What does it mean to live a good life? This question has been debated by may philosophers(哲学家). In the field of psychology (心理学), two main ideas of the good life are influential: A happy life, full of stability, enjoyment and positive emotions, and a meaningful life, full of purpose, virtue and devotion. But what if these aren’t the only choices?
In recent years, the psychologically rich life has been receiving greater research attention. It is full of strong emotions, both positive and negative, and new and interesting experiences. They are, however, seldom boring or dull.
In a new study, Shigehiro Oishi and his colleagues found that many people’s self described ideal lives include psychological richness. When to chose a life, however, the majority chose a happy life and a meaningful life. Even so, some people still favored the psychologically rich life.
These findings suggest that while most people do struggle to be happy and have meaning and purpose in their lives, a sizable number of people are content only living a psychologically rich life. Indeed, other new research suggests that for a lot of people, the intensity (强度) of the experience matters more than only how “positive” or “negative” it was. As Oishi and his colleagues conclude, “we believe that taking the psychologically rich life seriously will deepen, broaden and enrich our understanding of well-being.”
At the end of the day, there is no one acceptable path to the good life. You have to find a path that works best for you. As Nietzsche put it: “No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life. There may be countless bridges but there is one path in the world that none can walk but you. Where does it lead? Don’t ask, walk!”
1. The author mentions the two main ideas of the good life to _________.| A．introduce another aspect of a good life |
| B．compare two different ways of life |
| C．explain how to live a good life |
| D．tell readers some good ways to live |
| A．full of meaning and purpose |
| B．nothing but different emotions |
| C．strong emotions and interesting experiences |
| D．all about being content with what you have |
| A．the psychologically rich life is the best one |
| B．more people prefer to live a psychologically rich life |
| C．there is no difference between,’ positive’ and ‘negative’ experience |
| D．studying psychological richness helps to understand well-being better |
| A．the suitable one is the best one |
| B．all roads lead to Rome |
| C．God helps those who help them |
| D．nothing is impossible for willing heart |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】You are given many opportunities in life to choose to be a victim or creator. When you choose to be a victim, the world is a cold and difficult place.
Victims and creators live in the same physical world and deal with many of the same physical realities, yet their experience of life is worlds apart. Victims relish (沉溺) in anger, guilt, and other emotions that cause others—and even themselves—to feel like victims, too. Creators consciously choose love, inspiration, and other qualities which inspire not only themselves, but all around them.
In reality, all of us play the victim or the creator at various points in our lives. One person, on losing a job or a special relationship, may feel as if it is the end of the world and sink into terrible suffering for months, years, or even a lifetime.
In every moment and every circumstance, you can choose to have fuller, richer life by setting a clear intention to transform the victim within, and by inviting into your life the powerful creator that you are.
| A．Whatever happens, they have choice in the matter. |
| B．Compared with victims, creators are more emotional. |
| C．One’s experiences determine his attitude toward life. |
| D．Those who choose to be creators look at life quite differently. |
| E．Another with the same experience may choose to be a creator. |
| F．“They” did things to you which caused all of your pain and suffering. |
| G．Both victims and creators always have choice to determine the direction of their lives. |
【推荐2】We all want to be successful in our work. But what happens when our achievements come at the risk of losing important friendships? If your friends didn't receive what they were hoping for, your success could make them feel like they've been “left in the dust”. But does that mean that we shouldn't enjoy our achievements in case we displease someone or that we should feel sorry for being successful when others aren't?
Those of us who value friendships and close working relationships might feel embarrassed for achieving more than our friends. But we deserve our success, and nothing should take it away. Jealousy is only natural, but It’s often unreasonable, too. Your success is probably not connected with your friends' progress, so you shouldn't feel bad about achieving your goals. If your friends stay unfriendly, don’t be afraid to keep yourself away from them. You are not responsible for their weaknesses, and nor should they treat you sharply for furthering your work.
