TED Talk The surprising science of happiness

In this listening and viewing comprehension quiz you are going to watch and listen to Dan Gilbert’s TED Talk about The surprising science of happiness.
CEF-level: B2/C1 (advanced)
time: ± 30 minutes

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questions 1-5: vocabulary questions testing your knowledge of and/or preparing you for the words used in this TED-talk
questions 6-14: listening and viewing comprehension.

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Question 1 of 15

1. Question

4 point(s)

The first questions are vocabulary questions testing your knowledge of and/or preparing you for the words used in this TED-talk.

Pre-watching
Match the verbs to their meanings:

Sort elements

to think about
to combine into a whole
to give up a job
to break or disregard

Here’s two different futures that I invite you to contemplate

We synthesize happiness, but we think happiness is a thing to be found.

he resigned in disgrace

which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice

Correct / 4 Points

Incorrect / 4 Points

Question 2 of 15

2. Question

3 point(s)

Pre-watching
Match the adjectives to their meanings:

Sort elements

making it easy for something to happen
when a person has partly or completely lost his/her memory
that can be changed so as to return to its original state

Because the reversible condition is not conducive to the synthesis of happiness.

What do they do? Well, let’s first check and make sure they’re really amnesiac.

It’s a very small increase, and it doesn’t much matter whether they were in the reversible or irreversible condition.

Correct / 3 Points

Incorrect / 3 Points

Question 3 of 15

3. Question

3 point(s)

Pre-watching
Match the nouns to their meanings:

Sort elements

a piece of equipment that is used to show what something looks or feels like and is usually used to study something or to train somebody
the process of changing something to fit a new situation
an inclination, especially one that makes impartial judgment difficult

Flight pilots practice in flight simulators

Human beings have this marvellous adaptation

Something we call the impact bias, which is the tendency for the simulator to work badly.

Correct / 3 Points

Incorrect / 3 Points

Question 4 of 15

4. Question

3 point(s)

Pre-watching
Match the nouns to their meanings:

Sort elements

a strong feeling of enthusiasm
a sensible and careful attitude
the feeling of being sorry for something bad you have done

but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardor which drives us to violate the rules

which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice, or to corrupt the future tranquility of our minds,

either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, or by remorse for the horror of our own injustice.”

Correct / 3 Points

Incorrect / 3 Points

Question 5 of 15

5. Question

4 point(s)

Pre-watching
Match the nouns to their meanings:

Sort elements

a person in one’s family who lived a long time ago
a person who has a paralysis of the lower half of the body with involvement of both legs
a clear example or archetype
something that is useful or has a useful quality

This is a trick that none of our ancestors could do

And a year after winning the lotto, lottery winners and paraplegics are equally happy with their lives.

This is a 50-year-old paradigm called the free choice paradigm.

because we have within us the capacity to manufacture the very commodity we are constantly chasing

Correct / 4 Points

Incorrect / 4 Points

Question 6 of 15

6. Question
3 point(s)

First, read the question, then watch the video.

(beginning – 2:09)

Which of the following statements about the brain are correct according to Daniel Gilbert?

During the course of evolution a new part was formed in the brain, called the frontal lobe.

The brain has tripled in size.

The human brain is too complex to be understood.

The pre-frontal cortex is like an experience simulator.

The structures of the human brain have so far remained unchanged.

Correct / 3 Points

Incorrect / 3 Points
Question 7 of 15

7. Question
5 point(s)

First, read the question, then watch the video.

(2:09 – 3:54)
The impact bias is the tendency for people

to judge based on their respective moods.

to judge on what they predict rather than on experience.

to overestimate the length and intensity of future states.

to underestimate the after-effects of traumatic events.

Correct

Incorrect
Question 8 of 15

8. Question
5 point(s)

First, read the question, then watch the video.

(3:33 – 4:10)
How much time does it take to get over major life traumas and return to (a former state of) happiness according to a recent study ?

three months

half a year

a year

people never quite recover

Correct

Incorrect
Question 9 of 15

9. Question
5 point(s)

First, read the question, then watch the video.

(4:10 – 8:07)
Jim Wright, Moreese Bickham, Harry S. Langerman and Pete Best are used by Daniel Gilbert as examples of people who

do not seem to care about wordly goods.

do not seem to have had a specific purpose in life.

have had extremely bad luck in life.

have synthesized happiness.

