英語美文鑒賞 041

所屬教程:英語美文鑒賞

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2016年09月13日

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"Are you happy?" I asked my brother, Ian, one day.

"Yes. No. It depends on what you mean," he said.

"Then tell me," I said, "when was the last time you think you were happy?"

"April 1967," he said.

It served me right for putting a serious question to someone who has joked his way through life. But Ian's answer reminded me that when we think about happiness, we usually think of something extraordinary, a 1)pinnacle of 2)sheer delight. And those pinnacles seem to get rarer the older we get.

For a child, happiness has a magical quality. I remember making hide-outs in newly cut 3)hay, playing 4)cops and robbers in the woods, getting a speaking part in the school play. Of course, kids also experience lows, but their delight at such peaks of pleasure as winning a race or getting a new bike is 5)unreserved.

In the teenage years, the concept of happiness changes. Suddenly it's conditional on such things as excitement, love, popularity and whether that zit will clear up before a 6)prom night. I can still feel the agony of not being invited to a party that almost everyone else was going to. But I also recall the ecstasy of being plucked from obscurity at another event to dance with a 7)John Travolta look-alike.

In 8)adulthood the things that bring 9)profound joy - birth, love, marriage - also bring responsibility and the risk of loss. Love may not last, loved ones die. For adults, happiness is complicated.

My dictionary defines happy as "lucky" or "fortunate", but I think a better definition of happiness is "the capacity for enjoyment". The more we can enjoy what we have, the happier we are. It's easy to overlook the pleasure we get from loving and being loved, the company of friends, the freedom to live where we please, even good health.

While happiness may be more complex for us, the solution is the same as ever. Happiness isn't about what happens to us; it's about how we perceive what happens to us. It's the 10)knack of finding a positive for every negative, and viewing a 11)set-back as a challenge. It's not wishing for what we don't have, but enjoying what we do possess.

“你幸福嗎?”一天我問我的兄弟伊恩。

“又幸福，又不幸福。這要看你指的是什么，”他說。

“那么告訴我，”我說，“你最近一次感到幸福是什么時(shí)候?”

“1967年4月，”他說。

向一個(gè)游戲人生的人提問這么嚴(yán)肅的問題，我真是自討苦吃。但是伊恩的話啟發(fā)了我，當(dāng)我們考慮幸福的時(shí)候，我們通常想到一些不同尋常的事情和愉快無比的時(shí)刻，而隨著年齡的增長，這種時(shí)刻是越來越少。

對于孩子來說，幸福充滿了魔力。我記得在新割下的草堆里捉迷藏，在樹林里扮演警察和強(qiáng)盜，在校劇中擔(dān)當(dāng)有臺詞的角色。當(dāng)然孩子也有情緒低落的時(shí)候，但是當(dāng)贏了賽跑或得到一輛新自行車時(shí)，他們流露出快樂是無可比擬、沒有任何保留的。

到了少年時(shí)期，幸福觀發(fā)生了變化。突然間幸福有了條件，例如：刺激、愛情、名氣以及舞會前青春痘是否能消除等。我還能感受到因未被邀請去參加一個(gè)幾乎人人有份的晚會所體會到的痛苦;我還記得在另一次活動中因與一位酷似約翰·屈沃塔的人跳舞而大出風(fēng)頭的那份激動心情。

成年時(shí)，能帶來深深歡樂的事情(如出生、愛情和婚姻)，同時(shí)也帶來了責(zé)任和失去的危險(xiǎn)。愛情也許難以持久;心愛的人也許會離開人世。對于成年人來說，幸福是復(fù)雜的。

我的字典把幸福定義為“幸運(yùn)”或“好運(yùn)”。但是我想幸福更好的定義是“享受的能力”。我們越能享受所擁有的一切，我們就越幸福。從愛與被愛、友情、隨心所欲擇地而居、甚至到擁有的健康，其中獲得的快樂很容易被我們忽視了。

雖然幸福對我們來說也許更錯綜復(fù)雜，但是獲得幸福的途徑永遠(yuǎn)是一樣的。幸福不在于我們的遭遇如何，而在于我們?nèi)绾慰创庥龅降氖虑?。這是化消極為積極、將挫折看作挑戰(zhàn)的訣竅。幸福不是憑空許愿，而是享受擁有。

[注釋]

1) pinnacle [5pinEkl] n. 頂點(diǎn)