Life (A2)
1. Which of these things make you feel happy?
Order them from 1 to 5 (1 = most happy).
- Sleeping for a long time
- Having money
- Relaxing on holiday
- Going out with friends
- Doing exercise
2. Read and answer the questions
The small country of Bhutan in the Himalayan mountains is over one thousand years old. In the past it was a poor country and not many people visited it. But nowadays, it is becoming more and more popular witn tourists. Medicine and health is improving and its economy is growing. King Jig me Sangye Wangchuck, the king of Bhutan until 2006, talked about his country’s ‘Gross National Happiness’. In other words, he thought happiness is the way to measure the country’s development.
But how do you measure happiness? Perhaps health is the best way because a famous doctor once said, ‘Happy people generally don’t get sick.’ It’s also easy to measure how many people feel ill or unhealthy in a country. For example, one survey says lceland is the ‘healthiest country in the world’ because men and women live a long time there, the air is very clean and there are more doctors available per person than anywhere else in the world.
However, there was another survey of the happiest countries in the world and Iceland was not near the top. The questions on this survey included: How much do you earn? How healthy are you? How safe do you feel? After visiting 155 different countries, the researchers decided that Denmark feels happier than other countries.
So does happiness equal money and good health? Not according to the artist Erik Krikortz. He feels that there are other ways of measuring happiness. Krikortz has a website and visitors click on different happy or sad faces to comment on how well they sleep, their family and friends, their level of stress, their inspiration and their physical activity. When you finish, his website adds the results for each area and it gives you a final result for your happiness.
In his home city of Stockholm, Krikortz also shows the results of his survey as different coloured lights on the side of a large building in the city. For example, red means the people of Stockholm are very happy, green is OK and purple means many people are sad. ‘A lot of people· look at the building every day and see how “we” are,’ Krikortz says. The colored lights are also useful if you feel like visiting the city. For. example, if the lights are red, you know the locals are feeling happy!
Listening
1. Listen
2. True or False
- David McLain is travelling to different countries.
- He’s talking to the radio presenter in the studio.
- Men don’t live the same number of years as women on Sardinia.
- Sardinian families often eat together.
- David thinks Sardinia is less stressful than other countries.
- Younger people are eating more unhealthy food and they aren’t getting much exercise.
3. An interview with Elizabeth Dunn
Listen to an interview with Elizabeth Dunn. Complete the sentences.
Listen again and choose the correct option
a Elizabeth agrees.
b Elizabeth disagrees.
c Elizabeth doesn’t say.
- Coffee with friends is better than having lots of money.
- Money is the most important thing.
- Money doesn’t make you feel happier.
- Giving money to other people makes you happy.
- Spending money on other people makes you happier …
- Spending money on experiences makes you feel