8
Exercise 4
www.dynamicpapers.com
12 Read the article about research into what makes people in a country happy
Writo a summary about what makes people in a country happy, according to this research.
Your summary should be about 100 words long (and no more than 120 words long). You
should use your own words as far as possible.
You will recelve up to 8 marks for the content of your summary, and up to B marks for the style and
accuracy of your language
How happy is your country?
Chances are that if you live in Scandinavia, you would answer this question in fairly positive terms
For several years, Finland, Denmark and Noway have been ranked as the happiest countries in
the world, according to the World Happiness Report.
This annual report, produced by the United Nations, is based on a survey of the inhabitants of
more than 150 countries To complete this survey, over 1000 people in each country are asked
to imagine a ladder, with steps numbered from zero at the bottom to len at the top. The top of the
ladder represents the best possible life, and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible
life. Each person is then asked which step of the ladder they feel they are currently standing on.
The average result is the country’s score, which in 2018 ranged from 7.6 in the happiest counlry, to
2.9 in the least happy
The report also uses slatistics to explain why one country is happier than another These focus
on a range of factors, one of which is having the freedom to make choices in life. Interestingly.
the nation’s wealth does not seem to relate dosely to its level of happiness Finland, for example,
has a lower gross domestic product (GDP- the statislic which measures the size and health of a
nation’s economy) than its neighbours, and a much lower one than that of the United States, which
came eighteenth in the 2018 report. Researchers believe that other factors, such as Finland being
one of the safest countries in the worid, are more relevant
Interestingly. people in the countries at the top of the list pay much higher levels of lax. This in itself
does not explain happiness, instead it is thought to be the fact that people know this money is used
to improve the qualty of life for everyone. Free healthcare, for example, is commonly quoted as a
reason for satisfaction in life, as is free university education
Other possible explanations have also been put forward. One is simply that if you have lower
expectations in life, you are more likely to be content. Another is that there may be a paricular
gena that is associated with good mood, and this gene is much more common in people from some
countries (for example, Denmark) than others
Another annual survey, the Global Emotions Reporl produced rather diferent results. In 2017.
Paraguay appeared at the top of the list, despite only being ranked 70th in the World Happiness
Report, and also being one of the poorer countries in terms of GDP This survey relies on a different
set of questions, and traditionaly Latin American countries rank highest It is believed that this is
due to the presence of strong family networks in these countries It is also thought that people
there attach greater importance to family relationships. Another suggestion is thal having a mixture
of people from different ethnic backgrounds living alongside each other contributes to the overall
happiness levels of a country
