20．What is the author trying to tell us?

　A. Happiness often goes hand in hand with pain．

　B. One must know how to attain happiness.

　C. It is important to make commitments.

19．To understand what true happiness is one must ________ .

　A. have as much fun as possible during one’s lifetime

　B. make every effort to liberate oneself from pain

　C. put up with pain under all circumstances

　D. be able to distinguish happiness from fun

18．From the last paragraph, we learn that envy sometimes stems from ________ .

　A. hatred　　　　　　B. misunderstanding

　C. prejudice　　　　　　D. ignorance

17．Raising children, in the author’s opinion is ________ .

　A. a moral duty

　B. a thankless job

　C. a rewarding task

　D. a source of inevitable pain

16．According to the author, a bachelor resists marriage chiefly because ________ .

　A. he is reluctant to take on family responsiblilities

　B. he believes that life will be more cheerful if he remains single

　C. he finds more fun in dating than in marriage

　D. he fears it will put an end to all his fun adventure and excitement

15．If a 25 - year - old man becomes general manager of a big firm, the writer of the text would most probably consider it ________ .

　A. normal　　　　　　B. wonderful

C. unbelievable　　　　　D. unreasonable

E

　The way people hold to 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 than not things that lead to happiness involve some pain.

　As a result, many people avoid the very attempts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment (预担的义务), self - improvement.

　Ask a bachelor(单身汉) 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 distinguishing 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 that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations. It liberates 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 actually may not be happy at all.

14．“Act your age” means people should ________ .

　A. be active when they are old

　B. do the right thing at the right age

　C. show respect for their parents young or old

　D. take more physical exercise suitable to their age

13．The underlined word “one” refers to ________ .

　A. a society　　　　　　B. America

　C. a place　　　　　　D. population

12．It can be learnt from the text that the aging of the population in America ________ .

　A. has made people feel younger

　B. has changed people’s social position

　C. has changed people’s understanding of age

　D. has slowed down the country’s social development

11．Which of these statements is true based on the information in the passage?

　A. The earth is one of the oldest planets in our galaxy.

　B. Most scientists believe that there is intelligent life on other planets.

　C. Scientists are trying different ways to find signs of life on other planets.

D. Scientists don’t believe that there might be life on other planets.

D

　America is growing older. Fifty - eight years ago, only 4 out of every 100 people in the United States were 65 or older. To day, 10 out of every 100 Americans are over 65. The aging of the population will affect(影响)American society in many ways-education, medicine, and business. Quietly, the graying of America has made us a very different society-one in which people have a quite different idea of what kind of behavior(行为) is suitable(合适)at various , ages.

　A person s age no longer tells you anything about his/her social position, marriage or health. There’s no longer a particular year in which one goes to school or goes to work or gets married or starts a family. The social clock that kept us on time and told us when to go to school, get a job, or stop working isn’t as strong as it used to be. It doesn’t surprise us to hear of a 29 - year - old university president or a 35 - year -old grandmother, or a 70 year - old man who has become a father for the first time. Public ideas are changing.

　Many people say, “I am much younger than my mother- or my father- was at my age. ”No one says“Act your age” any more. We’ve stopped looking with surprise at older people who act in youthful ways.