Voice等

Voice

Facebook is not just a new technology. It’s social engineering. It’s changing the way we relate to each other. I actually think it’s affecting human nature in a way that we have never seen before.

—Mark Zuckerberg， founder and chief executive of the Facebook social networking site， was named Time’s Person of the Year 2010. Time editor Richard Stengel said that Facebook transformed our lives.

This situation is not unusual for Europe and still in a warmer climate we can expect very cold winters from time to time. The North Atlantic Oscillation is one possible reason that Europe is presently in a deep freeze.

—Said climate scientist Ketil Isaksen. Heavy snow caused travel chaos across much of Europe in Dec. 2010， keeping airports closed and disrupting road and rail travel in England， France， Germany and Switzerland. People asked why many countries were experiencing their coldest winter in a time of concern about global warming.

chief executive 總裁

North Atlantic Oscillation

北大西洋振蕩

chaos 混亂

disrupt 使中斷

Happiness Is a Choice

Are you happy? Everyone seems to be in search for happiness. Some say that “I’ll be happy when I get my new promotion.” Or， “I’ll be happy when I have an expensive car.” The list goes on and on. You probably have a few of your own to add if you want.

Most people suppose that happiness is a “response” to having， being or doing something. In life， we all experience stimuli and responses. It is a stimulus when a dog barks at you and bares his teeth. It is a response that your heart beats faster and you prepare to run. Today， some people think that an expensive car is a stimulus， while happiness is a response. A loving relationship is a stimulus， and happiness is a response. This belief leaves us thinking and feeling: “I’ll be happy when ...”

But I think that actually the opposite is true. I believe that happiness is a stimulus and the response is what life brings to those who are truly happy. When we are happy， we tend to have more success in our work. When we are happy， people want to be around us and enjoy loving relationships. Happiness is NOT a response—rather， it is a stimulus.

Happiness is a conscious choice we make every day. It is not something that happens to us after we get something we want—we usually get things we want AFTER we choose to be happy.

promotion升職

stimulus（pl. stimuli）刺激

bare one’s teeth齜牙咧嘴

conscious有意識(shí)的

Question: What does “the opposite is true” （in paragraph 3） mean?

（Find the KEY in this issue）