译文及生词短语整理：朗读者小组
Translation
For most of history, people didn’t assume they deserved to be happy. What changed?
历史上大多数时期，人们并不认为他们值得开心。有什么变化了呢？
By Darrin M. McMahon
At a time when it’s easy to grow despondent at the state of the world, it may help to consider that feeling good is overrated. That’s not a sentiment often heard in Western culture, which tends to emphasize entertainment, pleasure, and immediate comfort. But the truth is that where the pursuit of a full and flourishing life is concerned, good times matter less than we think.
在世界的现状让人们容易变得沮丧的时候，一个人如果认为感觉良好是期望过高的，那么这么想有助于改善自己的心境。这不是在西方文化中经常听到的观点，他们的观点倾向于强调娱乐、快感和即时的安慰。但事实是，追求一个充实、满足的人生才是关键，好时光与我们认为的相比其实没那么重要。
For centuries, in fact, that insight was spread by the world’s religious traditions and reaffirmed by philosophers and sages, who understood that life was hard and suffering inevitable. It was not until the 18th century that Western thinking underwent a revolution in human expectations, transforming what men and women understood as their earthly due.
事实上，几个世纪以来，这种见解被世界的宗教传统所传播，并得到哲学家和圣人的肯定。他们认为生活是艰难的，痛苦是不可避免的。直到十八世纪，西方的思想才经历了人类期望的革命，改变了男人和女人的对于苦与乐的理解。
As a wise man declares in Herodotus’s The History, written in the fifth century BCE, “There is not a man in the world, either here or elsewhere, who is so happy that he does not wish—again and again—to be dead rather than alive.” A grim accounting, that. Yet it captures nicely the ancients’ understanding that suffering, even in the best of circumstances, was impossible to avoid. From the Book of Job to the first of the Buddha’s four noble truths, peruse the wisdom of the past and you will find the message again and again: The world is a painful place.
随着一个哲人在希罗多德写于公元前5世纪的《历史》中断言“世界上没有这样一个人，无论是在这里亦或是别的地方，他实在是太高兴了以至于他一次又一次地希望自己能活着而不是死去。”这是一个冷酷的叙述。然而，它很好地抓住了古人理解的精髓，他们的理解是即使在最好的情况下，痛苦也是不可避免的。你从《约伯记》到佛教的四圣谛中仔细追寻过去的智慧，将一遍又一遍地了解到：世界是一个痛苦的地方。
Yet what all of these traditions shared was the belief that suffering, though pervasive, could be overcome through discipline and sacrifice. It was important to resist short-term pleasures in favor of long-term cultivation of the mind, spurning fleeting seductions in favor of more lasting harmony and peace.
然而，所有这些传统所共有的是相信尽管痛苦是普遍的，但可以通过纪律和献祭来克服。抵制短期的乐趣有利于长期的思想的培养，摒弃转瞬即逝的诱惑有助于更持久的和谐与平和。
New words
1. despondent 英 [dɪ'spɒnd(ə)nt] 美 [dɪ'spɑndənt]
adj. 沮丧的；失望的
e.g He was despondent over the breakup of his marriage.
他为婚姻破裂而沮丧。
2. flourishing 英 ['flʌrɪʃɪŋ] 美 ['flauriʃiŋ]
adj. 繁荣的；繁茂的；盛行的
e.g Boston quickly became a flourishing port.
波斯顿迅速成为一个繁荣的港口。
3. sage 英 [seɪdʒ] 美 [sedʒ]
n. 圣人
e.g Not everybody is a sage. Who can be entirely free from error?
人非圣贤，孰能无过?
4. earthly 英 ['ɜːθlɪ] 美 ['ɝθli]
adj. 地球的；尘世的；可能的
e.g ...the need to confront evil during the earthly life.
…尘世生活中对抗罪恶的需要。
5. BCE before common era 公元前
e.g The Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Persian Empire in 539 BCE.
巴比伦帝国于公元前539年被波斯帝国征服。
6. grim 英 [grɪm] 美 [ɡrɪm]
adj. 冷酷的；糟糕的；残忍的
e.g Not all of their conclusions were that grim.
其实并非所有结论都是那么的严峻。
7. pervasive 英 [pə'veɪsɪv] 美 [pɚ'vesɪv]
adj. 普遍的
e.g Gaps in health outcomes have multiple causes, but poverty is the most pervasive factor.
健康结果方面的差距有众多原因，但贫穷是最普遍的因素。
8. short-term 英 [,ʃɔ:t'tɜ:m] 美 [,ʃɔrt'tɝm]
adj. 短期的
e.g Investors weren't concerned about short-term profits over the next few years.
投资者不关心今后几年里的短期收益。
9. long-term 英 [,lɒŋ'tɜ:m] 美 ['lɔŋtɝm]
adj. 长期的
e.g They want their parents to have access to affordable long-term care.
他们希望他们的父母可以得到负担得起的长期看护。
10. spurn 英 [spɜːn] 美 [spə:n]
vt. 唾弃
e.g He spurned the advice of management consultants.
他拒绝了管理顾问的劝告。
11. fleeting 英 ['fliːtɪŋ] 美 ['flitɪŋ]
adj. 飞逝的
e.g The girls caught only a fleeting glimpse of the driver.
姑娘们只是匆匆瞥了那个司机一眼。
12. seduction 英 [sɪ'dʌkʃ(ə)n] 美 [sɪ'dʌkʃən]
n. 诱惑
e.g In the 1994 movie "The Last Seduction," a femme fatale coaxes her lover into killing her husband for money.
1994年的电影《最后的诱惑》中，一个女人为了钱哄骗她的情人杀死了她的丈夫。
Phrases
1.for centuries 几个世纪以来
2.undergo a revolution 经历革命，经历巨变
3.Book of Job 圣经·约伯书
4.four noble truths 【佛教】四谛(四圣谛)
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