摘要：今天要跟大家分享的雅思閱讀素材叫做“Is life miserable without passion?”，“沒有激情的生活是痛苦的嗎？”對我來說，生活必須充滿激情啊！但是本文作者的觀點好像有點分歧呢，到底他覺得生活該不該充滿激情呢，一起來看今天的雅思閱讀文章吧！

今天，雅思中國網雅思君要和大家分享的這篇文章叫做“The problem with following your passion 滿懷激情帶來的問題”。滿懷激情地工作和生活，長久以來都被看做人生成功的先決條件。然而，激情是什么?沒有激情，人生是不是就真沒有意義了?也許，我們應該重新建構“激情”的意義了，一起看看文章怎么說的吧！

The problem with following your passion

滿懷激情帶來的問題

In a recent biography of Elon Musk, Bloomberg technology writer Ashlee Vance documents how the entrepreneur(企業家) transformed the electric car industry, launched rockets into space, developed solar technology and devised plans to colonize Mars. Vance emphasizes Musk’s diligence and unwavering(不動搖的) zeal(熱情), not just his intelligence and eccentricities(奇思妙想，怪異). Like Steve Jobs, Musk is a mercurial(反復無常的)perfectionist, prone to moments of rage, spurred by passion. (與Steve Jobs一樣，Musk也是一個追求完美的人，性格反復無常，容易著急上火，激情四溢。)

It’s tempting to read about someone like Elon Musk and conclude that passion is a prerequisite(前提)for success. And months from now, it’s likely that a suite of commencement(畢業典禮)speakers will stand in front of class after class of new graduates, remarking that “the only way to do great work is to love what you do,” as Steve Jobs told the Stanford class of 2005.

But is passion really an essential condition for leading a successful life? That idea has come under attack in the last few years. Passion is increasingly labeled as mere post hoc(事后的) storytelling, an empty cliché(老生常談)that makes for a good narrative(激情越來越被標簽為事后歸因的故事，是為了講出好故事而說的空洞套話。). Cal Newport, an assistant professor at Georgetown University and author of So Good They Can’t Ignore You, insists the passion mantra(頌歌) is not just unoriginal but misleading. The goal shouldn’t be to find your passion—as if it has been there, undiscovered, from the beginning—but to create one.

Recently, a team of psychologists led by Patricia Chen, a graduate student at the University of Michigan, published research that gives us new insights into the relationship between passion and work. The team polled 794 people and found that about 70 percent believed passion is about matching an intrinsically(內在地)rewarding skill with a certain line of work—what Chen calls the fit theory.(該研究團隊調查了794個人后發現，大約70%的人都相信，所謂激情就是一種內在的激勵技能與某種工作相匹配了——陳將其稱為“匹配理論”。Under this paradigm(模式), it’s easy to explain people like Musk and Jobs: They persevered because their work tapped(開發)into a fundamental joy of theirs.

The other 30 percent of participants in the study indicated that passion for work is developed and cultivated over time—what Chen calls the develop theory.(另外30%的受調查者認為，工作激情是在時間中培養出來的——陳將其稱為“培養理論”。)According to this view, which is similar to what Newport endorses, we should think of our skills and proclivities(傾向)as malleable(可以塑造的)instead of fixed. Passion is the result of persistent and deliberate practice.

Across four studies, the psychologists found that those who think passion can be developed were just as likely to be satisfied with their job in the long run as those who searched for a perfect fit. (在所有4項研究中，心理學家們發現，那些認為激情是可以培養的人與那些尋求最佳匹配的人，從長遠看，同樣可能從工作中獲得滿足。)These findings suggest, Chen and her team note, that people can “achieve similar levels of well-being at work by endorsing(贊同)either the fit or develop theory.”

This piece of research helps psychologists better understand the nature of passion, yet it still pivots off a very narrow definition, in which to be passionate about something is essentially to enjoy particular challenges that would otherwise be grueling(痛苦的). (這項研究幫助心理學家們更好地理解激情的性質，然而該研究仍基于一個非常狹窄的定義，即，對某事充滿激情本質上就是喜歡某些原本令人痛苦的挑戰。)Moreover, it assumes such passion is the basis for a rewarding professional life.

We’d like to introduce two more concepts to broaden what we mean when we talk about passion. Psychological research shows that life satisfaction correlates with the ability to assess something from multiple viewpoints. (心理學研究表明，人生的滿足感與多角度評價事物的能力相關。)And so by widening the meaning of passion, we also allow ourselves more opportunities to find meaning and satisfaction in the lives we lead.

In German, the word for passion is Leidenschaft, which literally means the ability to endure adversity(不利情況，逆境). It is a much less rosy word, not the graduation bromide(溴化物;老套的安慰話) its English counterpart(對等物;對應物)has become. If you’re passionate about something in Germanic cultures, you don’t necessarily enjoy it. Leidenschaft is about knowing the pursuit will be unpleasant but tolerating it because the outcome is worth the cost. Critically, Germans can be passionate about an activity without feeling the need to pursue it as a profession or worry about higher ideals. From this view, work is a means to an end, enabling the pursuit of passion during non-work time.

In Eastern Europe, passion can also be understood as cierpienie (which roughly translates to “suffering” in Polish). It’s a word that describes having a calling, but without any implications of deriving pleasure. You have no choice but to endure it, even when the outcome is not necessarily positive.

A good example is Phil Hansen, an artist who developed permanent nerve damage in his hand from spending years practicing pointillism(點畫派)—a drawing and painting technique in which small dots are used to create a larger image. Because of his jittery hand, Hansen could no longer draw straight lines; his previously round dots began to look like “tadpoles.” He eventually dropped out of art school and gave up art completely.

               
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