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 今日主題：Happiness and Income  收入與幸福感

 康康精選GRE&GMAT會考的主題，堅持每天精讀一定會進步的哦!!
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http://xia2.kekenet.com/Sound/2014/…/ecob1112_1912782ng4.mp3

 只有音檔怎夠，聽不懂地方，不用怕，康康幫你準備好中英文稿了：

 中英文稿：
Happiness and Income
收入與幸福感

Everything that rises must converge
幸福的家庭總是相似的

Emerging markets are catching up with the West in the happiness stakes
新興國家的幸福指數將要趕上西方

POETS, songwriters and left-wing politicians hate the idea, but for decades opinion-poll evidence has been clear: money buys happiness and the richer you are, the more likely you are to express satisfaction with your life. Until now. A survey of 43 countries published on October 30th by the Pew Research Centre of Washington, DC, shows that people in emerging markets are within a whisker of expressing the same level of satisfaction as people in rich countries. It is the biggest qualification to the standard view of happiness and income seen so far.
詩人，作詞家，左翼政治家總是反駁這樣一個觀點：錢可以買到幸福，一個人越有錢，他對生活的滿意感就可能越高。但是十年來民意調查卻清楚證明了這一點。不 過，位於華盛頓特區的皮尤研究中心調查了43個國家後，發現發展中國家的人對生活滿意度與富有國家的人們生活滿意度相差無幾。這是迄今為止出現的最能證明 人越有錢越幸福這個觀點的證據。

The Pew poll asks respondents to measure, on a scale from zero to ten, how good their lives are. (Those who say between seven and ten are counted as happy.) In 2007, 57% of respondents in rich countries put themselves in the top four tiers; in emerging markets the share was 33%; in poor countries only 16%—a classic expression of the standard view.
皮尤讓被調查者用0到10之間數字表示對生活的滿意度。（如果給出數字在7和10之間，認為該調查人幸福。）2007年的調查顯示富有國家57%的調查者 認為自己是幸福的人；發展中國家有33%認為自己幸福；在貧困國家幸福的人只有16%—這是證明金錢和幸福感相關的典型例子。

But in 2014, 54% of rich-country respondents counted themselves as happy, whereas in emerging markets the percentage jumped to 51%. This was happening just at a time when emerging markets' chances of converging economically with the West seemed to be receding.
2014年中富有國家幸福的人有54%，然而發展中國家的百分比躍到了51%。此時發展中國家抓住機會發展經濟正在趕上經濟似乎萎靡的西方國家，兩個時間點不謀而合。

Rich countries did not experience steep declines in happiness. The decreases in America and Britain were tiny (a single percentage point), while the share of happy Germans rose 13 points. A large drop in formerly joyful Spain ensured a modest overall decline for the rich. But the convergence happened thanks to huge improvements in countries such as Indonesia (+35) and Pakistan (+22). In 12 of the 24 emerging markets, half or more people rate their life satisfaction in the top tiers of the ladder.
富有國家在幸福感上並沒有大幅下降。美國和英國只是下降了一個百分點，德國人民的幸福感卻上升了13個百分點。但是之前幸福的西班牙人此次調查指數大幅下 降導致發達國家幸福指數總體稍微有所下降。幸福感大幅提高的幾個國家是此次匯合發生的原因，比如印尼（+35），巴基斯坦（+22）。24個發展中國家裡 12個國家，半數、或半數以上的人感覺對自己生活很滿意。

This is not to say the link between income and satisfaction has been snapped. Poor countries still lag behind: only a quarter of the people there are in the happy tiers—half the level of the other two groups. There is also a clear link between happiness and income growth (as opposed to income levels). China's GDP rose at an annual average rate of 10% in 2007-14 and its happiness level rose 26 points.
這並不是證明金錢和生活滿意度之間的關聯斷了。貧困國家指數依舊墊底：只有四分之一的人認為自己幸福—是發展中國家和發達國家的一半。該資料清晰顯示了工 資增長率和幸福感之間的聯繫(而不是收入水準）。中國國內生產總值從2007到2014年每年以平均10%的速度增長，其人民幸福度提高了26個百分點。

Within countries, richer people express more satisfaction than their poorer neighbours. The study divided respondents into categories with higher and lower incomes and fewer and more household goods. In every country in every group, richer folk with more goods expressed higher levels of happiness. So at a personal (as opposed to national) level, money does buy happiness. And if you ask people about different aspects of their lives—health, family life, religion, standard of living—it turns out that satisfaction with living standards still has the biggest influence on happiness.
在同一個國家裡，富人比窮人更幸福。這項調查把調查者分成了高收入群體和低收入群體，家裡日用品多的和少的群體。在每個國家裡的每個群體，有很多如用品較 為富有的居民反映出的幸福度更高。如果問到生活中一些其它方面如健康，家庭生活，信仰，生活水準對幸福感的影響，結果顯示生活水準是影響幸福感最大方面。

But the secret of happiness has been scattered around. Women tend to be happier than men. Married people are happier than unmarried ones. Latin Americans are more satisfied than people in other emerging markets. Asians are the most optimistic; Middle Easterners the least. Income still matters. But it has been dethroned.
但是幸福的秘密還存在很多地方。女人為什麼會比男人幸福？已婚者為什麼比未婚者幸福？拉丁美洲人為什麼比別的發展中國家幸福？亞洲人為什麼如此樂觀？中東人為什麼不幸福？收入是一方面，但已經不是唯一方面。