Question

The way people hold to the belief that a fun - filled, pain free life equals happiness actually reduces their chances of ever attaining real happiness. If fun and pleasure are equal to happiness then pain must be equal to unhappiness. But in fact, the opposite is true: more often than not things that lead to happiness involve some pain.

As a result, many people avoid the very attempts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment （預擔的義務）, self - improvement.

Ask a bachelor（單身漢） why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If he is honest he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment. For commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure, excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features.  

Couples with infant children are lucky to get a whole night’s sleep or a three - day vacation. I don’t know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children. But couples who decide not to have children never know the joys of watching a child grow up or of playing with a grandchild.

Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations. It liberates time: now we can devote more hours to activities that can genuinely increase our happiness. It liberates money: buying that new car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates us from envy: we now understand that all those who are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.

According to the author, a bachelor resists marriage chiefly because ________ .

A. he is reluctant to take on family responsibilities

B. he believes that life will be more cheerful if he remains single

C. he finds more fun in dating than in marriage

D. he fears it will put an end to all his fun adventure and excitement

Raising children, in the author’s opinion is ________ .

A. a moral duty               B. a thankless job

C. a rewarding task            D. a source of inevitable pain

From the last paragraph, we learn that envy sometimes stems from ________ .

A. hatred　　B. misunderstanding　 C. prejudice　　　　　D. ignorance

To understand what true happiness is one must ________ .

A. have as much fun as possible during one’s lifetime

B. make every effort to liberate oneself from pain

C. put up with pain under all circumstances

D. be able to distinguish happiness from fun

What is the author trying to tell us?

A. Happiness often goes hand in hand with pain．

B. One must know how to attain happiness.

C. It is important to make commitments.

D. It is pain that leads to happiness.

Answer 1

【小題1】A

【小題2】C

【小題3】B

【小題4】D

【小題5】A

解析:

【小題1】本文是一篇議論文，闡述了幸福的獲得這一嚴肅話題，試圖澄清人們在幸福問題上的一些誤解。本題要求學生判斷單身漢拒絕結婚的主要原因。依據文章第3段第1行“Ask a bachelor why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If he is honest he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment”（……害怕作出對義務的承諾，即不愿承擔義務）。A項與之等同，故正確。

【小題2】 依據文章第4段第1句“帶有嬰兒的父母要是能睡上一整晚覺或度一個三天的假日，那真是太幸運了。在我認識的人中，不會有人用fun（好玩）來描述他們撫養孩子的感受”，似乎會認為作者的意圖是B項（出力不討好，毫無回報的事）或D項（不可避免的痛苦來源）。實際上，作者真實想法應在第2句中體現：但是決定不生孩子的夫妻永遠也體會不到看著孩子成長以及和孫子玩耍的那種樂趣、那種欣喜。這種樂趣、欣喜實際就是一種回報。所以選項C正確。

【小題3】依據文章最后一句“And it liberates us from envy：we now understand that all those who are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.”說明：我們現在的這種理解就可免除嫉妨，那么反過來，嫉妨產生于我們的理解不當，即misunderstanding，故選項B正確。

【小題4】依據文章第1段第1句“The way people hold to the belief that a fun-filled, pain free life equals happiness actually reduces their chances of ever attaining real happiness”（人們堅持充滿趣味、毫無痛苦的生活就等于幸福這一信條實際上減少了他們獲得真正幸福的可能性）。再依據文章最后一句“…all those who are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all”（……生活中總是有如此多的fun的人實際上也許一點都不幸福）。可以看出要理解真正的幸福是什么就必須把fun和happiness區分開來。因為兩者絕不等同。故選項D正確。C項應該是回答“怎樣才能獲得真正的幸福”這一問題，且作者并沒在文中明確提到獲得快樂就必須在任何情況下都忍受痛苦。

【小題5】作者的意圖出現在第1段最后一句：“But in fact，the opposite is true：more often than not things that lead to happiness involve some pain”（……事實上，導致你幸福的事情多半伴隨著痛苦），故選項A符合題意。