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Glossary

• bunk bed
• avert – prevent or ward off (an undesirable occurrence)
• stumble across – to find someone or something, usually by accident
• resiliency – the ability to overcome challenges of all kinds and bounce back stronger, wiser, and more personally powerful.
• glean – obtain (information) from various sources, often with difficulty
• retain – continue to have (something); keep possession of
• ripple

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Think about it

Answer the questions below.

• Summarise Shawn’s childhood story.
• What does the graph show?
• What does Shawn say about psychologists?
• In what way is scientific data related to the average value?
• What is the “medical school syndrome” and how did it affect Bobo?
• What does 90% of our happiness depend on? What about the remaining 10%?
• In what way has the modern put the idea of happiness backwards?
• How can you train your brain to become more positive?

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Practice makes perfect

Fill in the blank spaces with the missing words. Use ONE word per blank space.

When I was seven years ________ and my sister was just five years old, we were playing ________ top of a bunk bed. I was two years older than my sister at ________ time — I mean, I’m two years older ________ her now — but at the time it meant she had to do everything that I wanted to do, and I wanted to ________ war. So we were up on top of our bunk beds. And on one side of the bunk bed, I had put out all of my G.I. Joe soldiers and weaponry. And on the other side were all my sister’s My Little Ponies ready for a cavalry charge.

There are differing accounts of what actually happened that afternoon, but ________ my sister is not here with us today, let me tell you the true story — (Laughter) which is my sister’s a little on the clumsy side. Somehow, without any help or push from her older brother at all, Amy disappeared off of the top of the bunk bed and landed with this crash on the floor. I nervously peered ________ the side of the bed to see what ________ befallen my fallen sister and saw that she ________ landed painfully on her hands and knees ________ all fours on the ground.

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Explore it more

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