The Pursuit of Happiness.doc

The Pursuit of HappinessThe right to pursue happiness is promised to Americans by the US Constitution，but no one seems quite sure which way happiness ranIt may be we are issued a hunting license but offered no gameJonathan Swift conceived of happiness as“the state of being welldeceived，”or of being“a fool among idiots，for Swift saw society as a land of false goalsIt is，of course，unAmerican to think in terms of false goalsWe do，however，seem to be dedicated to the idea of buying our way to happinessWe shall all have made it to Heaven when we possess enoughAnd at the same time the forces of American business are hugely dedicated to making US deliberately unhappyAdvertising is one of our major industries，and advertising exists not to satisfy desires but to create them-and to create them faster than anyones budget can satisfy themFor that matter, our whole economy is based on addicting US to greedWe are even told it is our patriotic duty to support the national economy by buying thingsLook at any of the magazines that cater to womenThere advertising begins as art and slogans in the front pages and ends as pills and therapy in the back pagesThe art at the front illustrates the dream of perfect beautyThis is the baby skin that must be hersThis，the perfumed breath she must breathe outThis，the sixteen-year-old figure she must display at forty, at fifty, at sixty, and foreverThis is the harness into which Mother must strap herself in order to display that perfect figureThis is the cream that restores skin，these are the tablets that melt away fat around the thighs，and these are the pills of perpetual youthObviously no reasonable person can be completely persuaded either by such art or by such pills and devicesYet someone is obviously trying to buy this dream and spending billions every year in the attemptClearly the happinessmarket is not running out of customers，but what is it they are trying to buy?Actually, the essence of happiness is in the pursuit itself, in the pursuit of what is engaging and lifechanging，which is to say, in the idea of becomingA nation is not measured by what it possesses or wants to possess，but by what it wants to become(399 words)14Scientific Fraud Accused When taking the fast train to technical prowess，it pays to check that the driversare cornpetent，the engine is running smoothly and the tracks are clearUnfortunately,ChinaS hunger for success in the sciences is such that some have been tempted to cut cornersSome independent researchers are sufficiently alarmed tO have started theunofficial monitoring of possible fraudsThe need for official reform is pressing Science iS important to ChinaThe country recently unveiled plans to increase itssperct i ng on research and development to 900 billion yuan($1 1 2 billion)by 2020Bythat time，it wants 60of economic growth to come from science and technology The latest blow to the countryS image came on May 5th，when Jiaotong Universityuncovered a fraud committed by one of its top microelectronics researchers，Chen JinDrChen claimed to have developed the countrys first homegrown microchip，capableof processing 200m instructions a secondIt looked set to save China billions of dollarsin imports and advance the countryS own hightech industriesBut an investigation bythe university found that DrChen had simply removed the marking from chips madeby Motorola and replaced them with the logo of his companyDr,Chen is not alone；others have also been accused of committing scientific fraud DrChenS fall from grace resembles that of South KoreaS Hwang Wousuk，thecloning researcher who turned from national hero to a pariah when his research wasshown to be fraudulentLike South Korea，China has feted its scientific stars，not justfor their supposed laboratory achievements but also for the luster they gave nationalpride。Both countries need to learn that，to prevent the fast train derailing，researchstandards are an essential as research knowhow(290 words)1 5High HeelsA Womans Worst Enemy In department stores and closets all over the world，they are waitingTheir outward appearance seems rather appealing because they come in a variety of styles，textures，and colorsBut they are ultimately the biggest deception that exists in thefashion industry todayWhat are they?They are high heelsa womanS worst enemy(whether she knows it or not)High heel shoes are the downfall of modern societyFashion myths have led women tO believe that they are more beautiful or sophisticatedfor wearing heels，but in reality,heels succeed in posing short as well as long termhardshipsWomen should fight the high heel industry by refusing to use or purchasethem in order to save the world from unnecessary physical and psychological suffering For the sake of faimess，it must be noted that there is a positive side to high heelsFirst，heels are excellent for aerating lawnsAnyone who has ever worn heels on grassknows what I am talking aboutA simple trip around the yard in a pair of those babieseliminates all need to call for a lawn care specialistand provides the perfectsizedholes to give any lawn oxygen without all those messy chunks of dirt lying aroundSecond，heels are quite functional for defense against oncoming enemies，who caneasily be scared away by threatening them with a pair of these sharp，deadly fashionaccessories Regardless of such practical uses for heels，the fact remains that wearing highheels is harmful to oneS physical healthTalk to any podiatristand you will hear thatthe majority of their business comes from highheel-wearing womenHigh heels areknown to cause problems such as deformed feet and torn toenailsThe risk of severeback problems and twisted or broken ankles is three times higher for a high heel wearerthan