect on reported levels of happiness of being paid less than your peers is not visible for people aged under 45. In western Germany, seeing peers’ incomes rising actually makes young people happier.
    It is only those people over 45, when careers have "reached a stable position" , whose happiness is harmed by the success of others.
    The prospect of more than 20 years of hard work might make retirement seem more attractive. Those with jobs are no happier after they retire, however, perhaps because their lives already agree with social expectations. Unemployment is known to damage happiness because not working falls short of social expectations. Pensions or increased leisure time cannot make up for the loss of social acceptance. Unemployed people are dissatisfied with their life not only because they have lower incomes, but also because they may get low and negative recognition from others.
    Indeed, retiring early from work can have side-effects. Another paper, co-authored by Andreas Kuhn of the University of Zurich, investigates the effect of a change in Austrian employment-insurance rules that allow blue-collar workers earlier retirement in some regions than others. Men retiring a year early lower their chance of surviving to age 67 by 13% . Almost a third of this higher death rate seemed to be concentrated among those who were forced into early retirement by job loss. The death was caused by smoking and alcohol consumption. If you’re in a job, even when you are paid less, hang on in there.
What can be concluded from the previous study?

选项 A、The economic development of Eastern Europe is rather static.
B、People feel satisfied with Denmark’s economic development.
C、The income of others has a positive effect in Germany’s individual corporations.
D、The income of others affects employees’ contentment to a small extent in Denmark’s private firms.

答案D

解析 推理判断题。本题考查先前关于你和同事的薪水差异和你的幸福感之间关系的研究得出的结论。定位句提到,先前的研究表明,在丹麦等国家的个体企业,其他同事的收入会对职员的满意度产生较小甚至是正面的总体效应。由此可知,在丹麦的个体企业,其他同事的收入会在很小程度上影响到职员的满意度,D)中的contentment和private firms分别是对原文中satisfaction和individual firms的同义转述,故为答案。A)“东欧的经济发展是相当停滞的”与第二段第二句中提到的“很有活力的经济体国家(比如东欧)”相矛盾,东欧的经济是不断发展变化的,故排除;B)“人们对丹麦的经济发展感到满意”,原文未提及,故排除;C)“在德国的个体企业,其他同事的收入会产生积极的影响”,先前的研究并未涉及德国.故排除。
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