Are people less happy or happier when they get older? If your answer is “happier”, then you are right. Study found that people generally 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 findings came from a Gallup Survey of more than three hundred and forty thousand adults in the United States in 2008. 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 the highest among adults between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five. Stress levels dropped greatly after people arrived at their fifties. Levels of happiness were the highest among the kids and those in their early seventies.
The study also found that men and women have similar emotional patterns (情感模式) as they grow older. However, women at all ages were reported more sadness, stress and worry than men did.
So why would happiness increase (增长) with age? One theory (推测) is that, as people get older, they become more thankful for what they have and have better control of their emotions. They also spend less time thinking about bad experiences.
【小题1】How many adults are there in the study?
| A．300. | B．40,000. | C．340,000. | D．34,000. |
【小题2】What does the underlined word “stress” in Paragraph 2 mean in Chinese?
【小题3】What can you learn from the findings of the study?
| A．People become happier and feel less worried before age 50. |
| B．People are happier with their life at 18 than they are at 85. |
| C．Adults between the ages of 22 and 25 have the least stress. |
| D．The kids and those in their early seventies feel the happiest. |
【小题4】Why does happiness increase with age?
| A．Because old people have no emotions. |
| B．Because when people get older, they seldom have bad experiences. |
| C．Because when people get older, they own more than before. |
| D．Because old people are more thankful for what they have. |
【小题5】What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Differences Between Men and Women |
| B．Differences Between Young People and Older People |
| C．Relationship Between Stress and Happiness |
| D．Relationship Between Age and Happiness |
