Q Reading and Writing 3 Unit 3
Name: ______________________________________
Test A
Date: _____________
Reading and Writing
The Search for Happiness
Section I
A question frequently asked of young children is “What do you want to be when you grow up?” One or two
generations ago you would have got a definite answer, a specific dream profession, trade or job. Particular
favorites among young boys were train driver and pilot. The answers back then might have depended on the
expectations of the children asked, the opportunities that life presented them, and on the social and financial
status of their parents. But you got a proper answer.
Section II
Things are different now. Tim Baldock, a schoolteacher, has asked this question of his pupils over a twenty-year
career, and is almost in despair at the answers – or rather, the answer - he is getting more and more often. “It’s
pandemic,” he says. “Everyone wants to be famous, and when asked ‘famous for what?’, the answer is just
‘famous’.” When asked what he thinks the reasons for this are, he says, “I know what you expect to hear: It’s
celebrity culture and the influence of the media, especially those reality shows on TV, not to mention YouTube. But
I think it’s more than that.”
Section III
For these adolescents, fame equals success, success equals wealth, and this adds up to – what? Happiness? This
desirable state, or trying to reach it, has become big business these days. Apart from the self-help gurus, there are
professorships of happiness at world-famous universities and governments call in well-being experts to help with
public policy. Tim Baldock reckons that mistaken ideas of what happiness is are part of the reason for this desire
for fame without effort.
Section IV
Many people confuse pleasure with happiness. Pleasure lasts as long as you are doing the thing that brings you
pleasure, whether it’s eating chocolate, or skiing. We think of happiness as a more settled condition – possibly a
state of mind. “What these kids don’t take into account,” Tim Baldock says, “are any of the other things that help
make the good life, that might make them happier. They go straight for the end goal without thinking of what it
takes to get there. For example, close and lasting friendships, work that means something to them, helping others
– the list is endless.” He adds, “A sense of reality would help.”
Section V
Aristotle saw happiness as an end in itself – he thought it meant living a virtuous life. Happiness, then, is a byproduct of going about your daily life in a certain way. So perhaps we need to look at the whole of our lives rather
than the things that bring us pleasure if we are to find happiness. It can occur on a small scale too: have you ever
been so absorbed in a task that, when done, you can only recall that state of absorption and self-forgetfulness as
one of happiness?
Section VI
So hunting for happiness doesn’t work, nor does assuming that by getting something you want – fame, riches,
success – happiness will immediately follow. Perhaps it lies, as Tim Baldock suggests, in a firm grip on reality, or
perhaps in that state of absorption and self-forgetfulness. As the poet W. H. Auden wrote: “though one cannot
always / Remember exactly why one has been happy, / There is no forgetting that one was.”
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Q Reading and Writing 3 Unit 3
Name: ______________________________________
Test A
Date: _____________
Choose the best answer.
1.
About thirty years ago young children
A. were not obsessed with fame.
B. knew exactly what they wanted to be.
C. had an idea of what they wanted to be.
D. had fewer expectations than children today.
2.
Which of the following best describes Tim Baldock’s attitude to the situation?
A. It makes him angry.
B. He is saddened by it.
C. He doesn’t understand it.
D. It doesn’t concern him.
3.
Tim Baldock’s students
A. just want to be on TV.
B. don’t want to make an effort.
C. just want to be happy.
D. think fame will make them happy.
4.
Which of the following are not mentioned as part of the happiness business?
A. politicians
B. gurus
C. professors
D. experts
5.
What do Tim Baldock’s students fail to realize?
A. Happiness is a mental condition.
B. Fame won’t bring them happiness.
C. Happiness is not the same as pleasure.
D. Achieving goals brings happiness.
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Q Reading and Writing 3 Unit 3
Name: ______________________________________
6.
Test A
Date: _____________
The author suggests that happiness
A. can occur through concentration on work.
B. comes from leading Aristotle’s virtuous life.
C. only exists in one’s memory.
D. comes when you get something you want.
Match each sentence with the word that completes it.
7. It can be risky to _____ in a brand-new company.
8. Businesses are interested in the _____ of F1 racing into new
countries.
9. Children are the biggest _____ for toy companies.
10. Bosses expect their employees to be responsible and _____.
11. The soccer team’s uniforms show the names of companies that
_____ the team.
12. The racing team was _____ that it would receive money from the
company.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
sponsor
expansion
dependable
invest
assured
market
Complete each sentence with the words from the word bank:
upset about
due to known for nervous about
13. The athlete’s hands were shaking because he was ____________________ playing his first
game.
14. F1 racing is ____________________ being an expensive sport.
15. The coach looked ____________________ losing the championship game.
16. Her injury was ____________________ a skiing accident.
Correct the error in subject-verb agreement. Rewrite each sentence correctly.
17. The football team practice every other day.
_______________________________________________________________
18. The coach does not likes players who quit.
_______________________________________________________________
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Q Reading and Writing 3 Unit 3
Name: ______________________________________
Test A
Date: _____________
19. He and his son watches soccer on TV.
_______________________________________________________________
20. It do not look like she is going to win.
_______________________________________________________________
Writing
Do you think individual or group sports help children succeed in life? Write a paragraph that
supports your opinion with reasons and examples.
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