When asked about happiness, we usually think of something extraordinary, an absolute delight, which seems to get rarer the older we get.
For kids, happiness has a magical quality. Their delight at winning a race or getting a new bike is unreserved (毫无掩饰的).
In the teenage years the concept of happiness changes. Suddenly it’s conditional on such things as excitement, love and popularity. I can still recall the excitement of being invited to dance with the most attractive boy at the school party.
In adulthood the things that bring deep joy—love, marriage, birth—also bring responsibility and the risk of loss. For adults, happiness is complicated (复杂的).
My definition 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 the company of friends, the freedom to live where we please, and even good health.
I experienced my little moments of pleasure yesterday. First I was overjoyed when I shut the last lunch-box and had the house to myself. Then I spent an uninterrupted morning writing, which I love. When the kids and my husband come home, I enjoyed their noise after the quiet of the day.
Psychologists tell us that to be happy we need a mix of enjoyable leisure time and satisfying work. I don’t think that my grandmother, who raised 14 children, had much of either. She did have a network of close friends and family, and maybe this what satisfied her.
We, however, with so many choices and such pressure to succeed in every area, have turned happiness into one more thing we’ve got to have. We’re so self-conscious about our “right” to it that it’s making us miserable. So we chase it and equal it with wealth and success, without noticing that the people who have those things aren’t necessarily happier.
Happiness isn’t about what happens to—it’s about how we see what happens to us. It’s the skillful way of finding a positive for every negative. It’s not wishing for what we don’t have , but enjoying what we do possess.
小题1:As people grow older, they ____.
A．feel it harder to experience happiness
B．associate their happiness less with others
C．will take fewer risks in pursuing happiness
D．tend to believe responsibility means happiness小题2:What can we learn about the author from Paragraphs 5 and 6?
A．She cares little about her own health.
B．She enjoys the freedom of traveling.
C．She is easily pleased by things in daily life.
D．She prefers getting pleasure from housework.小题3:What can be inferred from Paragraph 7?
A．Psychologists think satisfying work is key to happiness.
B．Psychologists’ opinion is well proved by Grandma’s case.
C．Grandma often found time for social gatherings.
D．Grandma’s happiness came from modest expectations of life.小题4:People who equal happiness with wealth and success ______.
A．consider pressure something blocking their way
B．stress their right to happiness too much
C．are at a loss to make correct choices
D．are more likely to be happy小题5:What can be concluded from the passage?
A．Happiness lies between the positive and the negative
B．Each man is the master of his own fate.
C．Success leads to happiness.
D．Happy is he who is content.
