听力训练 Exercise
1. What could continued income growth promote？
2. What increases one's enjoyment of life and one's sense of well-being?
3. What was people's happiness affected by?
4. has shown that richer people generally the overall quality of their lives more favorably than poorer people do. At the same time, their happiness seems to be motivated less by their to buy more than by being able to keep up with those with comparable resources in their own age group .
5. Whether the affluent are as a whole than their less well-to-do counterparts is becoming an increasingly for debate. In years, much has been written regarding the " of happiness."
6. As incomes in the U.S. to rise over the course of our lifetimes, may find themselves on a sort of treadmill, more and more just to maintain a level of happiness, they write.

Words & Phrases 词汇与短语

Words 词汇
affluent 富裕的
claim 声称，主张
colleague 同事，同僚
comparable 可比较的；比得上的
favorably 亲切地；好意地

motivate 激发
overall 全部的，全面的
psychology 心理学；心理状态
treadmill 踏车；跑步机
well-to-do 小康的，富裕的

Phrases 短语
as a whole 总体上
keep up with... 赶上......
rather than 而不是
up to a point 部分地

参考答案

1. An ongoing consumption race.
2. The consumption of the materials.
3. What others earned.
4. Psychology, rank, actual, ability, resources
5. happier, hot topic, recent, science
6. tend, individuals, consuming, constant 听力原文
More Poor Friends More Happiness
Can money buy happiness? Yes, claim the authors of a new study -- but only up to a point.

Psychology has shown that richer people generally rank the overall quality of their lives more favorably than poorer people do. At the same time, their actual happiness seems to be motivated less by their ability to buy more than by being able to keep up with those with comparable resources in their own age group .

"Our findings point to the possibility that, rather than promoting overall happiness, continued income growth could promote an ongoing consumption race where individuals have to consume more and more, just to maintain a constant level of happiness," writes Glenn Firebaugh of Pennsylvania State University.

Whether the affluent are happier as a whole than their less well-to-do counterparts is becoming an increasingly hot topic for debate. In recent years, much has been written regarding the "science of happiness."

Richer people are happier because money can purchase goods and services and it is the consumption of these materials that increases one's enjoyment of life and one's sense of well-being.

As incomes in the U.S. tend to rise over the course of our lifetimes, individuals may find themselves on a sort of treadmill, consuming more and more just to maintain a constant level of happiness, they write.

Firebaugh and his colleagues measured the age, total family income, and general happiness of individuals aged 20 to 64, generally considered the working life span for most Americans.

Regardless of such criteria as physical health, education, effects of getting older, race, and marital status, people's happiness was affected by what others earned. The higher the income of others in one's age group, the lower one's happiness.

参考译文

穷朋友越多越幸福

金钱可以买来幸福吗？是的，但只能在某种程度上给人带来幸福，最近有学者调查研究后得出这样的结论。

心理学研究表明有钱人对总体生活质量的满意度通常要比穷人要高。同时，有钱人的幸福实际上不在于他们有经济能力脉更多的东西，而在于他们可以与其同龄人购买力相当。

我们的发现表明不断增加的收入并没有增强人们的总体幸福感，而只是促进人们加入一场正在进行中的消费竞赛，在这场消费大战中，每个人不得不花越来越多的钱去消费，仅仅是为了维持现有的幸福感。来自宾夕法尼亚大学的Glenn Firebaugh在报告中这样写道。

总体上来看，有钱人是否真的比穷人要幸福已经成为一个争论日益激烈的话题。近年来，关于幸福科学的文章也出现了不少。

有钱人更幸福是因为他们有钱购物，以及享受各种服务，而正是物质上的消费使他们更加享受生活，让他们更加感到生活的快乐。

随着美国人一生中工资的不断增加，他们也会发现自己仿佛站在跑步机上，消费的越来越多，而这么做的目的仅仅是为了维持现有的幸福感。

Firebaugh和他的同事针对20岁到64岁的人群，就他们的年龄、家庭总收入以及个人幸福感展开了调查，对大多数美国人来说，这个年龄段一般被认为是参加工作的时间。

除去诸如身体健康、教育水平、婚姻状况等因素的影响，人们的幸福感还受他人收入的影响。其他同龄人的收入越高，一个人的幸福感则越低。