As a result, many people avoid the very attempts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the paininevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment(承擔的義務), 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 quitepainful. 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 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 ourhappiness. It liberates money: buying that new car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increaseour happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates us from envy: we now understand that all those who arealways having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.
Choose correct answers to the question:
1. 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
2. Raising children, in the author’s opinion, is____
A. a moral duty B. a rewarding task
C. a thankless job D. a source of inevitable pain
3. From the last paragraph, we learn that envy sometimes stems from____
A. hatred B. misunderstanding
C. prejudice D. ignorance
4. 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
5. 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.
1.[A] 第3段第2句解釋了單身漢為什么不愿結婚的原因，A項的reluctant to take on family responsibilities是對原文中afraid of making a commitment的同義替換,故選A。本題中D項的干擾性比較強，但這不是單身漢不愿結婚的直接原因，且文中也說到Marriage has such moments,所以put an end的說法也不正確，故排除。
2.[C] 原文第4段中說，雖然養(yǎng)孩子的過程實在不能算是“有趣”,但決定不要孩子的夫婦們永遠也不能了解看著孩子長大的那種歡樂以及與孫兒一起玩耍的歡樂。換言之，在作者看來，養(yǎng)孩子雖辛苦，但也是值得的，故答案為C。
3.[B] 文章最后一段最后一句說它還讓我們從嫉妒中解脫出來：我們現(xiàn)在了解到那些總有很多樂趣的人也許根本就不幸福。這說明我們嫉妒別人是誤以為那些總有很多樂趣的人很幸福，這是一種誤解，故選B。
4.[D] 由文章第1段和最后一段第1句可看出要理解真正的幸福就要把fun和happiness區(qū)分開，故選D。
5.[A] 本題是主旨題。主旨題的答案常位于首段或結尾段。本題的答案可以在文章第1段最后一句找到：通往幸福的路上多半會涉及到痛苦，因此本題選A。D中雖也提到pain,但對分強調pain對幸福的作用，故錯誤。
