The Hedonic Treadmill - Unit 7

C1 Advanced · Multiple Choice Cloze · Ready for C1 Advanced 4th Edition Workbook, Macmillan Education

For questions 1–8, read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap. There is an example at the beginning.

poorly

barely

merely

seldom

boost

knock

punch

thrill

small

brief

short

quick

wiped out

moved on

passed away

worn off

circumstance

implication

significance

phenomenon

place

spot

site

point

staggering

excessive

devastating

mundane

revert

refresh

resume

restore

How much happier would you be if you won the lottery? (0) ___ , research suggests that for many people who have actually experienced big lottery wins and similar life-changing events, the answer is ‘(1) ___ at all’. It seems that while the win itself gives our levels of happiness a (2) ___ , that heightened sense of joy is (3) ___ -lived. Within a few days or weeks, it has completely (4) ___ and we’re back to pretty much exactly the same level as we started with. This (5) ___ is known as the hedonic treadmill. Just like a treadmill running machine in a gym, it gives us the sensation of making progress, but in reality, we’re simply running on the (6) ___ . The good news is that the treadmill also seems to work for (7) ___ events that might be expected to make us miserable for the rest of our lives. After the initial shock of even the most traumatic event, most people seem to be able to (8) ___ to their baseline level of happiness relatively quickly.

The Hedonic Treadmill

Remarkably

Incidentally

Noticeably

Arguably

Available as a free printable PDF worksheet with an optional answer key.

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