On the other hand, your friends may think highly of your recent success while hiding their real feelings. They could be jealous, angry or sad that they are not progressing at the same rate. So, be careful not to boast. It's a thin line between pride and self-importance, and by crossing the line, you may risk losing team support.
Next time you want to boast about your end-of-year win, or high-class new office, consider your listeners. Maybe your friends narrowly missed out on a position-raising, or experienced pay cuts which meant they didn't get what they were expecting. If your work is on a rising path, it doesn't mean that's the case for everyone.
Perhaps a step forward in your work has meant that you don't spend as much time with your friends as you used to. If you've changed a post or moved to a new office, take the time to stay in touch with old friends. Chances are that in the build-up to your success you've built strong relationships along the way. Don't let that hard work go to waste by losing touch with them.
1. From the first two paragraphs, it can be inferred that ________.| A．we should enjoy our deserving success |
| B．our success will certainly hurt our friends |
| C．friends will surely help us achieve success |
| D．our success is connected with our friends’ progress |
| A．Show up. | B．Stand out. |
| C．Talk big. | D．Keep silent. |
| A．Improve ourselves further. |
| B．Consider their feelings. |
| C．Help them make progress. |
| D．Make them proud of us. |
| A．How to share our success with friends. |
| B．How to enjoy our success to the fullest. |
| C．How to keep relationships between friends. |
| D．How to keep friendships while enjoying achievements. |
【推荐3】Maybe it is the fact that we do not know what we have got until we lose it, and it is also true that we do not know what we have been missing until it arrives.
It takes an hour to like someone, and a day lo love someone, but it takes a lifetime to forget someone. Giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they will love you back. Do not expect love in return; but if it does not, be content it has grown in you. Do not rely on one’s appearance； it can trick you. Do not rely on wealth；even that fades away. Rely on someone who makes you smile, because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright.
There are moments in life when you miss someone so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them. Dream what you want to dream;go where you want to go;be what you want to be,because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.
The brightest future will always be basod on a forgotten past.You cannot go on will in life until you let your past failures and heartaches go off.May you have enough happiness to make you sweet,enough to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to make you happy.The happiest of people do not necessarily have the of everything;they just make you th most of everything that comes along their way.Happiness waits of those who cry,those appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives. Always put yourself in others’ shoes.If you feel that it hurts you,it probably hurts the other person,too.
When you were born,you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.Live your life so that when you die,you are the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.
1. In the last paragraph the writet is actually telling us that a person in the world should be one who .| A．can accept the suggestions made by others |
| B．can live happily and forget the past |
| C．has made a lot of money for himself before he dies |
| D．does good to other people and is respected and loved by them |
| A．What to expect from life |
| B．Where to go with other people |
| C．How to treat our life |
| D．How to get on well with other people |
| A．If you give someone your love, you are sure to receive love in return. |
| B．We often don’t know what we have lost until it happens someday. |
| C．It is wise not to rely on anybody because you are likely to be cheated. |
| D．If it takes you a short time to love someone, you will easily forget the person. |
| A．you won’t do what will hurt other people |
| B．you should put on other people’s shoes |
| C．you should believe in other people |
| D．you should depend on your imagination |
【推荐1】Not next to me, please!
When you are traveling by plane, there are some passengers you just don’t want to have next to you.
A.
Perhaps you normally like them, but when you are sitting next to them on a plane it’s a different thing. They usually spend all the flight moving around and dropping their toys on the floor, and when they’re drinking their orange juice it ends up on your trousers.
B. Conversation makers
You recognize this type as soon as you sit down. They immediately start talking about the plane, or the weather, or they ask you a personal question. It’s very difficult not to talk to these people.
C. Nervous fliers
These are the people with white faces who sit down and immediately ask for something to drink. Every five minutes they call a flight attendant(服务员) to ask if there are any problems with the plane.
