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The influence of the field of "happiness economics" is growing. Many corporations now employ "chief happiness officers," and moo

admin2017-07-05  23
问题     The influence of the field of "happiness economics" is growing. Many corporations now employ "chief happiness officers," and mood-tracking personal devices are gaining in popularity. But some say quantifying happiness only leads to anxiety, as individuals can’t "achieve" what is an inherently elusive feeling.
    Write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should:
    1. summarize briefly the main idea of the article, and then
    2. express your opinion towards the trend, especially whether happiness is a healthy goal for society.
    Don’t Make Personal Growth a Utilitarian Goal
    Economists have spent most of the 20th century ignoring psychology, positive or otherwise. But today there is a great deal of emphasis on how happiness can shape global economies, or—on a smaller scale—successful business practice. This is driven, in part, by a trend in "measuring" positive emotions, mostly so they can be optimized.
    Neuroscientists, for example, claim to be able to locate specific emotions, such as happiness or disappointment, in particular areas of the brain. Wearable technologies, such as Spire, offer data-driven advice on how to reduce stress.
    Happiness indicators are increasingly used as a basis to transform or discipline individuals. We are no longer just dealing with "happiness" in a philosophical or romantic sense—it has become something that can be monitored and measured, including by our behavior, use of social media and bodily indicators such as pulse rate and facial expressions.
    There is nothing automatically sinister about this trend. But it is worried that the businesses and experts driving the quantification of happiness claim to have our best interests at heart, often concealing their own agendas in the process.
    In the workplace, happy workers are viewed as a "win-win". Work becomes more pleasant, and employees, more productive. But this is now being pursued through the use of performance-evaluating wearable technology, such as Humanyze or Virgin Pulse, both of which monitor physical signs of stress and activity toward the goal of increasing productivity.
    Cities such as Dubai, which has pledged to become the "happiest city in the world," dream up ever-more elaborate and intrusive ways of collecting data on well-being—to the point where there is now talk of using CCTV cameras to monitor facial expressions in public spaces. New ways of detecting emotions are hitting the market all the time: One company, Beyond Verbal, aims to calculate moods conveyed in a phone conversation, potentially without the knowledge of at least one of the participants. And Facebook demonstrated last summer that it could influence our emotions through tweaking our news feeds—opening the door to ever-more targeted manipulation in advertising and influence.
    As the science grows more sophisticated and technologies become more intimate with our thoughts and bodies, a clear trend is emerging. Where happiness indicators were once used as a basis to reform society, challenging the obsession with money that G.D.P. measurement entrenches, they are increasingly used as a basis to transform or discipline individuals.
    Happiness becomes a personal project, that each of us must now work on, like going to the gym. Since the 1970s, depression has come to be viewed as a cognitive or neurological defect in the individual, and never a consequence of circumstances. All of this simply escalates the sense of responsibility each of us feels for our own feelings, and with it, the sense of failure when things go badly.
    A society that deliberately removed certain sources of misery, such as unsteady and exploitative employment, may well be a happier one. But we won’t get there by making this single, often fleeting emotion, the over-arching goal.
选项
答案 Quantification Helps with Happiness Pursuit A recent trend is that positive emotions, which are not merely limited to psychological area, have picked up attention among the economists who believe that happiness can contribute to economic development. Experts have put forward a lot of methods to monitor, measure and even optimize the level of happiness by putting constant emphasis on people’s thoughts and bodies. Various happiness indicators are increasingly used to drive individual growth and, more practically, economic development Although some would worry that the continuing quantification of happiness is more often employed to reach utilitarian goals, it does gradually become an amazing means to help better or restrain individuals. Personally, I am in favor of the idea of happiness quantification. On a personal scale, it can contribute to individual growth. Happiness used to be an intangible matter that others cannot see. Nonetheless, with various ways to quantify happiness, people are able to perceive their own moods and even others’. In doing so, they can seek for useful means to avoid negative emotions, gain happiness and become better. On the social front, happiness could be a healthy goal for society. In the principle of happiness, the society will show more care for individual development and go forward to a more humane direction with track of people’s emotions. Yet the focus of the society should be put on how to make people happy in practice instead of looking for as many ways of quantifying happiness as possible so that people who live within can lead a really happy life. To conclude, it is quite helpful to quantify happiness for individuals and society. Acquiring happiness, however, is much of significance. Taking that as a goal plus actual efforts to realize it, the society will center more on people, which would push social progress and harmony over the long haul.
解析     材料围绕社会对“幸福”的不懈追求进行论述，可分为两个部分。
    前两段论述了人类情感尤其是幸福感，逐渐被量化与监测的情况。在幸福感逐渐被量化的趋势下。经济学家认为幸福感有助于商业实践的成功(successful business practice)。而可穿戴传感技术(wearable technologies)的发展也让人们的情感能够被监测。
    后七段则指出幸福感指标被用于推动经济发展与改变或约束个体成长(transform or discipline individuals)。并列举了两个例子，一是如今职场上通过可穿戴传感技术进行绩效评价(performance-evaluating)，二是迪拜通过各种途径监测人们的幸福感。最后得出结论：幸福的社会并不会(won’t get there)因为人们这些单一的、转瞬即逝(fleeting)的情感就能实现。
总体而言，材料的作者并不赞同量化幸福。
    开篇：总结文章大意——人类情感逐渐被量化与监测；幸福感指标不但被用于推动经济发展，还被用来改变或约束个体成长。
    主体：提出个人观点——赞成幸福量化，从个人和社会两方面阐述原因。
    结尾：总结全文，幸福量化对个人与社会发展皆有益。但不能只是纯粹量化幸福，真正贯彻与落实才能长期推动社会进步。
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