I live in the land of Disney, Hollywood and year-round sun. You may think people in such a splendid, fun-filled place are happier than others. If so, you have some mistaken ideas about the nature of happiness.
Many intelligent people still equate happiness with 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（回憶錄）after memoir, they reveal the unhappiness hidden beneath all their fun: depression, alcoholism ,drug addiction, broken marriages, troubled children and profound loneliness.
Ask a bachelor why he resists marriage, if he’s honest, and 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 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 can. 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.
Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating（解放性的）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 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.
小題1:We can learn from the passage that ________.
| A．fun creates long-lasting satisfaction |
| B．fun provides enjoyment while pain leads to happiness |
| C．happiness is lasting whereas fun is short-lived |
| D．fun that is long-standing may lead to happiness |
小題2:To the author, the role Hollywood stars play is to ________.
| A．write memoir after memoir about their happiness |
| B．tell the public that happiness has nothing to do with fun |
| C．teach people how to enjoy their lives |
| D．bring happiness to the public instead of going to parties |
小題3:In the author’s opinion, marriage ________ .
| A．a(chǎn)ffords greater fun | B．leads to raising children |
| C．indicates duty and devotion | D．usually ends up in pain |
小題4:Which of the following is the best example of“painful happiness”?
| A．Winning lottery by accident |
| B．A bachelor resisting marriage |
| C．Raising children |
| D．Buying some fancy clothes |
小題5:If one gets the true sense of happiness, he will ________.
| A．stop playing games and joking with others | B．keep himself with his family |
| C．give a free hand to money | D．use his time to increase happiness |
