词汇句式
1 phony 假的
2 skeptical
suspect 怀疑
be suspicious of
suspicion
3 depict 描绘
4 The rise of anti-happy art almost exactly tracks the emergence of mass media, and with it, a commercial culture in which happiness is not just an ideal but an ideology.
5 reminder 【n】提醒（不是人）
【例句】
People in earlier eras were surrounded by reminders of misery.
6 mass communication and literacy
7 Given all this
Given all this, they did not exactly need their art to be a bummer too.
8 anchor
【义】
host
announcer
9 beaming celebrities
风光满面的明星
10 But what we forget—what our economy depends on us forgetting—is that happiness is more than pleasure without pain.
11 The things that bring the greatest joy carry the greatest potential for loss and disappointment.
12 bitter 【ad】苦
全文翻译
【一】
1 Many things make people think artists are weird.
很多事情让人们觉得艺术家都是很怪异的。
2 But the weirdest may be this: artists’ only job is to explore emotions, and yet they choose to focus on the ones that feel bad.
但最奇怪的事情可能是：艺术家们唯一的工作就是去探索情感，但是他们总是选择集中在那些让人觉得伤心的情绪上。
【二】
1 This wasn’t always so.
事情并非一直如此。
2 The earliest forms of art, like painting and music, are those best suited for expressing joy.
像绘画和音乐这种最早的艺术形式，是最适合表达欢乐情绪的艺术形式。
3 But somewhere from the 19th century onward, more artists began seeing happiness as meaningless, phony or, worst of all, boring, as we went from Wordsworth’s daffodils to Baudelaire’s flowers of evil.
但从19世纪的某个时间点开始，更多的艺术家开始将幸福当作毫无意义的，虚假的，最糟糕的，无聊的。正如我们从Wordsworth的daffodils和Baudelaire的flowers of evil中看到的一样。
【三】
1 You could argue that art became more skeptical of happiness because modern times have seen so much misery.
你可以争辩说艺术是因为现代社会中有很多悲剧而变得怀疑快乐的。
2 But it’s not as if earlier times didn’t know perpetual war, disaster and the massacre of innocents.
但这并不是说早年间人们就不知道无休止的战争，疾病和对无辜的人的屠杀
3 The reason, in fact, may be just the opposite: there is too much damn happiness in the world today.
事实上，原因可能恰恰是相反的：在当今世界，到处都是假的快乐。
事实上，原因可能恰恰是相反的：在当今世界，到处都是令人厌烦的快乐。
【四】
1 After all, what is the one modern form of expression almost completely dedicated to depicting happiness?
毕竟，什么才是完全致力于描述快乐的现代传播形式呢？
2 Advertising.
广告。
3 The rise of anti-happy art almost exactly tracks the emergence of mass media, and with it, a commercial culture in which happiness is not just an ideal but an ideology.
反快乐艺术的出现几乎完全打击到了大众媒体的兴起，伴随而来的，快乐在商业文化里不仅是一个理想，而是一种意识形态。
反快乐艺术几乎是在紧跟大众媒体之后兴起的，与此相伴而生的，还有商业文化。在这种文化中，快乐不仅是一个理想，还是一种意识形态。
【五】
1 People in earlier eras were surrounded by reminders of misery.
早年间的人类周边全是悲剧的提醒者们。
早年间，人类被痛苦的回忆包围着。
2 They worked until exhausted, lived with few protections and died young.
他们工作直到筋疲力尽，生活中很少有保护并且在很年轻的时候就去世了。
3 In the West, before mass communication and literacy, the most powerful mass medium was the church, which reminded worshippers that their souls were in danger and that they would someday be meat for worms.
