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  3. Think about what would make you really, really happy. More money? Wrong. Smiling, well-adjusted kids? Wrong again. The fact is w

Think about what would make you really, really happy. More money? Wrong. Smiling, well-adjusted kids? Wrong again. The fact is w

admin2012-06-13  57
问题     Think about what would make you really, really happy. More money? Wrong. Smiling, well-adjusted kids? Wrong again. The fact is we are terrible at predicting the source of joy. And whatever choices we do make, we likely later decide it was all for the best.
    These are insights from happiness economics, perhaps the hottest field in what used to be called the dismal science. Happiness is everywhere—on the best-seller lists, in the minds of policymakers, and front and center for economists—yet it remains elusive. The golden rule of economics has always been that well-being is a simple function of income. That’s why nations and people alike strive for higher incomes—money gives us choice and a measure of freedom. After a certain income cap, we simply don’t get any happier. And it isn’t what we have, but whether we have more than our neighbor, that really matters. So the news last week that in 2006 top hedge-fund managers took home $ 240 million, minimum, probably didn’t make them any happier, it just made the rest of us less so.
    Now policymakers are racing to figure out what makes people happy, and just how they should deliver it. Countries as diverse as Bhutan, Australia, China, Thailand and the UK are coming up with "happiness indexer," to be used alongside GDP as a guide to society’s progress. In Britain, the "politics of happiness" will likely figure prominently in next year’s elections. Never mind that the world’s top happiness researchers recently gathered at a conference in Rome to debate whether joy is even measurable.
    Why is this all happening now? Only in the last decade have economists, psychologists, biologists and philosophers begun cross-pollinating in such a way to arrive at "happiness studies. " Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert humorously sums up much of the new wisdom in his book Stumbling on Happiness. He says 24-hour television and the Internet have allowed us all to see more seemingly happy people than ever before. "We’re sur-rounded by the lifestyles of the rich and famous," says Gilbert, "rubbing our noses in the fact that others have more. "
    Of course, the idea that money isn’t the real key to happiness isn’t new. The 18th-century British Enlightenment thinker Jeremy Bentham argued that public policy should try to maximize happiness, and many prominent economists agreed but could not quite embrace the idea. There was just no way to measure happiness objectively.
    One of the early revelations of happiness research, from Richard Easterlin at the University of Southern California, was that while the rich are typically happier than the poor, the happiness boost from extra cash isn’t that great once one rises above the poverty line. The reason, says Easterlin, is the "hedonic cycle": we get used to being richer darn quick, and take it for granted or compare it to what others have, not what we used to have. Turns out, keeping up with the Joneses is hard-wired into our brains, thanks to our pack-creature roots.
    Though many happiness researchers say "work less, play more" is the formula for happiness, Ruut Veenhoven, a professor at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, suggests otherwise. Hard-working Americans ranks 17th on his list; the hard-vacationing French 39th. Human beings do want a European-style safety net, but also want freedom and opportunity.
    And perhaps our intuitions about happiness should triumph over the fuzzy data, anyway. The economics of happiness has given us a couple of fairly hard and fast rules about well-being—being truly poor is bad, and time with friends and family are good. The good news is that whatever choices we make individually and as societies in the pursuit of happiness there’s good chance that they’ll seem better in hindsight. Yet another truism of happiness is that "we all wear rose-colored glasses when it comes to our past decision-making," says Gilbert. Today’s dreadful life choice will likely be tomorrow’s happy accident. Directions: The passage below summarizes the main points of the passage. Read the summary and then select the best word or phrase from the box blow according to the passage. You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET with a single line through the center.

    We are poor at prevision of the origin of happiness, and we would probably believe the decision we made is the most satisfactory. The Happiness has become (1) every-where but tough to define. Nations and people manage to gain higher incomes based on the principle of economics that (2) are related to happiness, but that is not (3) Wealth alone isn’t necessarily what makes us happy. It makes different if we possess more than (4) , and that’s why we feel unhappy to find those top (5) have superlative income. Some nations are beginning to consider issues like measuring society’s progress by (6) as well as GDP, and researchers even held seminar to exchange surveys about the (7) , though the influential topic was advanced 10 years ago. The issue that a state policy should be (8) the happiness of the majority, erupted many decades ago by British Enlightenment thinker Jeremy Bentham and accepted by many eminent economists, could not fairly (9) , because happiness can not be objectively measured. The (10) of the happiness made by Richard Easterlin is that the wealth makes people happier, but their happiness will not (11) as great as it should be if they live above the (12) The can easily take the life for granted and (13) the more expansive way of life. They are (14) to compare the life with others and manage to keep up with the Joneses. Ruut Veenhoven, a professor at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, does not support the (15) "work less, play more. " According to his investigation of happiness list, people want a European-style (16) and want to enjoy freedom and opportunity as well. We should probably go beyond the confusing information and (17) the fairly principles of the happiness; poverty is (18) , staying with friends and family is (19) , and the decisions made (20) are by chance to be happy experience.
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答案R
解析 根据文中的“Happiness is everywhere--on the best—seller lists，in the minds of policymakers，and front and center for economists--yet it remains elusive．”可知，幸福是个有争议的话题。所以应填“agitating topics”。
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