for a flat shoe wearerWearing heels also creates the threat of getting a heel caughtin a sidewalk crack or a sewer-grate and being thrown to the groun出_possibly breakinga nose，back，or neckAnd of course，after wearing heels for a day,any woman knowsshe can look forward to a night of pain as she tries to comfort her swollen，aching feet(373 words)1 6The Method of Scientific Investigation The method of scientific investigation is nothing but the expression of the necessary mode of working of the human mind；it is simply the mode by which all phenomena are reasoned about and given precise and exact explanationThere is no more difference，but there is just the same kind of difference，between the mental operations of a man of science and those of an ordinary person，as there is between the operations and methods of a baker or of a butcher weighing out his goods in common scales，and the operations of a chemist in performing a difficult and complex analysis by means of his balance and finely graded weightsIt is not that the scales in the one case，and the balance in the other,differ in the principles of their construction or manner of working；but that the latter is a much finer apparatus and of course much more accurate in its measurement than the former You will understand this better,perhaps，if I give you some familiar examplesYou have all heard it repeated that men of science work by means of induction and deduction，that by the help of these operations，they，in a sort of sense，manage to extract from Nature certain natural laws，and that out of these，by some special skill of their own，they build up their theoriesAnd it is imagined by many that the operations of the common mind can be by no means compared with these processes，and that they have to be acquired by a sort of special trainingTo hear all these large words，you would think that the mind of a man of science must be constituted difierently from that of his fellow men；but if you will not be frightened by terms，you will discover that you-are quite wrong，and that all these terrible apparatus are being used by yourselves every day and every hour of your livesThere is a wellknown incident in one of Molieres plays，where the author makes the hero express unbounded delight on being told that he had been talking prose during the whole of his lifeIn the same way,I trust that you will take oomfort，and be delighted with yourselves，on the discovery that you have been actilg on the principles of inductive and deductive philosophy during the same period Probably there is not one here who has not in the course of the day had occasion to set in motion a complex train of reasoning，of the very same kind，though differing in degree，as that which a scientific man goes through in tracing the causes of natural phenomena(445 words)17Google My friend went on a date last week and“Googledthe man when she got homethat is，looked him up on the Internet search engine“googlecomShe found that he had been involved in many malpractice suits fHes a doctor)Her“homework”has now resulted in a discounted opinion of this manWhat do you think about using Google to check up on another person? Ive done itAnd many other people havetoo；thats why the verb“to Google”is now a familiar neologismfIt must demoralize those poor souls at AOL，with alltheir childproofing and spam and ads，that no one ever says，I met an interesting guyand AOLed him”1 Had your friend labored all aftemoon at the courthouse checkingequally public information on her dateshed have crossed the border between casual curiosity and stalkingH e r Googling，however,was akin to asking her friends aboutthis fellowoff hand，sociable and benign By calling such an act“checking up”on someone，you make typing someonesname into a search engine sound devious and sinisterBut that is less a consequence ofits malevolence than of its noveltyAcceptable behavior is ratified by custom，and thattakes timeAs more and more people routinely Google their blind dates，nobody willfeel uneasy doing so This cultural adaptation is not arbitrary,but a communal determination that anaction is harmlessSo it might be better to think of this not as snooping but as curiosityIf someone set you up on a blind date with a poet，hed most likely not feel offendedbut flattered that you were sufficiently interested in him to read his workBut thismeans the time to Google is not after your blind date but beforeAnd it never hurts tosearch your beaus name along with the wordsax murderer” While Googling is innocuous，it is not entirely reliableFor starters，peopleshare namesYou cant be sure if youre reading about one guy who has had a variedcareer(or who cant hold a job)or several peopleAnd you cant be sure which onewill be buying you a cocktail(The surgeon?The sock collector?)Googling myselfwhich sounds more perverse than it is turned up an architecture professor at McGillUniversitya video editor,a broker of sports tickets and a tabletennis champ；Im nowjealous of all of them Even if you sort out the names，you cant rely on the veracity of onlineinformationSo while your friend did nothing unethical by Googling her guy,shed be unwise to discredit him too quickly(as a date or a doctor)or，for that matter,to marry6上海 上海位于长江人海口，是中国最大的城市，同时也是一座历史文化名城和著名的旅游城市。上海是中国最大的经济中心，是全国最重要的工业基地，也是重要的贸易、金融和文化中心。 在古代，上海就曾经是贸易港口、全国最大的棉织业中心、贸易大港和漕粮运输中心，被称为“江海之通津，东南之都会”。鸦片战争以后，上海辟为通商口岸，设立租界，设银行、办工厂、开洋行，中国主权一度失落。在近代，上海曾被称为“冒险家的乐园”，成为一个工商业畸形发展的城市。“两千年历史看西安，一千年历史看北京，一百年历史看上海”。上海是近现代中国的“缩影”。 今日的上海，交通四通八达，是中国最大港口、华东地区最大的交通枢纽，沪宁、沪杭两条铁路干线的起点，又是中国重要航空中心和国际航空港之一。这里有发达的商业，是中国特大型综合性贸易中心和国际经济、金融、贸易中心之一。 上海具有中西交融的独特气质，极具现代化而又不失中国传统特色。在上海，有外滩老式的西洋建筑，也有浦东现代的摩天大厦，有徐家汇大教堂，也有玉佛寺。在这里沪剧、滑稽戏和交响乐、芭蕾舞同时被人们所欣赏，大家可以品尝本帮佳肴、各地小吃，也可以吃到法国大菜、美式快餐。(479字)1 2钱学森(1 91 1_一) 浙江省杭州人，