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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

admin2013-09-04  59
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.
The author’s conclusion is that______.
选项 A、happiness is sometimes independent of wealth
B、money can add to individual happiness
C、it is possible to determine if money means happiness
D、happiness has nothing to do with wealth of any sort
答案A
解析 文章通篇在谈财富不是幸福的重要因素，特别是文章最后一句强调：只要我们能做到想吃就吃，想玩就玩，有多少钱无所谓。
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