I live in the land of Disney, Hollywood and year-round sun. You may think people in such an attractive and exciting, fun-filled place are happier than others. If so, you have some mistaken ideas about the nature of happiness.
Many intelligent people still consider happiness equal to fun. The truth is that fun and happiness have little or nothing in common. Fun is what we experience during an act. Happiness is what we experience after an act. It is a deeper, more lasting emotion.
Going to an amusement park or ball game, watching a movie or television, are fun activities that help us relax, temporarily forget our problems and maybe even laugh. But they do not bring happiness, because their positive effects end when the fun ends.
I have often thought that if Hollywood stars have a role to play, it is to teach us that happiness has nothing to do with fun. These rich, beautiful individuals have constant access to glamorous parties, fancy cars, expensive homes, everything that spells “happiness”. But in memoir (回忆录) after memoir, famous people expose the unhappiness hidden beneath all their fun depression, alcoholism (酗酒), drug addiction, broken marriages, troubled children and extreme loneliness.
Ask an unmarried man why he refuses to get married even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If he’s honest, he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment (承诺). For commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure and excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features.
Similarly, couples that choose not to have children are deciding in favor of painless fun over painful happiness. They can dine out whenever they want and sleep as late as they want. Couples with babies 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.
The way people stick to the belief that a fun-filled, pain-free life equals happiness actually reduces their chances of ever achieving 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 times than not, things that lead to happiness involve some pain.
As a result, many people avoid the very efforts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain unavoidably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment and self-improvement.
Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating (解放) realizations we can ever come to. It liberates time now we can devote more hours to activities that can truly 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 rich and glamorous people we were so sure are happy because they are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.
41. According to the passage, which of the following people are more likely to achieve happiness?
A. People living in fun-filled places. B. People taking pains to raise children.
C. People living a wealthy life. D. People who are free from responsibility.
42. According to the writer, an important role Hollywood stars have to play is to ______.
A. give audience enough fun B. write memoirs to introduce their lives
C. tell people what happiness is D. show unhappiness beneath fun
43. In the writer’s opinion, marriage ______.
A. means responsibility B. means the end of fun
C. leads to raising children D. leads to less sleep
44. Many people fail to enjoy real happiness because ______.
A. they believe fun is equal to happiness B. they get married and have children
C. they don’t have religious beliefs D. they can’t free themselves from commitment
45. If one understands the nature of happiness, he will ______.
A. stop seeking fun from daily life B. enjoy life by spending all his wealth
C. keep himself with his family D. make more efforts to take responsibilites