XX职称英语A级习题 Wealth and Discontent If your sense of well-being fluctuates with stock market, you might be forted to know that money cant buy you happiness anyway. In one American study conducted in 1993, level of ine was shown to have an inverse relation to happiness: the group whose ine had declined was happier overall than the group whose ine had increased. A soon-to-be published review of the hundreds of studies on this subject supports the 1993 findings. In developed countries, the correlation between ine and happiness is close to zero and sometimes negative. With a correlation between level of ine and happiness somewhere between 0.12 and 0.18, the United States is near the bottom of the list; that, factors other than ine are overwhelmingly more important in explaining happiness. Also, as our material wealth increases, the gap between ine and satisfaction with life seems to be widening. Predictably, money has its most positive effect on the poor, but once a person has achieved a minimal standard of living level of ine has almost nothing to do with happiness. Close relationship, rather than money, is the key to happiness. Indeed, the number of ones personal friends is a much better indicator of overall satisfaction with life than personal wealth. One stands a better chance of achieving a satisfying life by spending time with friends and family than by striving for higher ine. Incidentally, in the US, as people bee richer, the probability of divorce increases. Our need for panionship is partly biological. All primates respond with pleasure to demonstrations of affection and with pain to loss of panionship. Isolated monkeys will sacrifice food just for the glimpses of another monkey. By ignoring our biologically programmed need for each other, we risk physical and mental distress. A recent cross-national study of mental depression in the US found that in advanced countries, there is a rising tide of major depression. Teenage suicides have increased in recent decades in almost all advanced countries. Moreover, in the US since World War II, there has been an actual decline in the proportion of people who report themselves to be “very unhappy.” You can easily test the claim that panionship exceeds wealth as a source of happiness. Ask yourself which has a greater influence on your satisfaction with life: your ine or the affection of your intimate panions and the well-being of your children? Conversely, which would make you more depressed: a reduction in salary or a divorce and isolation from your friends? Capitalism sueeds in creating material riches, but it is less suessful in building panionable societies and protecting family integrity. But developing countries still have much work to do in pursuing material wealth, where a rise in productivity still greatly increases happiness. For poorer countries, the time is not yet ripe for a shift in priorities from wealth aumulation to panionship. Can we afford to believe that the pursuit of material gain will lead to self-fulfillment? We should continue to enjoy our wealth in good pany, or else we may find that it is not satisfying. 1. Aording to the 3rd paragraph, which of the following is true in developed countries? A. the more money one has, the unhappier he bees. B. ine and happiness are closely related C. the richer one is, the happier he is D. more money does not necessarily make one happy