单选题 It's plain common sense—the more happiness you feel, the less unhappiness you experience. It's plain common sense, but it's not true. Recent research reveals that happiness and unhappiness are not really two sides of the same emotion. They are two distinct feelings that, coexisting, rise and fall independently.
People might think that the higher a person's level of unhappiness, the lower their level of happiness and vice versa. But when researchers measure people's average levels of happiness and unhappiness, they often find little relationship between the two.
The recognition that feelings of happiness and unhappiness can coexist much like love and hate in a close relationship may offer valuable clues on how to lead a happier life. It suggests, for example, that changing or avoiding things that make you miserable may well make you less miserable, but probably won't make you any happier. That advice is backed up by an extraordinary series of studies which indicate that a genetic predisposition for unhappiness may run in certain families. On the other hand, researchers have found happiness doesn't appear to be anyone's heritage. The capacity for joy is a talent you develop largely for yourself.
Psychologists have settled on a working definition of the feeling—happiness is a sense of subjective well-being. They have also begun to find out who's happy, who isn't and why. {{U}}To date, {{/U}}the research hasn't found a simple formula for a happy life, but it has discovered some of the actions and attitudes that seem to bring people closer to that most desired of feelings.
Why is unhappiness less influenced by environment? When we are happy, we are more responsive to people and keep up connections better than when we are feeling sad. This doesn't mean, however, that some people are born to be sad and that's that. Genes may predispose one to unhappiness, but disposition can be influenced by personal choice. You can increase your happiness through your own actions.

单选题 According to the text, it is true that ______

A. unhappiness is more inherited than affected by environment.
B. happiness and unhappiness are mutually conditional.
C. unhappiness is subject to external more than internal factors.
D. happiness is an uncontrollable subjective feeling.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】本题为细节判断题。根据文章第五段正数第一句“Why is unhappiness less influenced by environment?”以及第五段倒数第一、二句“Genes may predispose one to unhappiness, but disposition can be influenced by personal choice. You can increase your happiness through your own actions.”可知，不幸感受环境因素的影响很小，人体内虽然存在使人产生不幸感的基因，但人的性情却可受个人选择的影响，人可以通过自身的努力来提升幸福感，据此可知A项所表述的不幸感受遗传的影响多于环境是正确的，而C项所说的不幸感受外在因素的影响多过内在以及D项的幸福感不受人的主观情感的控制是错误的；再根据第一段的倒数第一、二句“Recent research reveals that happiness and unhappiness are not really two sides of the same emotion. They are two distinct feelings that, coexisting, rise and fall independently.”可知幸福感和不幸感并不是同一情感的两面，它们是共存且独立的，由此可知B项关于幸福感和不幸感是相互的说法是错误的，因此正确选项为A。

单选题 The author argues that one can achieve happiness by ______

A. maintaining it at an average level.
B. escaping miserable occurrences in life.
C. pursuing it with one's painstaking effort.
D. realizing its coexistence with unhappiness.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】本题为细节题。根据文章第三段的最后一句“The capacity for joy is a talent you develop largely for yourself.”以及第五段的最后一句“You can increase your happiness through your own actions.”可知幸福感是可以通过自己的努力来获得和提升的，所以只要努力地追求，幸福就一定能够实现，因此正确选项为C。

单选题 The phrase "To date" (Par. 4) can be best replaced by ______

A. As a result.
B. In addition.
C. At present.
D. Until now.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】本题为同义词组替换题。先看“to date”所在的句子：“To date，the research hasn't found a simple formula for a happy life, but it has discovered some of the actions and attitudes that seem to bring people closer to that most desired of feelings.”这是一个由转折连词but连接的两个并列分句，but前后两个句子的谓语动词均用了现在完成时，想要表达的是虽然直到现在该研究还没有为快乐生活找到简单的公式，但是已经发现了一些能让人们更接近这种情感的行为和态度，四个选项中只有D“until now”后面可接现在完成时，所以正确答案为D。

单选题 What do you think the author believes about happiness and unhappiness?

A. One feels unhappy owing to his miserable origin.
B. They are independent but existing concurrently
C. One feels happy by participating in more activities.
D. They are actions and attitudes taken by human beings.

单选题 The sentence "that's that" (Par. 5) probably means.. Some people are born to be sad ______

A. and the situation cannot be altered.
B. and happiness remains inaccessible.
C. but they don't think much about it.
D. but they remain unconscious of it.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】本题为推理题。应结合上下文来分析，先看“that's that”所在句子的前一句“When we are happy, we are more responsive to people and keep up connections better than when we are feeling sad.”该句是说当我们高兴的时候，对他人的态度以及与别人的关系要比感觉悲伤的时候好，其后一句“Genes may predispose one to unhappiness，but disposition can be influenced by personal choice.”是说人体虽然存在使人产生不幸感的基因，但是人的性格却可以受自己选择的影响，通过上下两句可知that's that所在的句子想要表达的是虽然悲伤可能是天生的，但并不意味着情况不可改变，故正确答案为A。