The way people hold to the belief that a fun - filled, pain free life equals happiness actually reduces their chances of ever attaining real happiness. If fun and pleasure are equal to happiness then pain must be equal to unhappiness. But in fact, the opposite is true: more often than not things that lead to happiness involve some pain.
As a result, many people avoid the very attempts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious mitment （预担的义务）, self - improvement.
Ask a bachelor（单身汉） why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If he is honest he will tell you that he is afraid of making a mitment. For mitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure, excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features.
Couples with infant children are lucky to get a whole night’s sleep or a three - day vacation. I don’t know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children. But couples who decide not to have children never know the joys of watching a child grow up or of playing with a grandchild.
Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations. It liberates time: now we can devote more hours to activities that can genuinely increase our happiness. It liberates money: buying that new car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates us from envy: we now understand that all those who are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.
【小题1】According to the author, a bachelor resists marriage chiefly because .A．he is reluctant to take on family responsiblilitiesB．he believes that life will be more cheerful if he remains singleC．he finds more fun in dating than in marriageD．he fears it will put an end to all his fun adventure and excitement 【小题2】Raising children, in the author’s opinion is .A．a moral dutyB．a thankless jobC．a rewarding taskD．a source of inevitable pain【小题3】From the last paragraph, we learn that envy sometimes stems from .A．hatredB．misunderstandingC．prejudiceD．ignorance【小题4】To understand what true happiness is one must .A．have as much fun as possible during one’s lifetimeB．make every effort to liberate oneself from painC．put up with pain under all circumstancesD．be able to distinguish happiness from funA
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(答案→)A
解析：
【小题1】本文是一篇议论文，阐述了幸福的获得这一严肃话题，试图澄清人们在幸福问题上的一些误解。本题要求学生判断单身汉拒绝结婚的主要原因。依据文章第3段第1行“Ask a bachelor why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If he is honest he will tell you that he is afraid of making a mitment”（……害怕作出对义务的承诺，即不愿承担义务）。A项与之等同，故正确。
【小题2】依据文章第4段第1句“带有婴儿的父母要是能睡上一整晚觉或度一个三天的假日，那真是太幸运了。在我认识的人中，不会有人用fun（好玩）来描述他们抚养孩子的感受”，似乎会认为作者的意图是B项（出力不讨好，毫无回报的事）或D项（不可避免的痛苦来源）。实际上，作者真实想法应在第2句中体现：但是决定不生孩子的夫妻永远也体会不到看着孩子成长以及和孙子玩耍的那种乐趣、那种欣喜。这种乐趣、欣喜实际就是一种回报。所以选项C正确。
【小题3】依据文章最后一句“And it liberates us from envy：we now understand that all those who are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.”说明：我们现在的这种理解就可免除嫉妨，那么反过来，嫉妨产生于我们的理解不当，即misunderstanding，故选项B正确。
【小题4】依据文章第1段第1句“The way people hold to the belief that a fun-filled, pain free life equals happiness actually reduces their chances of ever attaining real happiness”（人们坚持充满趣味、毫无痛苦的生活就等于幸福这一信条实际上减少了他们获得真正幸福的可能性）。再依据文章最后一句“…all those who are always having so much fun actually may
not be happy at all”（……生活中总是有如此多的fun的人实际上也许一点都不幸福）。可以看出要理解真正的幸福是什么就必须把fun和happiness区分开来。因为两者绝不等同。故选项D正确。C项应该是回答“怎样才能获得真正的幸福”这一问题，且作者并没在文中明确提到获得快乐就必须在任何情况下都忍受痛苦。