A)What is love? Some people think it’s lifelong devotion. Others think it’s temporary madness. No matter what, not that people think that love is not important. They are starved for it; they watch endless numbers of films about happy and unhappy love stories; they listen to hundreds of songs about love — yet hardly anyone thinks that there is anything that needs to be learned about love. B)This particular attitude is based on several premises (前提) which either singly or collectively tend to give rise to it. Most people see the problem of love primarily as that of “being loved”, rather than that of “loving”, of one’s capacity to love. In order to be loved, to be lovable, men try to get as rich, successful and powerful as their social positions permit; women are busily involved in making themselves attractive by working on their bodies, dresses, etc. Both men and women also develop pleasant manners, interesting conversation, to be helpful, modest and inoffensive (不冒犯人的). C) A second premise behind the attitude that there is nothing to be learned about love is the assumption that the problem of love is the problem of an “object”, not the problem of a “capacity”. People think that to “love” is simple, but that to find the right object to love — or to be loved by — is difficult. There are several reasons behind it. One reason is the changed view of a “love object”. Love no longer develops only after marriage is concluded as in traditional cultures. Romantic love, the personal experience of love, has become universal in modern culture. Freedom in love has greatly lifted the importance of the “object”. D)Closely related to this reason is another characteristic of modern culture. Our culture is based on the appetite for buying, on the idea of a mutually (双方) favorable exchange. Modern man’s happiness lies in the excitement of looking at the shop windows, and in buying all that he can afford. He (or she) looks at people in a similar way. “Attractive” is what men and women are after. It’s a package of qualities which are popular and wanted on the personality market. Two people fall in love when they have found the best object on the market. E)The third error leading to the attitude that there is nothing to be learned about love lies in the confusion (混淆) between the initial experience of “falling” in love, and the permanent state of “being” in love. If two people who have been strangers suddenly let the wall between them break down, they feel close, feel one; this moment of oneness is one of the most exciting and wonderful experiences in life. However, this type of love is by its very nature not lasting. When the two persons become well acquainted (熟悉的), their intimacy is losing its magic until their mutual boredom (厌烦) kills whatever is left of the initial excitement. F)This attitude — that nothing is easier than to love — has continued to be spreading in our society. If any other activity, which is started with such huge hopes and expectations, and yet, fails so regularly, as love, people would be eager to know the reasons for the failure, to learn how to do better, or they would give up the activity. Since the latter is impossible in the case of love, there seems to be only one way to overcome the failure of love — to examine the reasons for this failure, and to proceed to study the meaning of love. G)To learn about love is to learn about an art. That involves the mastery of the theory and the mastery of the practice. If I want to learn the art of medicine, I must first know the facts about the human body and various diseases. When I have all this theoretical knowledge, I am by no means competent in the art of medicine. Only after I have a great deal of practice, when my theoretical knowledge and my practice are blended into one — my intuition, shall I become a master. Besides, there is a third factor necessary to becoming a master in any art — the mastery of the art must be a matter of ultimate concern. This holds true for music, for medicine, for sports — and for love. _______ 1.  It’s impossible for people to give up love and thus it’s necessary to find ways to overcome the failure of love. _______ 2.  People think love is important, but few people become aware that love is something that needs to be learned. _______ 3.  To master the art of love, people should learn what makes love and practice it until the two are blended into one — the intuition. _______ 4.  There is little reason to be surprised that human love relations follow the same pattern of exchange which governs the commodity (商品) and the labor market. _______ 5.  Two people being crazy about each other in the beginning proves both the intensity of their love and the degree of their preceding loneliness. _______ 6.  Many of the ways men and women use to make themselves lovable are the ways used to make themselves successful, to win friends and influence people. _______ 7.  In many traditional cultures, love was mostly not a spontaneous (自发的) personal experience which then might lead to marriage, but was supposed to develop once the marriage had been concluded.