常考时文朗诵01

passage 1

1. what do animals live on?

2. what are human needs based on?

3. what would a business man sacrifice to grow rich, health and...?

4. why do many rich ladies spend boring hours learning to talk about

fashionable new books?

to be thought

The road to happiness

There are a great many people who have all the material conditions of

happiness. For example health and sufficient income and who nevertheless are

profoundly unhappy. In such cases, it would seem as if the fault must lie

with the wrong theory as to how to live. In one sense, we may say that any

theory as to how to live is wrong, we imagine ourselves more different from

the animals than we are. Animals live on imports and they are happy as long

as the external conditions are favorable. If you have a cat, it will enjoy

life if it has food and warmth and opportunities for the occasional light on

the ties. Your needs are more complex than those of your cat but they still

have their basis on instinct. In civilized¹ societies, especially in English

speaking societies, this is too apt to be forgotten. People proposed to

themselves someone paramount² objective and restrain all imposes that do not

minister to them. A business man maybe so anxious to grow rich that to this

end he sacrifice his health and private affections when at last he becomes

rich, no pleasure remains³ to him except hearing other people by exaltations

to immitate his noble example. Many rich ladies although nature has not

indult them with any spontaneous pleasure in the literature or art, decide

to be thought cultured and spend boring hours learning the right thing to

say about fashionable new books lead a reason to give delight not to afford

opportunities for dirtiest sno bism.

sufficient

profoundly

imports

paramount

sacrifice

harry⁴

exaltation

indult

spontaneous

snobism

You can't work around the clock, you can't injure too much pressure.

I know, but I just seem unable to simply done.

1 civilized   

a.有教养的，文雅的

参考例句：

• Racism is abhorrent to a civilized society. 文明社会憎恶种族主义。
• rising crime in our so-called civilized societies 在我们所谓文明社会中日益增多的犯罪行为

2 paramount   

a.最重要的，最高权力的

参考例句：

• My paramount object is to save the Union and destroy slavery.我的最高目标是拯救美国，摧毁奴隶制度。
• Nitrogen is of paramount importance to life on earth.氮对地球上的生命至关重要。

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。