Question

Are people less happy or more happy the older they get? If you answered more happy, then you were right, based on a study in 2008. It found that people usually become happier and experience less worry after age fifty. In fact, it found that by the age of eighty-five, people are happier with their life than they were at eighteen.

The results came from a Gallup survey of more than three hundred forty thousand adults in the United States in 2008. At that time, the people were between the ages of eighteen and eighty-five.

Arthur Stone in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University in New York led the study. His team found that levels of stress were highest among adults between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five. Stress levels dropped suddenly after people reached their fifties.

Happiness was highest among the youngest adults and those in their seventies. But the people least likely to report feeling negative emotions* were those in their seventies and eighties.

The survey also found that men and women have similar emotional changes as they grow older. However, women at all ages reported more stress and worry than men did.

The researchers also considered possible influences like having young children, losing jobs. But they found influences like these did not affect* the levels of happiness related to* age.

So why would happiness increase with age? One reason is that, as people get older, they become more thankful for what they have and have better controlled of their emotions. They also spend less time thinking about bad experiences.

1We can probably read this passage in a ______.

A. story book                 B. guide book           C. sports newspaper      D. science magazine

2The study in 2008 found that ______.

A. people became happier after age fifty

B. men have more worry than women at all ages

   C. levels of stress were highest by the age of seventy

   D. happiness was highest among the adults between 22 and 25

3 People become happier as they get older because they ______.

   A. have more worry and stress

   B. can control their emotions better

   C. are influenced by having children

D. spend more time thinking about bad experiences

4 The passage is mainly about _________________ .

   A. the ideas to keep happy                      

B. the importance of having a happy life

C. the ways to make a survey on happiness

D. the results of a survey on happiness related to age  

Answer 1

 1D   2A    3B    4D