3 . Eudaimonia is an Ancient Greek word, particularly stressed by the philosophers Plato and Aristotle, which deserves far more attention than it has because it corrects the shortfalls (缺失）in one of the most central, but troubling words in our modem language: happiness.
When we nowadays try to clearly express the purpose of our lives，it is the word “happiness” that we commonly turn to. We tell ourselves and others that the most important principle for our jobs, our relationships and the conduct of our day-to-day lives is the pursuit of happiness. It sounds like an innocent enough
idea, but too much reliance on the term means that we frequently unfairly tend to quit or, at least, heavily question a great many challenging but worthwhile situations. The Ancient Greeks did not believe that the purpose of life was to be happy; they proposed that it was to achieve Eudaimonia, a word which has been best translated as “fulfilment”.
What distinguishes happiness from fulfilment is pain. It is very possible to be fulfilled and—at the same time—under pressure, suffering physically or mentally, overburdened and, quite frequently, in an irritable (易怒的）mood. This is a slight psychological difference that is hard for the word “happiness” to capture, for it’s tricky to speak of being happy yet unhappy, or happy yet suffering. However, such a combination is readily accommodated within the respected and noble-sounding idea of Eudaimonia.
The word encourages us to trust that many of life’s most worthwhile projects will sometimes be in conflict with contentment, and yet will be worth pursuing. Properly exploring our professional talents, managing a household, keeping a relationship going, creating a new business venture or engaging in politics... none of these goals are likely to leave us cheerful and grinning on a daily basis. They will, in fact, involve us in all manner of challenges that will deeply exhaust and weaken us, provoke (激怒）and wound us. And yet we will perhaps, at the end of our lives, still feel that the tasks were worth undertaking. Through them, we’ll have achieved something deeper and more interesting than happiness.
With the word Eudaimonia in mind, we can stop imagining that we are aiming for a pain-free existence—and then blaming ourselves unfairly for being in a bad mood. We’ll know that we are trying to do something far more important than smile all the time: we're striving to do justice to our full human potential.
1. What do we know about “Eudaimonia” from the passage?
| A．It was first created by two Greek philosophers. |
| B．It has received a lot of attention from the public. |
| C．It still has some shortfalls that need to be corrected. |
| D．It was regarded as the purpose of life in ancient Greece. |
2. According to Paragraph 3, happiness
.
| A．is the opposite of fulfillment |
| B．is free from physical or mental pain |
| C．stresses the psychological difference |
| D．serves as a respected and noble life goal |
3. We can learn from the passage that
.
| A．aiming for happiness may lead to wrong self-blaming |
| B．goals that wound and weaken us result in happiness |
| C．challenges leading to contentment are worth undertaking |
| D．feeling fulfilled means we should avoid tough situations |
4. The passage encourages the readers to
.
| A．find fulfillment with all efforts | B．seek for a pain-free existence |
| C．keep optimistic whatever happens | D．balance happiness and suffering |
