单选题 When we think about happiness, we usually think of something extraordinary, a peak of great delight — and those peaks seem to get rarer the older we get. For a child, happiness has a magical quality. I remember making hide-outs in newly cut hay, playing cops and robbers in the woods, getting a speaking part in the school play. Of course, kids also experience lows, but their delight at such peaks of pleasure as winning a race or getting a new bike is unreserved. For teenagers, or people under twenty, the concept of happiness changes. Suddenly it''s conditional on such things as excitement, love, and popularity. I can still feel the agony of not being invited to a party that almost everyone else was going to. But I also recall the great happiness of being invited at another event to dance with a very handsome young man. In adulthood the things that bring great joy — birth, love, marriage — also bring responsibility and the risk of loss. Love may not last, sex isn''t always good, loved ones die. For adults, happiness is complicated. My dictionary explains happy as "lucky" or "fortunate", but I think a better explanation of happiness is "the capacity for enjoyment". The more we can enjoy what we have, the happier we are. It''s easy to overlook the pleasure we get from loving and being loved, the company of friends, the freedom to love where we please, even good health. Nowadays, with so many choices and such pressure to succeed in every area, we have turned happiness into one more thing we "gotta have". We'' re so self-conscious about our "right" to it that it''s making us extremely unhappy. So we chase it and consider it to be the same as wealth and success, without noticing that the people who have those things aren''t necessarily happier. While happiness may be more complex for us, the solution is the same as ever. Happiness isn''t about what happens to us — it''s about how we perceive what happens to us. It'' s the ability to find a positive for every negative, and view a setback as a challenge. It'' s not wishing for what we don''t have, but enjoying what we do possess.
单选题 According to the author, happiness lies in the ability to________.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】细节题。由文章最后一句“It''s not wishing for what we don''t have, but enjoying what we do possess.”可知,快乐是要享受我们所拥有的,与此对应的选项是D。
单选题 According to the passage, a teenager looks at happiness mainly in terms of________.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】推理题。文章提到teenager的是第三段,所以本题由第三段推断。第三段第二句说青少年的快乐以兴奋、爱和受欢迎的程度为条件,这些都是精神方面的。故选C。
单选题 As is suggested in the passage, failure to feel happy often results from________.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】推理题。从文章倒数第二段“The more we can enjoy what we have, the happier we are.”和“It''s easy to overlook the pleasure we get from loving and being loved, the company of friends...”可知,我们并没有把生活中的普通事情当成快乐的条件,换句话说,就是我们忽略了生活中那些可以带给我们快乐的事情,不把它们看作是快乐的源泉,而把一切当作是理所当然的。故选C。
单选题 The author implies that when one chases wealth and finally gets it________.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】推理题。此题答案可从文章倒数第二段最后一句话推测出来。这句话前半部分说我们追求财富和成功,以为那就是快乐,却没注意到那些拥有财富和成功的人并不一定快乐。说明追求财富和成功并不等于就能拥有快乐。故选B。
单选题 The passage aims to tell________.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】主旨题。本题考查考生对全文的整体理解。文章列举了我们关于快乐的普遍观点,而后对其错误之处进行了剖析,旨在纠正我们对快乐含义的误解(例如不把生活中的普通事情看作是快乐),告诉我们什么才是真正的快乐。故选A。