Passage 2

　　The way people hold to the belief that a fun-filled, pain-free life equals happiness actually reduces theirchances of ever attaining real happiness. If fun andpleasure are equal to happiness then pain must beequal to unhappiness. But in fact, the opposite istrue; more often than not things that lead tohappiness involve some pain.

　　As a result,many people avoid the very attempts that are the source of true happiness. Theyfear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children，professionalachievement, religious commitment (承担的义务)，self-improvement.

　　Ask a bachelor (单身汉)why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and lesssatisfying. If he is honest he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment. Forcommitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun,adventure,excitement. Marriage has such moments,but they are not its most distinguishing features.

　　Couples with infant children are lucky to get a whole night’s sleep or three-day vacation. I don’tknow any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children. But couples whodecide not to have children never know the joys of watching a child grow up or of playing with agrandchild.

　　Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the mostliberating realizations. It liberates time： now we can devote more hours to activities that cangenuinely increase our happiness. It liberates money： buying that new car or those fancyclothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates usfrom envy; we now understand that all those who are always having so much fun actuallymay not be happy at all.

　　What is the author trying to tell us?

　　A. Happiness often goes hand in hand with pain.

　　B. One must know how to attain happiness.

　　C. It is important to made commitments.

　　D. It is pain that leads to happiness.

　　主旨题。文章第一段最后一句“事实上，导致幸福的事情常伴随着痛苦/货及随后.几段都证车 了这一观点，故A为最佳答案。