The meaning of happiness is, to an extent, subjective. But experts we surveyed emphasize the same cocktail of ingredients: a sense of control and independence, being guided by meaning and purpose, and connecting with others.
Spending time with family outside of the house, and with friends in a non-professional setting, are strongly recommended. The majority do both at least once a week.
Mental well-being has long been linked to sufficient sleep, and our respondents prioritize getting at least seven hours a night.
She also counts breathing exercises, reading poetry, and watching stand-up comedy among her go-to coping strategies on bad days. Other experts overcome unhelpful thoughts, anxieties, and stressors by revisiting favorite books, listening to songs, or journaling. Jenn Lim reminds herself to stay curious and be gentle on herself. “If it’s within my control, then I can act better on it, “ she says.
Being happy is, after all, a universal and ancient pursuit. Take comfort in the knowledge that even experts find it to be a concept hard to define at times.
| A．And if it’s without, she knows to let it go. |
| B．Some attach importance to other entertainments. |
| C．Many gather socially three to four times a week. |
| D．Exercising or playing sports is another shared habit. |
| E．Most respondents set space for these interests twice a week. |
| F．And they largely agree happiness can be measured and taught. |
| G．An additional key to unlocking happiness might be nearing nature. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Key Steps to Cram (临时准备) for a Test Without Losing Your Mind
Social media is electronic ADHD (注意缺陷多动障碍综合征).
Remember, you are cramming at this point. Any learning here has a limited life, so stick to the basics. You are learning just the main ideas and the key details. Those are the things that are most likely to be on the test, so focus your energy there. Look for headings, key people, dates, equations, vocab words, and explanations of major ideas.
Talk to yourself. Every big idea you read, talk it out. Explain things to yourself. Make lots of hand actions. Pace if it helps. Stress words with a funny accent.
Whether or not your teacher gave you a study guide, you need to make your own to cram for an exam.
| A．Let go of the rest. |
| B．Catch every second to cram. |
| C．The crazier you look, the better. |
| D．Cramming is about finding a good rhythm (节奏). |
| E．Your teacher is a help to make a study guide. |
| F．It will sink a revision like an elephant in a row boat. |
| G．This is no doubt that a guide is the best method to study for an exam. |
【推荐2】Living in a house makes it a home. So leaving a place we have lived in and going to another place we haven't can be a little stressful.
If this is a new community for the homeowner， help him or her get used to it.
Help after the gathering ends. Moving is hard work. Your friend may be tired, and the last thing he or she will want to do is wake up to an after-party mess.
| A．Make sure the house is clean before you leave. |
| B．Moving to a new community will be a chance to make friends. |
| C．It does take up some of the time that is supposed to be used for shopping. |
| D．Why not invite your friend’s new neighbors and the community members? |
| E．Pick a date，send out invitations and list some items the homeowner may need. |
| F．In fact，experts say that moving is one of the top stresses we can experience in life. |
| G．Decide if this party will be a casual group of a few friends or a planned party with invitations. |
【推荐3】Do you always try to leave a good impression on others?
Dress well.
Be on time. If it’s your first meeting, then make sure to arrive on time. Late people come across as inconsiderate, which does not leave a good first impression. And if you keep some-one waiting, the other person may interpret it as a sign that you do not value their time.
Smile. Happy faces are perceived as trustworthy, so smiling could help you make a good first impression. But keep in mind that you should convey a genuine smile.
| A．Be positive. |
| B．Be polite and active. |
| C．Actually, people are quick to form impressions of each other. |
| D．Therefore, the best way to avoid being late is to set off earlier. |
| E．The first thing people judge you on is your physical appearance. |
| F．That’s because fake smiles are easily detected and extremely off-putting. |
| G．Let the other person know as soon as possible if you can not be there. |
My dearest daughter,
As I looked across at you sitting on the sofa watching The X Factor, I noticed that you are no longer a child, and that having just celebrated your 14th birthday, you are now a young woman starting a journey into becoming an adult woman. As I looked at you, I remembered myself at 14, and the vastly different places we are beginning this journey from.
