Question 3 of 5
What is the central idea of the passage?
fromOptimism Within
by Helen Keller
Could we choose our environment, and were desire in human undertakings
synonymous with endowment, all men would, I suppose, be optimists.
Certainly most of us regard happiness as the proper end of all earthly
enterprise. The will to be happy animates alike the philosopher, the prince and
the chimney sweep. No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is,
he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.
My optimism is no mild and unreasoning satisfaction. A poet once said I
must be happy because I did not see the bare, cold present, but lived in a
beautiful dream. I do live in a beautiful dream; but that dream is the actual,
the present, not cold, but warm; not bare, but furnished with a thousand
blessings. The very evil which the poet supposed would be a cruel
disillusionment is necessary to the fullest knowledge of joy. Only by contact
with evil could I have learned to feel by contrast the beauty of truth and love
and goodness.
A.Happiness comes from studying in school
B.Suffering leads to a greater experience with joy
C.happiness is a subject for philosophers only
D.optimism is the result of a sheltered experience