雅思课外读物--Is life miserable without passion?

When his doctor suggested that he “embrace the shake,” Hansen decided to develop a new approach to art that relied on his handicap. The result was a new genre of creative work. Hansen made portraits out of matches, grease and food. He still used his hands to draw, but instead of creating images from perfect dots, he drew pictures composed entirely of squiggles.

In the American sense of the word, art is Hansen’s passion. But it’s more accurate to describe his life with cierpienie. He still experiences joint pain and he still can’t draw straight, so he has no choice but to endure his limitation. Despite his glowing TED Talk, the outcome is usually negative, as is the case with all creative work. The final product invariably results from dozens of failed ones.

Although it’s important to value work that is intrinsically fulfilling, let’s stop advertising the myopic(短视的)idea that life without passion—whether it is something to be found or created—is not worth living. Working adults aren’t either passionate and fulfilled or lifeless and miserable. That’s an overly simplified worldview, in which the dreary desk workers of the world are constantly pitted against the Elon Musks. (工作中的成年人并非只有“要么充满激情和成就，要么没有生机和痛苦”两种选择。那种世界观过于简单，这种观点长期让世界上那些枯燥的案头工作人员与Elon Musk们处于对立状态。)

Instead, we should recast our own American concept of passion to include other definitions that embrace a broader sense of what a meaningful life could look like. “Having too few constructs or insufficiently validated ones can create problems, particularly when life is moving quickly and you are trying to make sense of it,” Cambridge University psychologist Brian Little writes in his book Me, Myself and Us. “Your constructs can cage you in.” (“建构太少，或者你的建构得不到充分证实，这都会带来问题，尤其是当生命匆匆，你想从中找到意义的时候，”剑桥大学心理学家Brian Little在其《我，我自己和我们》中写道。“你的种种建构可能将你自己困住。”)

Vocabulary

Entrepreneur 企业家

Unwavering 不动摇的

Zeal 热情

Eccentricity 怪异性

Mercurial 水性杨花的;易变的

Prerequisite 前提

Commencement 毕业典礼;开始

Post hoc 事后的

Cliché 陈词滥调

Mantra 颂歌

Intrinsically 内在地

Paradigm 模式

Proclivity 倾向

Malleable 可以锻造的;可以改变的

Endorse 同意;签署

Grueling 痛苦的

Adversity 不利情况;敌人

Counterpart 对等物

Myopic 短视的

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