Correct

Incorrect
Question 10 of 15

10. Question
4 point(s)
First, read the question, then watch the video.

(4:10 – 8:07) (same fragment as last question)
Match the descriptions to the persons.
Sort elements
- was a very respectable American politician who lost everything.
- spent a very long time in prison for a crime he did not commit.
- missed out on becoming the richest man in America.
- did not become part of one of the most famous popgroups ever.
Jim Wright
Moreese Bickham
Harry S. Langerman
Pete Best
Correct / 4 Points

Incorrect / 4 Points
Question 11 of 15

11. Question
2 point(s)
First, read the question, then watch the video.

(8:07 – 9:22)
Match the two kinds of happiness to their correct descriptions.
Sort elements
- synthetic happiness is
- what we get when we get what we wanted
synthetic happiness is
natural happiness is
Correct / 2 Points

Incorrect / 2 Points
Question 12 of 15

12. Question
5 point(s)

First, read the question, then watch the video.

(9:22 – 13:47)
Dan Gilbert tells about the experiment with the Monet prints to show that

amnesiac patients are very unreliable as research controls.

amnesiac patients find it difficult to find happiness in art.

people actually change their affective reactions to achieve happiness.

people easily deceive themselves in order to feel happy.

Correct

Incorrect
Question 13 of 15

13. Question
5 point(s)

First, read the question, then watch the video.

(13:47 – 15:00)
What is the enemy of synthetic happiness?

Freedom to change and make up your mind

Irreversible conditions

Limited choice

Self-satisfaction

Correct

Incorrect
Question 14 of 15

14. Question
5 point(s)

First, read the question, then watch the video.

(15:00 – 18:56)
The Harvard experiment makes clear that students (and by inference people in general)

are more likely to change their minds if offered the opportunity to deliberate.

are unaware that the freedom to choose can work to their disadvantage.

experience greater satisfaction at a task when asked to use their creativity.

usually make correct predictions about their future behaviour.

Correct

Incorrect

Question 15 of 15

15. Question

1 point(s)

First, read the question, then watch the video.

(18:56 – end)
These are the last paragraphs of Dan Gilbert’s speech. Fill in the missing words or phrases:
(Note: The Bard = William Shakespeare)

Sort elements

but thinking makes it so
overrating the difference
violate the rules
remorse for the horror
ambition is bounded
we’re prudent
capacity to manufacture

The Bard said everything best, of course, and he’s making my point here but he’s making it hyperbolically: ”‘Tis nothing good or bad / ……….1………..” It’s nice poetry, but that can’t exactly be right. Is there really nothing good or bad? Is it really the case that gall bladder surgery and a trip to Paris are just the same thing? That seems like a one-question IQ test. They can’t be exactly the same.

In more turgid prose, but closer to the truth, was the father of modern capitalism, Adam Smith, and he said this. This is worth contemplating: ”The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life seems to arise from ……….2……….. between one permanent situation and another …

 Some of these situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others, but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardor which drives us to ……….3……….. either of prudence or of justice, or to corrupt the future tranquility of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, 

or by ………4……….. of our own injustice.” In other words: yes, some things are better than others.
We should have preferences that lead us into one future over another. But when those preferences drive us too hard and too fast because we have overrated the difference between these futures, we are at risk. 

When our ………5……….. , it leads us to work joyfully. When our ambition is unbounded, it leads us to lie, to cheat, to steal, to hurt others, to sacrifice things of real value.

When our fears are bounded, ………6……….., we’re cautious, we’re thoughtful. When our fears are unbounded and overblown, we’re reckless, and we’re cowardly.

The lesson I want to leave you with from these data is that our longings and our worries are both to some degree overblown, because we have within us the ………7……….. the very commodity we are constantly chasing when we choose experience.
Thank you.

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Who is Dan Gilbert

Dan Gilbert believes that, in our ardent, lifelong pursuit of happiness, most of us have the wrong map. In the same way that optical illusions fool our eyes — and fool everyone’s eyes in the same way — Gilbert argues that our brains systematically misjudge what will make us happy. And these quirks in our cognition make humans very poor predictors of our own bliss. More information about Dan Gilbert (source: www.ted.com/speakers)

What is TED

TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages.
(source: TED: our organization)

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