- 注释版
- 纯净版
导读：很多时候我们总是在追求幸福感，现代人总说幸福感很多由于浮躁的生活，可是我们有没有从反面想过问题呢？之前，有个姐姐告诉我，不要总想去追求遥不可及的事情，想一想你曾经看不上的东西，努力去珍惜。世界就是这样，你来我往，人走茶凉。或许幸福感往往就来来自于我们的不幸福。
[1] In 2009, Stacey Kramer was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Today, she’s better off for it.
Points:
diagnose v. 诊断
brain tumor 脑部肿瘤
be better off 情况好了
[2] Kramer was 43 years old. She was just getting ready to celebrate her wedding anniversary, and by all accounts, she was the happiest and healthiest she had ever been at the time.
Points:
by all accounts 据大家所说
[3] It was the last thing she expected, and at first, it shook her to the core. What followed wasn’t an easy road, but looking back, when Kramer tells the story, she speaks of it as a gift. She believes that in spite of the pain and the suffering, she wouldn’t have traded the experience for anything. It brought her closer to her family, made her more appreciative of life, and it reminded her of what really mattered.
Points:
in spite of 尽管
appreciative adj. 感激的
remind sb. of 让某人想起….
[4] Kramer doesn’t claim that every form of trauma or suffering brings with it a new hidden meaning. She realizes that it’s more complicated than that. The only point she tries to hit home is that the unwanted and the unexpected doesn’t always have to be that bad.
Points:
trauma n. 创伤
complicated adj. 复杂的
[5] The phenomenon that she’s talking about is actually fairly common, and it’s based on how the brain reframes stressors. Scientists refer to it as post-traumatic growth (PTG).
Points:
phenomenon n. 现象
stressor n. 刺激物
post-traumatic growth 创伤后成长
[6] Although a concrete strategy for happiness is almost impossible to identify and even harder to generalize for a large body of people, there is sense in using what we know about our brain to give us insight on how we can limit unhappiness in our lives. Let’s break it down.
Points:
concrete adj. 具体的
strategy n. 策略
identify v.定义
generalize v. 概括
insight n. 洞察力
Almost Nothing Is as Bad as You Think It Is
[7] One of the major differences between humans and other mammals is that our brain has a prefrontal cortex that allows us to make rational decisions and plan for the future. We can imagine possibilities that have yet to occur and use them to make choices.
Points:
prefrontal cortex (大脑)前额皮质
rational adj. 理性的
imagine v. 想象
[8] The only problem is that we’re not always good at imagining how we will feel about something in the future. The primitive parts of our brain that influence emotions don’t imagine how future us will feel about something, but they imagine how present us feels.
Points:
primitive adj. 原始的 原生的
[9] One of the byproducts of this is that we have a tendency to presume that certain things in life will be much worse than they actually are.
Points:
byproduct n. 副产品
tendency n. 倾向
presume v. 假定 推测
[10] An array of experiments have been done in fields ranging from behavioral psychology to neuroscience, and although we can’t necessarily pretend that anyone can overcome all obstacles, they do tell us that we’re far more pliable than we give ourselves credit for.
Points:
behavioral psychology 行为心理学
neuroscience n.神经系统科学
obstacle n. 障碍
pliable adj. 柔韧的 柔软的
[11] One of the most famous of such experiments was done in 1978, when a group of researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Massachusetts set out to compare the happiness levels of two very different groups of people.
The Experiment
[12] The first group was made up of recent winners of the State lottery, with the prize ranging from $50,000 to $1 million, and the second was filled with victims of accidents that had caused a form of extreme paralysis. They interviewed each group to measure the pleasure they felt in response to day to day activities in their lives.
Points:
paralysis 瘫痪
victim n. 受害人
[13] Lottery winners were unsurprisingly better off in their present happiness level (temporary), but it turned out that there wasn’t really a big difference between their day to day happiness level (long-term). In fact, the victims reported they were slightly happier in their daily life.
Points:
temporary adj. 暂时的
[14] This finding has caught a lot of traction in the decades following. The verdict is still out on the exact degree of control we have over our happiness and where we should draw the line.
Points:
traction n. 牵引力
verdict n. 结论 裁定
[15] However, one thing appears fairly conclusive. Human beings are extremely flexible in their ability to adapt to life events. Even if some things really do make or break us, for the most part, many of the things we fear will cause us unhappiness when we imagine the future are things that have limited effect on our day to day life once we readjust.
