It may seem strange to think about countries being "happy" when most of the world is fighting with the coronavirus (冠状病毒), but a yearly report was released by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, which ranked the world's countries by how happy they are.
To get an idea of how happy people are, the researchers told people to imagine life as a ladder (阶梯). The worst possible life would be on step 0. The best possible life would be on step 10. Then the researchers asked people where they were on the ladder. They asked this question of 10,000 people in 156 different countries over the last three years.
For the third year in a row, the report named Finland as the world's happiest country. This time Finland was even farther ahead of other countries than it was last time. The other top five countries were Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and Norway.
To help explain the results, the researchers studied several important areas, such as how much money people make, how long they live, how free they are, how much support they get from the people around them, and whether the government is seen as honest.
Clearly, the kind of happiness that is being measured by the report isn't just about laughing, smiling, and telling jokes. It's more about how satisfied people are with their lives.
The report suggests that when people live in a place where they trust other people and the government, they are more likely to be happy. The report's authors describe these as "high-trust" countries.
As countries around the world face the big challenges brought by the coronavirus, the report's authors note that happiness doesn't always disappear during difficult times.
Actually, in high-trust areas, disasters can often leave people with a surprising good feeling because _______________.
Actually, in high-trust areas, disasters can often leave people with a surprising good feeling because
