通往幸福的道路

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If you look around at the men and women whom you can call happy,you will see that they all have certain things in common.

The most important of these things is an activity which①at mostgradually②builds upsomething that you are glad to see③coming into existence.

Women who take an instinctive本能的pleasure in their children can get this kind of satisfaction out of④bringing upa family.

Artists and authors and men of science get happiness in this way if their own work seems good to them.

But there are many humbler（級別或地位）低下的forms of the same kind of pleasure.

Many men who spend their working life in the city⑤devotetheirweekends tovoluntaryandunremunerated無償的toil苦活in their gardens,and when the spring comes,they experience all the joys of having created beauty.

The whole subject of happiness has,⑥in my opinion,been treated too solemnly莊嚴地.

It had been thought that man cannot be happy without a theory of life or a religion.

Perhaps those who have been rendered使變得unhappy by a bad theory may need a better theory to help them to recover,just as you may need a tonic滋補品when you have been ill.

But when things are normal a man should be healthy without a tonic and happy without a theory.

It is the simple things that really matter.

If a man⑦delights inhis wife and children,has success in work,and finds pleasure in the⑧alternationof day and night,spring and autumn,he will be happy whatever his philosophy哲學may be.

If,⑨on the other hand,he finds his wife fateful,his children’s noise⑩unendurable,and the office a nightmare;if in the daytime he longs for night,and at night sighs for the light of day,then what he needs is not a new philosophy but a new regimen養生之道—a different diet,or more exercise,or what not.

Man is an animal,and his happiness?depends onhis physiology more than his thoughts.

This is a humble conclusion,but I cannot make myself disbelieve it.

Unhappy businessmen,I am convinced,would increase their happiness more by walking six miles every day than by any conceivable可想象的change of philosophy.

閱讀掃障

Ⅰ.熱詞積累

①at most至多

②build up 建立；增進；積累

③come into existence開始存在；形成

④bring up養育

⑤devote...to...把……獻給……（to是介詞）

⑥in one’s opinion 在某人看來

⑦delight in...喜歡……；以……為樂；樂于……

⑧alternation[謣蘅蘼lt藜謖ne奘蘩藜n]n.a situation in which one thing repeatedly happens or exists after another輪流；交替

⑨on the other hand另一方面

⑩unendurable[謣蘧n奘n謖dj尬藜r藜b藜l]adj.almost impossible to bear無法忍受的；難以容忍的

?depend on 依 靠 ；依 賴

譯文助讀

Ⅱ.難句分析

It had been thought that man cannot be happy without a theory of life or a religion.過去一直有這樣的看法:如果沒有一種生活的理論或者宗教信仰，人是不可能幸福的。

本句使用了“cannot...without...”的雙重否定形式，意為 “沒有……是不行的”。句首的it是形式主語，代替that引導的主語從句，為避免句子頭重腳輕，因此構成了“it+be+過去分詞 +that...”句型，能用在此句型中的動 詞 還 有 say，believe，report，think， 以 及 欲 望 類 動 詞suggest，recommend，advise，require，及 order等。 當動詞是欲望類動詞時，that從句要用“（should）+動詞原形”的虛擬語氣形式。“it+be+過去分詞 +that...”句型常可轉換為“主語 +be+過去分詞 +to do”的句型。

It was reported that two men were killed in the traffic accident yesterday.

=Two men were reported to be killed in the traffic accident yesterday.據報道，有兩名男子在昨天的交通事故中喪生了。

只要觀察一下周圍那些你可稱之為幸福的男男女女，你就會看出他們都有某些共同之處。

在這些共同之處中有一點是最重要的，那就是活動本身。它在大多數情況下本身就很有趣，而且可逐漸地使你的愿望得以實現。

生性喜愛孩子的婦女，能夠從撫養子女中得到這種滿足。

如果藝術家、作家和科學家對自己的工作感到滿意，他們也能以同樣的方式得到快樂。

不過，還有很多是較低層次的快樂。

許多在城里工作的人到了周末就會自愿地在自家的庭院里做無償的勞動，當春天來時，他們就可盡情享受自己創造的美景帶來的快樂。

在我看來，整個關于快樂的話題一向都被太嚴肅地對待了。

過去一直有這樣的看法:如果沒有一種生活的理論或者宗教信仰，人是不可能幸福的。

也許那些由于不好的理論才導致不快樂的人需要一種較好的理論幫助他們重新快樂起來，就像你生過病需要吃補藥一樣。

但是，正常情況下，一個人不吃補藥也應當是健康的,沒有理論也應當是幸福的。

真正重要的是一些簡單的事情。

如果一個男人喜愛他的妻子兒女，事業有成，而且無論白天黑夜，春去秋來，總是感到高興，那么不管他的理論如何，他都會是快樂的。

反之，如果他討厭自己的妻子，受不了孩子們的吵鬧，而且害怕上班;如果他白天盼望夜晚，而到了晚上又巴望著天明，那么，他所需要的就不是一種新的理論，而是一種新的養生之道——改變飲食習慣或多鍛煉身體等等。

人是動物，他的幸福更多的時候取決于其生理狀況而非思想狀況。

這是一個很庸俗的結論，然而我無法使自己懷疑它。

我確信，不幸福的商人與其找到新的理論來使自己幸福，還不如每天步行六英里更見效。