2. 外语
  3. Read carefully the following two excerpts and then write your response in NO LESS THAN 300 WORDS, in which you should: summari

Read carefully the following two excerpts and then write your response in NO LESS THAN 300 WORDS, in which you should: summari

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问题     Read carefully the following two excerpts and then write your response in NO LESS THAN 300 WORDS, in which you should:
  summarize the main messages of the two excerpts, and then give your opinion on the view of happiness in either Excerpt 1 or Excerpt 2.
    You can support yourself with information from the excerpts.
    Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
    Write your response on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
Excerpt 1
    What have the Romans ever done for us? Obviously the roads—the roads go without saying. Then, how about guidance for how to live in the 21st century? That seems less likely, but in fact the last few years have seen growing interest in the work of Roman Stoic philosophers who offered just that. One of them was Epictetus.
    Stoicism holds that the key to a good, happy life is the cultivation of an excellent mental state, which the Stoics identified with virtue and being rational. Two fundamental principles can both be found in the Handbook, a short work summarizing the ideas of Epictetus. The first is that some things are within our control and some are not, and that much of our unhappiness is caused by thinking that we can control things that, in fact, we can’t.
    What can we control? Epictetus argues that we actually control very little. We don’t control what happens to us, we can’t control what the people around us say or do, and we can’t even fully control our own bodies, which get damaged and sick and ultimately die without regard for our preferences. The only thing that we really control is how we think about things, the judgments we make about things.
    This leads us to the second fundamental principle; it’s not things that upset us, but how we think about things. Things happen. We then make judgments about what happens. If we judge that something really bad has happened, then we might get upset, sad, or angry, depending on what it is. If we judge that something bad is likely to happen then we might get scared or fearful. All these emotions are the product of the judgments we make. Things in themselves are value neutral, for what might seem terrible to us might be a matter of indifference to someone else, or even welcomed by others. It’s the judgments we make that introduce value into the picture, and it’s those value judgments that generate our emotional responses.
    Excerpt 2
    Happiness comes from correctly managing the world around you. There are many different philosophies you can subscribe to, and the one below is just another one.
    CONQUER YOUR MIND
    There are not many things we have complete control over in this world. However, our mind is potentially one of them. Barring your thoughts, emotions, process, and resulting actions are completely under your control.
    Training your mind is an essential skill, like learning to walk. However, not many people are showing us how.
    You need to become a master of your own mind. Master musicians and race car drivers have spent thousands of hours learning how to operate a machine exactly how they wish. There are real physical limitations to those machines, but within those boundaries you can create incredible feats. And in your mind, you can change how you think. You can eliminate negativity, see solutions over problems, and connect with people. It takes work, failure, and repeated conditioning.
    CONQUER YOUR BODY
    Your body is simply an incredible tool to help you experience the world. It’s another machine in your life that you have to manage.
    You don’t have to be a peak athlete or a fitness trainer. You do have to provide your body with quality food and exercise. It was originally so simple, because that is what we were made to do. You ate, you moved, and you were filled with unlimited energy. Unfortunately, our society has made it difficult. We’ve become addicted to short-term rewards and fast-food drugs that make daily healthy living uncomfortable.
    Break free from that, and be human again. Run, jump, fight, and eat real food. This also takes hard work.  But remember, as you manage your mind, it will be much easier to manage your body.
选项
答案 Happiness Is a State of Mind A very important notion of Epictetus, a Stoic philosopher, is that one path to our happiness is to differentiate between what we can change and what we can’t. Moreover, Epictetus holds that men are disturbed not by what happens, but by how we perceive them, and it is within our power to decide how we value things and guide them towards our happiness. Meanwhile, on the topic of happiness, some people believe that happiness comes from correctly managing the world around us. We can change our body and mind into a better state and thus achieve happiness. Considering the views of both sides, I’m inclined to agree with the former idea. To begin with, life is changeable. We have to admit that some things are up to us (chiefly, our judgments and actions) , while other things are not (major historical events, natural phenomena, such as aging, getting ill, etc. ). Therefore, for the things beyond our control, we have to be aware that it is useless to fight an unwinnable battle. We should focus, instead, on the things that we can control. For instance, when a train is delayed because of an accident, instead of losing temper, one should concentrate on how to evaluate the event positively. What’s more, there is an old saying in Chinese culture that happiness lies in contentment. Many people believe that once they arrive at some specific goals they have set for themselves, they will feel happy. However, more often than not, once you arrive "there" , you still feel discontented, and move your "there" vision to yet another point in the future. In conclusion, happiness is not something tangible that one can easily grab but rather a state of mind. It starts with accepting where you are, knowing where you are going and planning to enjoy every moment along the way.
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