How to Find Happiness without Buying It
Our materialistic (物质至上的) society has led us to believe that happiness cannot be
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without having money.
Rather than learning to be
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with what we have, we are often taught to want more. We
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from advertising, and from the media, that we need to buy trinkets (小玩意) and toys in order to make ourselves happy, or to fulfill emotional needs, and that the purchases they are trying to talk us into will provide us with the psychological
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we are looking for.
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, as a society we have bought into these misguided messages and have come to believe that spending money on certain items will bring us fame, fortune, happiness, beauty, or popularity. As a result, we trade hours of our lives working, sacrificing time that could have been spent with our families, for the
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of the almighty (万能的) dollar.
Actually, there are a number of ways to enjoy life without the need for a great deal of money. For example, spending time out
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nature, being thankful for all that we already have or helping others. Certainly, it is important to work and earn enough to provide for our
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needs and the needs of our families, but it is also
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to recognize when the desire for personal possessions becomes over-consumption. There needs to be a balance between a satisfying work life and a rich home life, and the best way to achieve such a balance is to
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the drive for material possessions does not become all consuming.
A. basic E. enjoying I. purchase M. Seemingly
B. comfort F. ensure J. pursuit N. significant
C. effort G. learn K. restrained O. Unfortunately
D. excessive H. obtained L. satisfied