Unit9Whatishappiness课文翻译综合教案二.docxVIP

Unit9Whatishappiness课文翻译综合学习教学设计二 Unit9Whatishappiness课文翻译综合学习教学设计二 PAGE / NUMPAGES Unit9Whatishappiness课文翻译综合学习教学设计二 Unit 9 What Is Happiness John Ciardi (abridged) The right to pursue happiness is issued to Americans with their birth certificates, but no one seems quite sure which way it runs. It may be we are issued a hunting license but offered no game. Jonathan Swift seemed to think so when he attacked the idea of happiness as “the possession of being well - deceived, ” the felicity of being “a fool among knaves. ” For Swift saw society as Vanity Fair, the land of false goals. It is, of course, un-American to think in terms of fools and knaves. We do, however, seem to be dedicated to the idea of buying our way to happiness. We shall all have made it to Heaven when we possess enough. And at the same time the forces of American commercialism are hugely dedicated to making us deliberately unhappy. Advertising is one of our major industries, and advertising exists not to satisfy desires but to create them — and to create them faster than any man’s budget can satisfy them. For that matter, our whole economy is based on a dedicated insatiability. Weare taught that to possess is to be happy, and then we are made to want. We are even told it is our duty to want. It was only a few years ago, to cite a single example, that car dealers across the country were flying banners that read You Auto Buy Now. They were calling upon Americans, as an act approaching patriotism, to buy at once, with money they did not have, automobiles they did not really need, and which they would be required to grow tired of by the time the next year ’s models were released. Or look at any of the women’s magazines. There, as Bernard DeVoto once pointed out, advertising begins as poetry in the front pages and ends as pharmacopoeia and therapy in the back pages. The poetry of the front matter is the dream of perfect beauty. This is the baby skin that must be hers. These, the flawless teeth