英语听力精选进阶版 6265（在线收听）

How do you gauge a country's well-being?

The usual approach is to look at economic indicators 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 margin 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."

Quiz

How will the government try to measure Britain's well-being? 

By doing a survey.

Is it a big survey or a small one? 

It is a big one; the article mentions the large sample size.

Is this statement true, false or not given? Government policy will be shaped by the responses to the happiness survey. 

Not given - The Prime Minister has signalled that policies may be shaped by the results of the survey.

Look at the article. Can you see a verb meaning 'to measure'? 

To gauge.

Look at the article. What is a noun for a person who answers a questionnaire? 

Respondent.

Glossary 词汇表

to gauge something 衡量/测量 

indicator 指标 

GDP 国内生产总值 

figures 数字 

literacy levels 文化程度 

rates 比率 

measure 测量 / 尺度 

survey 调查 

household 每户人家 

sample size 调查人数 

to minimise something 缩小到最低程度 

questionnaire （调查）问卷 

margin of error 误差 

statistician 统计学家 

to correlate 联系 / 对应 

respondent 接受调查者 

variable 变数 

to probe the national mood 探测国民情绪 

measurable 可以衡量的 

framework 框架 / 架构