D. Space invaders(入侵者)
| A．Careless parents |
| B．Small children |
| C．You’ll probably have to keep talking until the plane lands. |
| D．These people are not necessarily very big. |
| E．Some people want to listen to music all through the flight. |
| F．Then they decide they want to play with you. |
| G．They also tell you about air disasters(灾难). |
Uncertainty is all around us, never more so than today. Whether it concerns your health or relationships, much of what lies ahead in life remains uncertain.
We’re all different in how much uncertainty we can tolerate in life. Some people seem to enjoy taking risks and living unpredictable lives, while others find the randomness of life deeply annoying. But all of us have a limit. If you feel controlled by uncertainty and worry, it’s important to know that you’re not alone; many of us are in the same boat.
To cope with all this uncertainty, many of us use worrying as a tool for trying to predict the future and avoid unpleasant surprises. Worrying can make it seem like you have some control over uncertain circumstances. You may also believe that it will help you find a solution to your problems or prepare you for the worst. Unfortunately, long-term worrying just robs you of enjoyment in the present and weakens your energy. But there are healthier ways to cope with uncertainty.
Identify your uncertainty trigger (诱发因素). A lot of uncertainty tends to be self-generated. However, some can be generated by external sources, such as reading media stories that focus on bad news, or simply communicating with anxious friends. By recognizing your triggers, you can take action to avoid or reduce your exposure to them.
Shift your attention. Focus on solvable worries, taking action on those aspects of a problem that you can control, or simply go back to what you were doing. When the feelings of uncertainty return, refocus your mind on the present moment and your own breathing.
1. How are people different in tolerating uncertainty in life?2. Why do many people use worrying as a tool to deal with uncertainty?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
▶ Knowing the triggers of your uncertainty, you can learn to expose yourself to them.
4. What are you most uncertain about right now? How will you deal with it? (In about 40 words)
【推荐3】Can training Your Working Memory Make You Smarter?
We would all like to increase our cognitive(认知的)ability beyond the limits set by Mother Nature. So it’s no wonder that brain-training programmes—which typically focus on training our working memory—are a multibillion-dollar industry. But can this kind of training really make us smarter?
Cognitive training sees the brain as a kind of muscle that can be made stronger with the right kind of practice. It consists of tasks or games carried out on computers or smart phones. Despite much research, there has so far been no agreement about its effectiveness. Some think that cognitive training increases a broad range of cognitive abilities, while others less optimistic.
Yet we do know that some cognitive skills, such as working memory and intelligence, tend to go together and are predictors of real-life skills such as work performance. Thus, training one cognitive skill might lead to an improvement in many other cognitive and non-cognitive skills. That is exactly the underlying hypothesis(假设)on which working-memory training is based.
To test this hypothesis, we examined all the studies about working-memory training we could find with normally developing children: 26 experiments and 1,601 total participants. Children represent an ideal test group: during childhood, skills are still at the beginning of their development. Thus, cognitive training is more likely to succeed with children than adults.
The results were very clear. Working-memory training did not show any effect on children’s fluid intelligence, a person’s ability to solve new problems and adapt to new situations. It didn’t influence their academic achievement or other cognitive abilities, either. The only reliable effect was that children got better at what they trained to do. No more, no less. So performing working-memory tasks does seem to make you better at doing them. Nonetheless, the fact that participants got better at such tasks does not necessarily mean that their working-memory ability increased. They may just have learnt how to perform that particular type of task.
The results do indicate that the use of working-memory training programs as an educational tool is fruitless. More generally, together with other research, the results contribute to disproving cognitive training companies promises of a better brain.
The results have even more important implications theoretically. They question the hypothesis that training general cognitive mechanisms can affect other cognitive or real-life skills. Beyond working-memory training, other recent studies have shown the improving cognitive skills outside music-including academic skills.
However, these negative results must not discourage us from training our cognitive and non-cognitive skills. We just have to be aware of the actual limitations of such practice in areas outside what we are actually training. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it-the most efficient way to develop a skill is, after all, to train that skill.