在西方，在大众媒体和文学出现之前，最强力的大众媒体是教堂。教堂提醒信徒们，他们的灵魂处于危险中，有一天他们会成为蠕虫嘴里的一块肉。
在西方，在大众媒体和教育普及之前，最强力的大众媒体是教堂。教堂提醒信徒们，他们的灵魂处于危险中，有一天他们会成为蠕虫嘴里的一块肉。
4 Given all this, they did not exactly need their art to be a bummer too.
在这样的生活环境下，人们并不需要他们的艺术作品是反快乐的。
鉴于此，他们实在也无需艺术来加重自己的苦难感受。
【六】
1 Today the messages the average Westerner is surrounded with are not religious but commercial, and forever happy.
今天，围绕在大部分西方人旁边的信息不是宗教，而是商业，是永恒的快乐。
今天，围绕在普通西方人旁边的信息不是宗教，而是商业，是永恒的快乐。
2 Fast-food eaters, news anchors, text messengers, all smiling, smiling, smiling.
吃快餐的人，读报纸的人还有收发短信的人都在笑。
快餐食客，新闻直播员，通信员，所有人都在笑个不停。
3 Our magazines feature beaming celebrities and happy families in perfect homes.
我们的杂志以刊登风光满面的名人和在完美的房子里住着的快乐家庭为特色。
4 And since these messages have an agenda—to lure us to open our wallets—they make the very idea of happiness seem unreliable.
正是因为这些信息都有一个动机——诱导我们打开自己的钱包——所以他们关于快乐的不同的想法显得很不靠谱。
正是因为这些信息都有一个动机——诱导我们打开自己的钱包——所以他们使得快乐的概念显得特别的虚假。
5 “Celebrate!” commanded the ads for the arthritis drug Celebrex, before we found out it could increase the risk of heart attacks.
“庆祝一下”！关节炎药物“西乐藻”的广告这样召唤我们，随后我们发现它会增加心脏病的发病率。
【七】
1 But what we forget—what our economy depends on us forgetting—is that happiness is more than pleasure without pain.
但是我们所遗忘的是——我们的经济指望我们忘却的是——幸福并不只是没痛苦的快乐。
2 The things that bring the greatest joy carry the greatest potential for loss and disappointment.
带来最多欢笑的东西也最有可能带来损失和失望。
Today, surrounded by promises of easy happiness, we need art to tell us, as religion once did, Memento mori: remember that you will die, that everything ends, and that happiness comes not in denying this but in living with it.
在今天，被容易得到幸福的承诺包围着的我们，需要艺术来告诉我们死亡的警告，就像曾经宗教做的那样：记住总有一天你终将死去，所有事情都会结束，幸福不是通过拒绝承认死亡来获得而是跟死亡警告共存。
It’s a message even more bitter than a clove cigarette, yet, somehow, a breath of fresh air.
这是一个比丁香烟雾还要渺小的信息，但是某种程度上，也是一口新鲜空气。
这是比丁香烟雾还要苦的警告，但却不知不觉带来了一股清新的气息。
36. By citing the examples of poets Wordsworth and Baudelaire, the author intends to show that ________.
[A] poetry is not as expressive of joy as painting or music
[B] art grows out of both positive and negative feelings
[C] poets today are less skeptical of happiness
[D] artists have changed their focus of interest
37. The word “bummer” (Line 5, paragraph 5) most probably means something ________.
[A] religious
[B] unpleasant
[C] entertaining
[D] commercial
38. In the author’s opinion, advertising ________.
[A] emerges in the wake of the anti-happy art
[B] is a cause of disappointment for the general public
[C] replace the church as a major source of information
[D] creates an illusion of happiness rather than happiness itself
39. We can learn from the last paragraph that the author believes ________.
[A] happiness more often than not ends in sadness
[B] the anti-happy art is distasteful but refreshing
[C] misery should be enjoyed rather than denied
[D] the anti-happy art flourishes when economy booms
40. Which of the following is true of the text?
[A] Religion once functioned as a reminder of misery.
[B] Art provides a balance between expectation and reality.
[C] People feel disappointed at the realities of modern society.8
[D] Mass media are inclined to cover disasters and deaths