People hold 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 things that lead to happiness involve some pain.
As a result, many people don’t like the very attempts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, commitment(承担的义务)，self-improvement.
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 commitment, for commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure, excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most obvious 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 true happiness is one of the most liberating realizations because true happiness has nothing to do with fun. It liberates(解放) 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 actully may not be happy at all.
【小题1】According to the author, a bachelor resists marriage chiefly because____

When Jeanne Calment entered the world in 1875, telephones and automobiles still lay in the future. Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso were not yet born. The Eiffel Tower was 14 years from being built. As a teenager, she met Vincent Van Gogh, near her home in Arles, in the south of France. He was “very ugly, ungracious (举止粗俗的), impolite, sick—I forgive him, they called him loco (精神失常的)”, she recalled. When she died last week at age 122, she was the world’s eldest person. (There are others who claimed to the title, but only Calment had the official documents to prove her age.)
Each February 21, her birthday, she would share the secrets of long life. Some years it was “a sense of humour”, others it was “keeping busy”. “God must have forgotten me,” she once explained. The truth probably was that she had good genes: her mother reportedly lived to be 86 and her father 94.
Her life had its sadness: she outlived her husband, her only daughter and her grandson. According to a friend, she was imperturbable. “If you can’t do anything about it,” she reportedly said, “don’t worry about it.”
In her last years she was nearly blind and deaf, but her health remained good. She ate a few bars of chocolate each week and continued smoking until a few years ago, when she could no longer light her own cigarettes. She never lost her sense of humour. On her 110^th birthday, she commented, “I’ve only ever had one wrinkle, and I’m sitting on it. “Her longevity made her famous; her spirit made her eternal (永恒的).
【小题1】Why does the author mention Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso and the Eiffel Tower?

When Jeanne Calment entered the world in 1875, telephones and automobiles still lay in the future. Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso were not yet born. The Eiffel Tower was 14 years from being built. As a teenager, she met Vincent Van Gogh, near her home in Arles, in the south of France. He was “very ugly, ungracious (举止粗俗的), impolite, sick—I forgive him, they called him loco (精神失常的)”, she recalled. When she died last week at age 122, she was the world’s eldest person. (There are others who claimed to the title, but only Calment had the official documents to prove her age.)
Each February 21, her birthday, she would share the secrets of long life. Some years it was “a sense of humour”, others it was “keeping busy”. “God must have forgotten me,” she once explained. The truth probably was that she had good genes: her mother reportedly lived to be 86 and her father 94.
Her life had its sadness: she outlived her husband, her only daughter and her grandson. According to a friend, she was imperturbable. “If you can’t do anything about it,” she reportedly said, “don’t worry about it.”
In her last years she was nearly blind and deaf, but her health remained good. She ate a few bars of chocolate each week and continued smoking until a few years ago, when she could no longer light her own cigarettes. She never lost her sense of humour. On her 110^th birthday, she commented, “I’ve only ever had one wrinkle, and I’m sitting on it. “Her longevity made her famous; her spirit made her eternal (永恒的).

1. 1.

   Why does the author mention Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso and the Eiffel Tower?

   1. A.
      To show that Calment had seen famous people and things.
   2. B.
      To emphasize that Calment was born a long time ago.
   3. C.
      To indicate that Calment is just as famous.
   4. D.
      To admire the knowledge that Calment had.
2. 2.

   The author believed that Calment’s longevity is mainly due to ______.

   1. A.
      a sense of humor
   2. B.
      being kept busy
   3. C.
      belief in God
   4. D.
      good genes
3. 3.

   The underlined word “imperturbable” means ________.

   1. A.
      calm
   2. B.
      humorous
   3. C.
      friendly
   4. D.
      healthy
4. 4.

   Toward the end of the story, the author seems to be impressed by Callment ’s _________.

   1. A.
      spirit
   2. B.
      religious belief
   3. C.
      knowledge
   4. D.
      longevity