文章大意：本文为一篇说明文。文章通过阐述“幸福悖论”这一概念，解释了人们在闲暇时间倾向于选择低努力活动而非能提升技能的活动这一现象，并探讨了如何更有效地利用时间以获得更大幸福感，包括采用“心流”理论和合理安排个人时间。
1 . Suppose you’re eager to watch the latest televised sport. Nothing looks more attractive to you than your couch. But you also could use that time to figure out how to complete the home craft project, which will take you at least an hour of watching instructional videos to complete it. You know that you’d feel proud of yourself if you got it done. However, the couch’s attraction becomes too hard to resist.
According to a research, your dilemma is an example of what’s called the “happiness paradox (悖论).” Simply stated, this is the tendency for people to choose a leisure activity that requires very little effort even though they know that a true mood boost would come from sharpening and applying their skills. Prior research showed that when given a choice, people would rather engage in passive rather than active pursuits during their leisure time. However, it’s an unreasonable choice because what will really make you happier is being busy in an activity that allows you to expand and strengthen your skills.
Why would engaging in a more challenging activity increase happiness? The answer lies in the concept of “flow”, that is, when you’re using your abilities at their peak, you experience an uprush of happiness that pushes you through a challenging task. You won’t feel that way if you just do the simple task.
Although the sofa is inviting compared to a halfway-done project, we still have a way to approach it. You can break the activity down into what can be more manageable sections. Looking more realistically at your abilities, and then seeking guidance, you can now feel better about the whole enterprise.
The finding doesn’t mean that you have to abandon your couch all the time when you’ve got a choice about how to use your leisure time. Instead, you could put some variety into your choices. If you had a particularly tough week, either with managing your family or responsibilities at work, it’s fine to take a break. You don’t even need to feel guilty about that occasional use of “me-time.”
1. What is paragraph 1 about?
| A．Introducing a project. | B．Defining a concept. |
| C．Stating a phenomenon. | D．Providing an instruction. |
2. What is happiness paradox?
| A．An active pursuit | B．A conflicting mindset. |
| C．A leisure activity. | D．An effortless choice. |
3. How can you entertain yourself when doing a challenging task?
| A．By breaking the task into small units. |
| B．By stepping out of your comfort zone. |
| C．By finishing undone project right now. |
| D．By reducing the variety of your choice. |
4. What does the research show?
| A．The method of improving skills. | B．The management of responsibility. |
| C．The happiness from easy activities. | D．The wisdom of using your “me-time”. |
