Happiness and sadness are two most basic and familiar feeling for human beings. Recently, people have achieved further understanding about them.

Happiness

University of Illinois, psychologist Ed Diener, who has studied happiness for a quarter century, was in Scotland recently, explaining to members of Parliament and business leaders the value of increasing traditional measures of a country's wealth with a national index of happiness. Such an index would measure policies known to increase people's sense of well-being, such as democratic freedoms, access to health care and the rule of law.

Eric Wilson tried to get with the program. Urged on by friends, he bought books on how to become happier. He made every effort to smooth out his habitual worried look and wear a sunny smile, since a happy expression can lead to genuinely happy feelings. Wilson, a professor of English at Wake Forest University, took up jogging, reputed to boost the brain's supply of joyful neuro-chemicals, and began his conversations with "great!" and "wonderful!", the better to exercise his capacity for enthusiasm.

However, some scientists are releasing the most-extensive-ever study comparing moderate and extreme levels of happiness, and finding that being happier is not always better. In surveys of 118, 519 people from 96 countries, scientists examined how various levels of subjective well-being matched up with income, education, political participation, volunteer activities and close relationships. They also analyzed how different levels of happiness, as reported by college students, correlated with various outcomes. Even allowing for imprecision in people's self-reported sense of well-being, the results were unambiguous. The highest levels of happiness go along with the most stable, longest and most contented relationships. That is, even a little discontent with your partner can cause you to look around for someone better, until you are at best a serial monogamist and at, worst never in a loving, stable relationship.

Nevertheless, "once a moderate level of happiness is achieved, further increases can sometimes be harmful" to income, career success, education and political participation, Diener and colleagues write in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. On a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 is extremely happy, 8s were more successful than 9s and 10s, getting more education and earning more. That probably reflects the fact that people who are somewhat discontent, but not so depressed as to be paralyzed, are more motivated to improve both their own lot (thus driving themselves to acquire more education and seek ever-more-challenging jobs) and the lot of their community (causing them to participate more in civic and political life). In contrast, people at the top of the jolliness charts feel no such urgency. "If you're totally satisfied with your life and with how things are going in the world," says Diener, "you don't feel very motivated to work for change. Be wary when people tell you that you should be happier. "

Sadness

The drawbacks of constant, extreme happiness should not be surprising, since negative emotions evolved for a reason. Fear tips us off to the presence of danger, for instance. Sadness, too, seems to be part of our biological inheritance. Wilson argues that only by experiencing sadness can we experience the fullness of the human condition. He also asserts that " the happy man is a hollow man," but he is hardly the first scholar to see melancholia (精神忧郁症) as inspiration. A classical Greek text, possibly written by Aristotle, asks, "Why is it that all those who have become outstanding in philosophy or politics or poetry or the arts are clearly melancholic?" Wilson's answer is that "the blues can be a catalyst (催化剂) for a special kind of genius, a genius for exploring dark boundaries between opposites. "The ever-restless, the chronically discontent, are dissatisfied with the status quo, be it in art or literature or politics.

For all their familiarity, these arguments are nevertheless being crushed by the happiness movement. Last August, the novelist Mary Gordon lamented to The New York Times that "among writers... what is absolutely not allowable is sadness. People will do anything rather than to acknowledge that they are sad. " And, Jess Decourcy Hinds, an English teacher, recounted how, after her father died, friends pressed her to distract herself from her profound sadness and sense of loss. " Why don't people accept that after a parent's death, there will be years of grief?" she wrote. "Everyone wants mourners to ' snap out of it' because observing another's distress isn't easy."

It's hard to say exactly when ordinary Americans, no less than psychiatrists (精神病学家) began insisting that sadness is pathological (病态的). But by the end of the millennium that attitude was well established. In 1999, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman was revived on Broadway 50 years after its premiere. A reporter asked two psychiatrists to read the script. Their diagnosis: Willy Loman was suffering from clinical depression, a pathological ^condition that could and should be treated with drugs. Miller was appalled. "Loman is not a depressive," he told The New York Times. " He is weighed down by life. There are social reasons for why he is where he is. "What society once viewed as an appropriate reaction to failed hopes and dashed dreams, it now regards as a psychiatric illness.

As NYU's Wakefield and Allan Horwitz of Rutgers University point out in The Loss of Sadness, this message has its roots in the bible of mental illness, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Its definition of a "major depressive episode" is remarkably broad. You must experience five not-uncommon symptoms, such as insomnia (失眠), difficulty concentrating and feeling sad or empty, for two weeks; the symptoms must cause distress or impairment, and they cannot be due to the death of a loved one. Anyone meeting these criteria is supposed to be treated.

When someone is appropriately sad, friends and colleagues offer support and sympathy. But by labeling appropriate sadness pathological, "we have attached a stigma to being said," says Wake-field, "with the result that depression tends to elicit hostility and rejection" with an undercurrent of "' Get over it; take a pill. ' The normal range of human emotion is not being tolerated. " "We don't know how drugs react with normal sadness and its functions, such as reconstituting your life out of the pain," says Wakefield. Those psychiatrists also express doubts to medicalise the sadness.

