通往幸福的道路

文章词数：352 建议用时：6′ 难度指数：★★★

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（级别或地位）低下的forms of the same kind of pleasure.

Many men who spend their working life in the city⑤devotetheirweekends tovoluntaryandunremunerated无偿的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庄严地.

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

Perhaps those who have been rendered使变得unhappy by a bad theory may need a better theory to help them to recover,just as you may need a tonic滋补品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哲学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养生之道—a different diet,or more exercise,or what not.

Man is an animal,and his happiness⑪depends 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.

阅读扫障

Ⅰ.热词积累

①at most至多

②build up 建立；增进；积累

③come into existence开始存在；形成

④bring up养育

⑤devote...to...把……献给……（to是介词）

⑥in one’s opinion 在某人看来

⑦delight in...喜欢……；以……为乐；乐于……

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轮流；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无法忍受的；难以容忍的

⑪depend on 依 靠 ；依 赖

译文助读

Ⅱ.难句分析

It had been thought that man cannot be happy without a theory of life or a religion.过去一直有这样的看法:如果没有一种生活的理论或者宗教信仰，人是不可能幸福的。

本句使用了“cannot...without...”的双重否定形式，意为 “没有……是不行的”。句首的it是形式主语，代替that引导的主语从句，为避免句子头重脚轻，因此构成了“it+be+过去分词 +that...”句型，能用在此句型中的动 词 还 有 say，believe，report，think， 以 及 欲 望 类 动 词suggest，recommend，advise，require，及 order等。 当动词是欲望类动词时，that从句要用“（should）+动词原形”的虚拟语气形式。“it+be+过去分词 +that...”句型常可转换为“主语 +be+过去分词 +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.据报道，有两名男子在昨天的交通事故中丧生了。

只要观察一下周围那些你可称之为幸福的男男女女，你就会看出他们都有某些共同之处。

在这些共同之处中有一点是最重要的，那就是活动本身。它在大多数情况下本身就很有趣，而且可逐渐地使你的愿望得以实现。

生性喜爱孩子的妇女，能够从抚养子女中得到这种满足。

如果艺术家、作家和科学家对自己的工作感到满意，他们也能以同样的方式得到快乐。

不过，还有很多是较低层次的快乐。

许多在城里工作的人到了周末就会自愿地在自家的庭院里做无偿的劳动，当春天来时，他们就可尽情享受自己创造的美景带来的快乐。

在我看来，整个关于快乐的话题一向都被太严肃地对待了。

过去一直有这样的看法:如果没有一种生活的理论或者宗教信仰，人是不可能幸福的。

也许那些由于不好的理论才导致不快乐的人需要一种较好的理论帮助他们重新快乐起来，就像你生过病需要吃补药一样。

但是，正常情况下，一个人不吃补药也应当是健康的,没有理论也应当是幸福的。

真正重要的是一些简单的事情。

如果一个男人喜爱他的妻子儿女，事业有成，而且无论白天黑夜，春去秋来，总是感到高兴，那么不管他的理论如何，他都会是快乐的。

反之，如果他讨厌自己的妻子，受不了孩子们的吵闹，而且害怕上班;如果他白天盼望夜晚，而到了晚上又巴望着天明，那么，他所需要的就不是一种新的理论，而是一种新的养生之道——改变饮食习惯或多锻炼身体等等。

人是动物，他的幸福更多的时候取决于其生理状况而非思想状况。

这是一个很庸俗的结论，然而我无法使自己怀疑它。

我确信，不幸福的商人与其找到新的理论来使自己幸福，还不如每天步行六英里更见效。