Your identity as a mixed-race young woman, with an English father and a Pakistani mother, has already influenced how you place yourself in this world. Until now, you are unaware of the personal struggles that I took at the age of 25 to marry. How it felt when my mother refused to come to my wedding. The sharp criticisms of the Asian community that such marriages do not work out and always end in divorce. The confidence I had to grow, as we chose to live in a multicultural community, as I refused to be shamed into living in the leafier white suburbs.
Then, at the age of 30, I became your mum with all the joys and struggles this brought, as I refused the Asian traditions for a new baby's arrival. From your birth, your life could not have been more different from mine. I was brought up on a council estate, within a tight-knit extended Muslim family, through which poverty, racism and neglect were woven. I was never given the freedoms or the opportunity to experience new things. Now, as I hear you play your piano, I am grateful that you have these opportunities.
So many doors were closed to me as a young person, and as I fought for small steps of freedom, I soon learned that it was better to do what I wanted without the knowledge of my parents, and so deceit and deception(欺骗) became woven into my life too. The pressures to obey, to be a "good Muslim" girl and to keep the family honour were choking. Behind closed doors at home, the neglect and abuse took place. It was hidden; I felt the shame, lived with the fear and suffered alongside my sister and two younger brothers. Oh, the power we thought our parents had over us! I was convinced that one day my father would indeed beat us so hard that leaving us for dead, he would, as his threats said, bury us in the large back garden and tell the school he had taken us back to Pakistan for good. My sister and I longed for a different blue sky to live under.
As a daughter of immigrant parents, I carried their hopes of a better education for their children my own veins(血管) pulsing with the hard-work ethic(道德) and need to be grateful for the opportunity of a free education. And it was education that provided me with the strength to find my own blue sky. I fought to leave home to go to university at the age of 18, and never returned to live with my parents again.
Now as you explore your mixed-race heritage, which I hope we have supported you to do with visits to Pakistan and ensuring you go to multi-cultural schools, I want you to take the very best of all that is Asian with you as you become a woman.
The struggles of identity and belonging will come but I hope that we have given you a strong foundation from which to explore these struggles. All the opportunities and freedoms that I only dreamed of as a young woman, I have offered you. I have chosen a different path of loving you as my daughter, with an unconditional love that many consider "western".
I want you to know that although your journey has been vastly different. I am excited as I watch you standing on the threshold of becoming a woman for all the adventures and possibilities the future holds for you.
May you fly your blue sky with grace, confidence and hope as you find your place in this beautiful and crazy world.
Loving you now and always.
Mommy
1. Mommy's mother refused to attend her wedding probably because _____.| A．she married against the wishes of her family |
| B．she refused traditional Asian wedding ceremony |
| C．she would leave the family to settle in the white suburbs |
| D．she would bring shame to the multicultural community |
| A．her childhood was no different from her daughter's |
| B．her parents treated her the way she does her daughter |
| C．her daughter experienced the same traditions at birth with her |
| D．her daughter can enjoy the opportunities which she didn’t |
| A．She behaved like a good Muslim girl. | B．She fought against her Muslim identity. |
| C．She suffered much abuse in the family. | D．She was forced to drop out of school. |
| A．provide her daughter with more opportunities and freedoms |
| B．increase her daughter's exposure to different cultures |
| C．encourage her daughter to grow up to be a better woman |
| D．ensure her daughter more opportunities to visit Pakistan |
| A．uncover the sufferings she had as a teenage girl |
| B．criticize the social prejudice in her community |
| C．emphasize the importance of family support |
| D．encourage her daughter to try to achieve her dream |
【推荐2】When I started researching the science of happiness a decade ago, I believed negative emotions had no place in it. It turned out that I was wrong.
