Q2e - RW3 - U08 - Test B

Q2e Reading and Writing 3 Unit 8 Test B
Name: ______________________________________ 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 by-
product 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.”
© Oxford University Press. Permission to edit and reproduce for instructional use. 1
Name: ______________________________________ Date: _____________
The reading passage has six sections I–VI. Choose the most suitable heading for each
section II–VI from the list below. Write the appropriate letter (a – i) for each section.
Example Section I Heading: b
a. Misunderstanding Happiness
b. Getting Answers
c. The Media is the Problem
d. Everyone Has Got the Fame Bug
e. Call in the Experts
f. Look at the Bigger Picture
g. Happiness is Like a Disease
h. Just Do the Things That Please You
i. How Not to Find Happiness
1. Section II Heading: c
2. Section III Heading: e
3. Section IV Heading: a
4. Section V Heading: f
5. Section VI Heading: g
Match each underlined word with the correct definition.

B 6. It can take several months to
recover from an overuse injury.
F 7. It is a growing trend for younger
athletes to play professional A. needing a great deal of effort
sports. B. to get better after an illness or
D 8. The child’s tears were a sign that accident
she was in a lot of pain. C. a person or thing that is not included
C 9. With the exception of one player, D. something that shows someone or
everyone on the team something is present, exists or may
participated. happen
E 10. The referee made a motion with E. a movement or way of moving
his hand to stop the game. F. a general change or development
A 11. Professional athletes have a
demanding schedule.
Name: ______________________________________ Date: _____________
Complete each sentence with the words from the word bank:
involved in sure about due to nervous about
12. Her injury was due to a skiing accident.
13. Some teenagers are involved in two or three sports at a time.
14. She is not sure about going to the game tonight because she feels tired.
15. The athlete’s hands were shaking because he was nervous about playing his first game.

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Q2e Reading and Writing 3 Unit 8 Test B

Name: __________________________ Date: _

Reading and Writing

The Search for Happiness

Name: __________________________ Date: _

Example Section I Heading: b

Match each underlined word with the correct definition.

Name: __________________________ Date: _

12. Her injury was due to a skiing accident.

13. Some teenagers are involved in two or three sports at a time.

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