首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
It used to be said that English people take their pleasure sadly. No doubt this would still be true if they had any pleasure to
It used to be said that English people take their pleasure sadly. No doubt this would still be true if they had any pleasure to
admin
2012-12-01
26
问题
It used to be said that English people take their pleasure sadly. No doubt this would still be true if they had any pleasure to take, but the price of alcohol and tobacco in my country has provided sufficient external causes for melancholy. I have sometimes thought that the habit of taking pleasure sadly has crossed the Atlantic, and I have wondered what it is that makes so many English-speaking people somber in their outlook in spite of good health and a good income.
In the course of my travels in America I have been impressed by a kind of fundamental malaise which seems to me extremely common and which poses difficult problems for the social reformer. Most social reformers have held the opinion that, if poverty were abolished and there were no more economic insecurity, the millennium would have arrived. But when I look at the face of people in opulent cars, whether in your country or in mine, I do not see that look of radiant happiness which the aforesaid social reformers had led me to expect. In nine cases out of ten, I see instead a look of boredom and discontent and an almost frantic longing for something that might tickle the jaded palate.
It is not only the very rich who suffer in this way. Professional men very frequently feel hopelessly thwarted. There is something that they long to do or some public object that they long to work for. But if they were to indulge their wishes in these respects, they fear that they would lose their livelihood. Their wives are equally unsatisfied, for their neighbor, Mrs. So-and-So, has gone ahead more quickly, has a better car, a larger apartment and grander friends.
When I try to understand what it is that prevents so many American from being as happy as one might expect, it seems to me that there are two causes, of which one goes much deeper than the other. The one that goes least deep is the necessity for subservience in some large organization. If you are an energetic man with strong views as to the right way of doing the job with which you are concerned, you find yourself invariable under the orders of some big man at the top who is elderly, weary and cynical. Whenever you have a bright idea, the boss puts a stopper on it. The more energetic you are and the more vision you have, the more you will suffer from the impossibility of doing any of the things that you feel ought to be done. When you go home and moan to your wife, she tells you that you are a silly fellow and that if you became the proper sort of yes-man, your income would soon be doubled. If you try divorce and remarriage it is very unlikely that there will be any change in this respect. And so you are condemned to gastric ulcers and premature old age.
It was not always so. When Dr. Johnson compiled his dictionary, he compiled it as he thought fit. When he felt like saying that oats is food for men in Scotland and horses in England, he said so. When he defined a fishing-rod as a stick with a fish at one end and a fool at the other, there was nobody to point out to him that a remark of this sort would damage the sale of his great work among fishermen. But if, in the present day, you are (let us say) a contributor to an encyclopedia, there is an editorial policy which is solemn, wise, and prudent, which allows no room for jokes, no place for personal preferences and no tolerance for idiosyncrasies. Everything has to be flattened out except where the prejudices of the editor are concerned. To these you must conform, however, little you may share them. And so you have to be content with dollars instead of creative satisfaction. And the dollars, alas, leave you sad.
This brings me to major cause of unhappiness, which is that most people in America act not on impulse but on some principle, and that principles upon which people act are usually based upon a false psychology and a false ethic. There is a general theory as to what makes for happiness and this theory is false. Life is concerned as a competitive struggle in which felicity consists in getting ahead of your neighbor. The joys which are not competitive are forgotten.
What is the main cause of unhappiness for many Americans in the author’s view?
选项
A、The energy and the genius are always confined by someone.
B、Lack of freedom and stimuli makes people unsatisfied with life.
C、People are obsessed by the thought of getting ahead of their neighbors.
D、People tend to act on dubious principles.
答案
C
解析
推理判断题。尾段后三句说“他们都有一个大概的看法,而这个看法——生活是一场竞争,快乐就是胜过你的邻居一一是错误的,非竞争性的那些乐趣则被忘得一干二净”,由此可以看出作者认为美国人不快乐的原因就是热衷于和邻居攀比,故答案为[C]。[A]项说的是professional men不快乐的原因,可排除。文章没有提到美国人缺乏自由和动力,故[B]错。尾段指出人们按某种原则行事,紧接着具体阐述了这种原则,故这种原则不是dubious,排除[D]。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/XDaO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Peopleusuallycommunicatebyspokenandwrittenlanguage,yettheycanalsocommunicatewithoutwordsandthiskindofcommunic
Theauthorof"CommonSense"is______andheisan
A、providedbyterroristsB、stolenfromthemilitaryC、madeaccordingtothemethodsshowninInternetD、madeinhislabC
WhichofthefollowingisnotaBritishnewspaper?
Accordingtoreportsinmajornewsoutlets,astudypublishedlastweekincludedastartlingdiscovery:thenation’sJewishpopu
TherenownedAmericanlinguistN.Chomskyinthelate1950’sproposedthedistinctionbetween______.
TheAmericanFamilyWe’lllearntheAmericanfamiliesfromthefollowingfiveaspects:1.Familystructures1)Immediatefamily
TheAmericanFamilyWe’lllearntheAmericanfamiliesfromthefollowingfiveaspects:1.Familystructures1)Immediatefamily
你得承认,多媒体不只是一件东西.而是包括许多东西的复杂的组合:硬件、软件和这两者相遇时的界面。不,我们还忘了一件很重要的事情.多媒体还包括你。是的.就是!对于多媒体.你不再县一个被动的观众-株可以控制可以交互作用.可以让它按你的需要去做。这就意味着你可以按
老头儿说我的毛病是太盛。又说,若对手盛;则以柔化之。可要在化的同时,造成克势,柔不是弱,是容,是收,是含。含而化之,让对手人你的势。这势要你造,需要无为而无不为。无为即是道,也就是棋运之大可不变,你想变,就不是象棋,输不用说了,连棋边儿都沾不上。棋运不可悖
随机试题
下列关于电烧伤的叙述,不正确的是()
女,50岁。因在家燃烧煤气取暖突然昏倒。患者面色潮红,口唇呈樱桃红色,脉快,多汗,神志不清,伴发热。此时病人中毒的程度为
不属于肉毒素特点的是
监理工程师对结构物混凝土体积进行计量,应以()为准。
《中华人民共和国港口法》第四十五条规定对未经依法批准,建设港口设施使用港口岸线或违反港口规划建设港口、码头或者其他港口设施的由()责令限期改正。
按照个人理财产品的主要构成要素对个人理财产品风险进行分类,不包括()。
企业如将长期借款划转出去,则这部分长期借款应作为企业的营业外收入处理。()
自然界中微观客体一般指空间尺寸小于10-6厘米,质量小于10-15克的粒子,包括分子、原子、原子核、基本粒子等物质层次。微观粒子在极其微小的空间范围内的各种现象,一般称为微观现象。微观粒子和微观现象总称微观世界。微观世界的运动服从量子力学和量子电动力学所反
数据独立性是指
Children’sliteraturetracesitsbeginningstopreliteratetimes,whenancientstorytellerspassedtalesandlegendsfromgenera
最新回复
(
0
)