幸福可以度量么

 　　How do you gauge¹ a country's well-being²?

　　The usual approach is to look at economic indicators³ like GDP or employment figures, or social ones like literacy levels or crime rates.

　　But in Britain politicians are seeking a much more basic measure of the public's well-being: its happiness.

　　From this month, as part of an annual survey, 200,000 households in Britain will be asked some rather unusual questions. They are:

　　How happy are you? How happy did you feel yesterday? How anxious did you feel yesterday? To what extent do you feel the things in your life are worthwhile?

　　The large sample size means that researchers are hoping to minimise the questionnaire's margin⁴ of error. Statisticians will try to correlate respondents' answers about happiness to other variables, such as their income or where they live.

　　The Prime Minister David Cameron has signalled that he may allow his policies to be shaped by the responses to these questions.

　　But Sheila Lawlor, from the think tank Politeia, thinks that politicians should fix the economy before probing the national mood, which is less measurable.

　　"I don't think this [government] should start thinking about well-being and happiness, which are not very easy to measure; it should concentrate on a framework so we can have the things that will increase our well-being."

1 gauge   

v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器

参考例句：

• Can you gauge what her reaction is likely to be?你能揣测她的反应可能是什么吗？
• It's difficult to gauge one's character.要判断一个人的品格是很困难的。

2 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

3 indicators   

（仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的）指针( indicator的名词复数 )； 指示物； （车辆上的）转弯指示灯； 指示信号

参考例句：

• The economic indicators are better than expected. 经济指标比预期的好。
• It is still difficult to develop indicators for many concepts used in social science. 为社会科学领域的许多概念确立一个指标仍然很难。

4 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。