1. To find out the effect of working memory training, the author ________.| A．made some scientific studies |
| B．reviewed the previous research |
| C．compared different test groups |
| D．got some children involved in the experiment |
| A．do better in the field where they are trained |
| B．obtain greater academic achievements |
| C．adjust to new situations quickly |
| D．succeed when they deal with real life problems |
| A．Pessimistic | B．Disapproving |
| C．Objective | D．Optimistic |
| A．discover the secrets of human minds |
| B．make one’s brain stronger by way of practice |
| C．earn a good name for the training company |
| D．bring much profit to the training companies |
The quickest way to make a friend is to smile. When you smile, people think you are friendly and easy to talk to. It may not be easy at first to smile, but remember most people will stay away from a scared or angry looking face.
One easy way to start a conversation with someone is to say something nice about him. Think about how great you feel when someone says something nice to you. Doesn’t it make you want to keep talking to that person?
Ask your new friends questions about themselves. Who’s their favorite singer, where do they live, what do they do after school are all good questions to start a conversation. Make sure you have something to add to the conversation, too. When someone asks you a question, do have an answer for them. There’s nothing that will stop a conversation quicker than a shrug (耸肩) for an answer.
Kids who show an interest in other kids and who are kind and friendly make good friends. Remember, everyone wants to be around people who like to do similar things and people who are nice to them.
1. This passage gives us some advice on _________.
| A．how to make friends |
| B．what kind of person you can make friends with |
| C．how to start a conversation |
| D．the importance of smile |
| A．who are sad every day. |
| B．who share the same interest |
| C．who are fond of talking |
| D．who say bad things to them |
| A．who is always smiling |
| B．who seems to be friendly |
| C．who praises them |
| D．who points out their shortcomings. |
| A．being very proud | B．making no answer |
| C．knowing nothing | D．not hoping to answer |
【推荐2】Sometimes the simplest solution is the best one. That seems to be the case when it comes to the issue of wind turbines (涡轮机）killing birds.
According to a study conducted at a wind farm on the Norwegian archipelago of Smøla, changing the color of a single blade(叶片）on a turbine from white to black resulted in a 70-percent drop in the number of bird deaths.
In the past few years there has been a huge increase in global wind power, with more than 60 GW of new generating capacity(发电量）added worldwide in 2019. If the turbines are placed correctly, wind power is cheaper, cleaner and more sustainable(可持续的). Not to mention that a turbine farm is easier on the eye than a huge power plant.
But these farms aren’t good for everybody - especially not for local bat and bird populations. The US Fish and Wildlife Service calculated that nearly 300,000 birds were killed by wind turbines in 2015, which is a lot fewer than those that die as a result of hitting electrical power lines each year. Yet it still remains an environmental issue, even as bird deaths from turbines seem to be going down as the industry moves to larger turbine blades that move more slowly.
Studies have suggested that birds may not be skillful at noticing obstructions to their flight path, and adding different colored fan blades can increase birds’ chances of spotting a rapidly turning fan.
At the Smøla wind farm, regular checks of four particular wind turbines found the four turbines killed 18 birds that flew into the blades over six years. In 2013, on each of the turbines in the test group, a single blade was painted black. Over the next three years, only six birds were found dead due to hitting the wind turbines.
Researchers said the results are a step in the right direction toward better, more sustainable treatment of our flying friends.
1. Why have wind turbines killed birds?| A．Their blades are too large. | B．They are too high in the sky. |
| C．They are too close to each other. | D．Their colors are unnoticeable. |
| A．What future wind turbines will look like. |
| B．Why wind power is more and more popular. |
| C．How much wind power has been produced. |
| D．Which way of generating electricity is cheaper. |
| A．Ways. | B．Sights. |
| C．Guides. | D．Blocks. |
| A．Man is learning to protect nature. |
| B．Birds like colorful things. |
| C．Birds are good at choosing flight routes. |
| D．Human activities lead to environmental problems. |
【推荐3】I remember my childhood summers fondly, as many of us do. Those golden days in which I would leave the house after a still sleepy, leisurely breakfast and come home only for lunch in the middle of a day spent entirely outdoors. We did not live in town and, thus, playmates were limited to siblings (兄弟姐妹) and the cousins who lived down the road.