1. According to Ed Diener, which of the following can be measured by the index of happiness?
A) The standard of morality. C) The sense of well-being
B) The freedom of speech. D) The access to health care.

2. In order to be happy, Wilson tried many ways such as_______.
A) borrowing books on how to become happier
B) trying to keep a sunny smile
C) starting his conversations with "Hello!"
D) trying to have a good rest

3. Who have the highest level of happiness according to the survey in 96 countries?
A) People with the most wealth.
B) People with the best health.
C) People with the highest position.
D) People with the most stable relationship.

4. According to Diener's statements in Perspectives on Psychological Science, the person with the moderate level of happiness will get ___________.
A) more education C) less earning
B) moderate success D) more reputation

5. According to Diener, why do those people with the highest level of happiness have less motivation to move ahead?
A) Because they have spent all their time pursuing the happiness.
B) Because they don't allow their work to affect their feeling of happiness.
C) Because they are too satisfied with happiness they have owned.
D) Because they do not like people to tell them to be happier.

6. Which of the following is the possible answer, to the questions set by Aristotle in Wilson's opinion?
A) The sadness can make one be stronger.
B) The sadness can make one be intelligent.
C) The sadness can force one to think more deeply.
D) The sadness can make one more depressed.

7. After the death of her father, friends of Jess Hinds and tries to help her out of_______.
A) working pressure
B) emotional trouble
C) economic pressure
D) marriage problem

8. Willy, the character in Death of a Salesman, was diagnosed by two psychiatrists to get suffering from ______________.

9. One experiencing a "major depressive episode" has to experience five not-uncommon symptoms for a period of _____________.

10. When someone is not in good mood, his friends should give him ______________.

1.D。由题干中的Ed Diener和index of happiness定位到第一个小标题下首段末句。本题考查幸福指数描述的对象，从原文可知，幸福指数可以用来测量一个国家民族全国的生活质量，包括民主自由度，健康医疗保险度及法律效度等。

2.B。由题干中的Wilson和many ways定位到第一个小标题下第二段。本题考查Wilson通过那些途径来增加自己的幸福感。从原文可知，他用了三种方法：一是买了 很多关于如何快乐起来的书；二是努力让自己脸上挂着灿烂的笑容；三是用great和wonderful等有关激情的话语开始跟别人谈话，由此可知B是正确答案。

3.D。 由题干中的数字survey in 96 countries和the highest level of happiness定位到第一个小标题下第三段的最后两句。本题考查在96个国家所做的关于幸福感的调查的结果。从原文可知，调查发现最高水平的幸福感是与最稳定、最长期和最满意的家庭关系精密联系在一起的。

4.A。由题干中的Diener's和Perspectives on Psychological Science定位到第一个小标题下第四段的开头两句。由原文可知，幸福感达到一个适度水平是最好的，再增加的话反而对收入，职业成就，教育和政治参与度有害。取得适度幸福感的人比那些有着高水平幸福感的人反而会得到更多的成功，更多的教育和收入。

5.C。由题干中的Diener，highest level of happiness定位到第一个小标题下第四段最后两句。本文考查幸福感最强的人前进动力不足的原因。从原文可知，幸福感强的人不急于前进。因为他们对生活和周围世界的现状太过满足，以至于前进的动力就会不足。

6.C。由题干中的Aristotle，Wilson定位到第二个小标题下第一段中间部分。A classical Greek text, possibly written by Aristotle, asks…Wilson’s answer is that “the blues can be a catalyst for a special kind of genius, a genius for exploring dark boundaries between opposites.” 本题考查Aristotle提出的问题，即为什么那些在哲学、政治、诗歌和艺术等方面取得重大成就的人都带有明显的精神忧郁症。Wilson认为忧郁就像催化剂一样，催使人们深入思考不同的甚至对立的观点。

7.B。 根据题干中的Jess Hinds和the death of her father定位到第二个小标题下第二段的倒数第散居。由该句可知，朋友们帮助Jess Hinds摆脱父亲去世后的悲伤和失落感，这些都属于情感问题。

8.clinical depression。由题干中的Willy和Death of a Salesman可以定位到第二个小标题下第三段第三句。精神病学家的诊断是剧中的人物Willy得了临床抑郁症。

9.two weeks。由题干中的major depressive episode和five not-uncommon symptoms定位到第二个小标题下第四段的第二句和第三句。从原文可知，一个抑郁期要经历五个常见的症状，大致要经历两个星期。

10.support and sympathy。由题干中的not in good mood和friends定位到第二个小标题下第五段首句。由原文可知，当一个人黯然神伤的时候，他的朋友和同事应该主动给予支持和同情。与原文对应，题干中的not in good mood, 故此处应填入support and sympathy。