Firstly, you need the full experience of human emotions, both the positive and the negative. Feeling all kinds of emotions shows that you are fully alive and that you care about what is going on. Secondly, the more you try to deny the negative emotions you feel, the more power you will give to them. Thirdly, all emotions help you to survive and develop. Positive emotions tell you when things are right. Negative emotions help guide you to feel right again in your next steps, Hence, negative emotions play an important role in your life. But that doesn’t mean they should play so loudly that they overpower the positive ones. Here is how to avoid them from happening and to get the most out of your negative emotions:
When you notice a negative emotion, become aware of it. Pay attention to it without any judgment. Simply pay attention to it for what it is. You may call it stress, fear, anxiety, sadness, or whatever it is that you are feeling. Don’t spend more time thinking about this.
Say “I feel X.” rather than “I am X.” For example, “I feel anxious,” or “I feel upset.” Make sure to say “I feel upset,” rather than “I am upset,” You stress that the emotion you are feeling is fleeting but not permanent. This way of processing negative emotions reminds you that you are simply feeling it, giving it less power and making it easier to overcome.
Ask yourself, “What is making me feel this way?” Exploring the reason behind the negative emotion will make it easier for you to manage it. When did this negative emotion come about? What made it start? Allowing yourself to ask these questions and explore your negative emotion will help you to make peace with it. You will also feel more confident about your ability to handle it.
Remind yourself that happiness isn’t the absence of negative emotions but your ability to deal with them.
1. What does the author want to tell us in paragraph 2?| A．The effect of feeling positive emotions. |
| B．The important role of negative emotions. |
| C．The difference between the two emotions. |
| D．The result of denying negative emotions. |
| A．To ignore it. | B．To explain it. | C．To research it. | D．To notice it. |
| A．Brief. | B．Reliable. | C．Constant. | D．Unavoidable. |
| A．The strong belief to become successful. |
| B．The courage to face various challenges. |
| C．The ability to manage negative emotions. |
| D．The opportunity to have positive emotions. |
【推荐3】Kathy Fletcher and David Simpson have a son named Santi. He has a friend who sometimes goes to school hungry. So Santi invites him to occasionally eat and sleep at his house.
That friend has a friend and that friend has a friend, and now when you go to dinner at Kathy and David's house on Thursday night there might be 15 to 20 teenagers gathering around the table, and later there will be groups of them crashing in the basement or in the small bedrooms upstairs. The kids who show up at Kathy and David's have suffered the pains of modern poverty: homelessness, hunger and abuse.
And yet by some miracle, hostile soil has produced beautiful flowers. Kids come from around the city. Spicy chicken and black rice are served. Cellphones are banned. The kids who call Kathy and David“Momma”and “Dad”, are polite and do the dishes. Birthdays and graduations are celebrated. Songs are performed. At each meal they go around the table and everybody has to say something nobody else knows about him. At each meal the kids show their promise to care for one another.
The adults in this community give the kids the chance to present their gifts.“At my first dinner, Edd read a poem that I first thought was from Langston Hughes, but it turned out to be his own. Kesari has a voice that somehow appears from New Orleans jazz in the 1920s. Madeline and Thalya form a friendship as if it were the highest art form,”George said.
“They give us a gift—complete intolerance of social distance. When I first met Edd,I held out myhand to shake his. He looked at it and said, ‘We hug here', and we' ve been hugging since,”Kesari said.
Bill Milliken, a veteran youth activist, is often asked which programs turn around kids' lives. “I still haven't seen one program change one kid's life,”he says.“What changes people is the relationship. Somebody is willing to walk through the shadow of the valley of adolescence.”Souls are not saved in bundles. Love is the necessary force.
1. Why do kids come to Kathy and David's house on Thursdays?| A．To help the homeless at first hand. |
| B．To experience the feeling of home. |
| C．To learn about the modern poverty |
| D．To plant beautiful flowers in poor soil. |
| A．Kids need to tell stories about themselves. |
| B．Kids are expected to care more for each other. |
| C．Kids have to share housework around the home. |
| D．Kids prepare songs for birthdays and graduations. |
| A．The practice of the art form. |
| B．The pleasure of enjoying jazz. |
| C．The chance to listen to poems. |
| D．The zero distance between souls. |
| A．Love has the power to change a kid's life. |
| B．Money is needed to start programs for kids. |
| C．A program can change a group of kids' lives. |
| D．Kids change their relationships in a program. |