Our backyard became the playground in which our imaginations would run wild — turning those few acres into magical forests, the creek (小溪) into a violent river and our trusty dog, Rex, into the many roles of horse, monster and any other creature that we children did not want to play. By the end of the three months of summer break we were sunburned from our hours in the sun, full of the memories of a thousand magical moments and bonded to our siblings in a way that winter’s forced hibernation (冬眠) never seemed to connect us.
Today, I live on the same acreage that I did as a child. My children have the blessing of having the same grassy patches to scratch their bare feet as they run through it, the same creek to stomp(跺脚)through, and not the same dog — but their very own energetic pup to imagine away the days with.
However, this is not the same world as it was twenty, thirty years ago. There are screens everywhere in the house to demand attention — televisions with hundreds of channels, computers with access to a thousand entertaining sites, tablets stocked with apps. There is also no longer the expectation of a stretch of an unscheduled three months. Their school friends tell competitive stories of carefully planned vacations, spending time traveling to all of the local attractions — various parks, the zoo, the science center, all of the festivals which come breezing through town. On the very first day of school they will be asked to list their favorite activities of the summer and no longer are these lists filled with things like finding wood to make a bridge over a creek or a day spent in imaginative play with their siblings. The lists are now full of trips, overscheduled days and ＂camps＂ that no longer offer a stay in nature.
Our children have become used to being entertained every minute. In our house, we have limits on electronics and kick the kids outside on a nice day. Even as we try as parents to set limits and get our children out in nature, the new cry of childhood seems to be ＂I’m bored,＂ which is not really just meaning ＂I’m bored,＂ ＂but ＂Please find something to entertain me, as I no longer can entertain myself even for a short period of time.＂ Our children no longer know how to sit in silence, entertain themselves while even waiting for a few minutes and have lost the awe of nature as they have become addicted to screen time.
We have made a choice in this household to do what is no longer expected of children in many households — we will ensure that there are days of ＂boredom＂. We refuse to spend our days scheduling our children’s every hour. There will be many days with no plans at all, when they will be sent outside with only the grass and the trees and their own imaginations to entertain them.
The screens will be turned off and our children will find that times of quiet can be just as or even more entertaining. They will bond with their brother and sister, making memories that they will replay in their minds well into adulthood. Even though sunscreen will be religiously applied, they will leave summer with sunburned and scratches coming from climbing trees, stomping through creeks and chasing the dog in the field.
This summer I will be giving my children the greatest gift of all — boredom. For inside boredom is the gift of getting to know your own mind, of finding comfort and joy in nature and in the realization that the greatest gifts are experience, not things.
1. From the first two paragraphs we can know that the author .| A．participated in many organized activities |
| B．enjoyed an unscheduled vacation |
| C．explored magical forests and a violent river |
| D．realized the strength of patience |
| A．less meaningful | B．less accessible |
| C．more related to nature | D．more in line with the nature of play |
| A．Children are addicted to the Internet. |
| B．Children are limited to using electronics. |
| C．Children have no patience with everything. |
| D．Children lack the experience of exploring entertainment. |
| A．Sympathetic. | B．Envious. | C．Unsatisfied. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．To keep children away from electronics. |
| B．To encourage children to climb trees and stomp through creeks. |
| C．To set aside more time to improve their academic performance. |
| D．To provide children with the opportunity to seek happiness in nature. |
| A．The gift of boredom | B．The memory of childhood |
| C．The attraction of nature | D．The experience of two generations |