Points:
appear v. 出现
conclusive adj. 结论性的
flexible adj. 灵活的
adapt v. 适应
[16] Almost nothing is as bad you think it is when you’re thinking about it, and it’s probably not the end of the world if things don’t turn out exactly how you ideally imagined.
Points:
turn out 证明是
[17] That doesn’t necessarily mean that you shouldn’t strive for what you perceive to be the optimal result. It’s simply about relieving yourself of the needless unhappiness that comes from underestimating your own resilience to life events. Know when not to worry.
Points:
strive for 努力
optimal adj. 最佳的 最理想的
relieve v. 释放
underestimate v. 低估
resilience n. 恢复力 复原力
导读：很多时候我们总是在追求幸福感，现代人总说幸福感很多由于浮躁的生活，可是我们有没有从反面想过问题呢？之前，有个姐姐告诉我，不要总想去追求遥不可及的事情，想一想你曾经看不上的东西，努力去珍惜。世界就是这样，你来我往，人走茶凉。或许幸福感往往就来来自于我们的不幸福。
[1] In 2009, Stacey Kramer was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Today, she’s better off for it.
[2] Kramer was 43 years old. She was just getting ready to celebrate her wedding anniversary, and by all accounts, she was the happiest and healthiest she had ever been at the time.
[3] It was the last thing she expected, and at first, it shook her to the core. What followed wasn’t an easy road, but looking back, when Kramer tells the story, she speaks of it as a gift. She believes that in spite of the pain and the suffering, she wouldn’t have traded the experience for anything. It brought her closer to her family, made her more appreciative of life, and it reminded her of what really mattered.
[4] Kramer doesn’t claim that every form of trauma or suffering brings with it a new hidden meaning. She realizes that it’s more complicated than that. The only point she tries to hit home is that the unwanted and the unexpected doesn’t always have to be that bad.
[5] The phenomenon that she’s talking about is actually fairly common, and it’s based on how the brain reframes stressors. Scientists refer to it as post-traumatic growth (PTG).
[6] Although a concrete strategy for happiness is almost impossible to identify and even harder to generalize for a large body of people, there is sense in using what we know about our brain to give us insight on how we can limit unhappiness in our lives.
Let’s break it down.
Almost Nothing Is as Bad as You Think It Is
[7] One of the major differences between humans and other mammals is that our brain has a prefrontal cortex that allows us to make rational decisions and plan for the future. We can imagine possibilities that have yet to occur and use them to make choices.
[8] The only problem is that we’re not always good at imagining how we will feel about something in the future. The primitive parts of our brain that influence emotions don’t imagine how future us will feel about something, but they imagine how present us feels.
[9] One of the byproducts of this is that we have a tendency to presume that certain things in life will be much worse than they actually are.
[10] An array of experiments have been done in fields ranging from behavioral psychology to neuroscience, and although we can’t necessarily pretend that anyone can overcome all obstacles, they do tell us that we’re far more pliable than we give ourselves credit for.
[11] One of the most famous of such experiments was done in 1978, when a group of researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Massachusetts set out to compare the happiness levels of two very different groups of people.
The Experiment
[12] The first group was made up of recent winners of the State lottery, with the prize ranging from $50,000 to $1 million, and the second was filled with victims of accidents that had caused a form of extreme paralysis. They interviewed each group to measure the pleasure they felt in response to day to day activities in their lives.
[13] Lottery winners were unsurprisingly better off in their present happiness level (temporary), but it turned out that there wasn’t really a big difference between their day to day happiness level (long-term). In fact, the victims reported they were slightly happier in their daily life.
[14] This finding has caught a lot of traction in the decades following. The verdict is still out on the exact degree of control we have over our happiness and where we should draw the line.
[15] However, one thing appears fairly conclusive. Human beings are extremely flexible in their ability to adapt to life events. Even if some things really do make or break us, for the most part, many of the things we fear will cause us unhappiness when we imagine the future are things that have limited effect on our day to day life once we readjust.
[16] Almost nothing is as bad you think it is when you’re thinking about it, and it’s probably not the end of the world if things don’t turn out exactly how you ideally imagined.
[17] That doesn’t necessarily mean that you shouldn’t strive for what you perceive to be the optimal result. It’s simply about relieving yourself of the needless unhappiness that comes from underestimating your own resilience to life events. Know when not to worry.