Finland is the happiest country in the world

Level 3 l Advanced
1 Warmer
The article is about the happiest country in the world. Which six of these words do you think are in the
text? Check your answers in the text.

education fun wealth holidays taxes

entertainment money healthcare family freedom

2 Key words
Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text.

obesity ranking accolade renowned corruption

decline galvanize sound perception bout

1. A _____________________ is a reduction in the quality of something.

2. _____________________ is a condition in which someone is too fat in a way that is dangerous for their health.
3. A _____________________ is a short period when something happens a lot.
4. A _____________________ is a position on a list that shows how good something is in comparison
with other things.
5. A _____________________ is a particular way of understanding or thinking about something.
6. _____________________ is dishonest, illegal or immoral behaviour done in order to gain money or power.
7. An _____________________ is an honour given to a person or an organization for their work.
8. If something is _____________________, it is reliable.
9. If you _____________________ people, you shock or affect them enough to produce a strong and
immediate reaction.
10. _____________________ is another word for famous.

3 What do you know?

Decide whether these statements are true (T) or false (F). Then, check your answers in the text.
1. The top four places in the happiness rankings are all taken by Nordic countries.
2. Syria is the unhappiest country in the world.
3. Finland has a higher GDP than its Nordic neighbours.
4. The UK is happier than Germany, Canada and Australia.
5. The biggest fall in happiness was in Venezuela.
6. Chinese people are much happier after moving from the countryside into big cities.
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NEWS LESSONS / Finland is the happiest country in the world / Advanced

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Finland is the happiest country in the world
Level 3 l Advanced
Finland is the happiest country in the
world, says UN report
Nordic nations take top four places in happiness
rankings, with annual study also charting the
decline of the US
Patrick Collinson
14 March, 2018
1 Finland has overtaken Norway to become the
happiest nation on earth, according to a UN
report. The 2018 World Happiness Report also
charts the steady decline of the US, as the
world’s largest economy grapples with a crisis of
obesity, substance abuse and depression. The
study reveals the US has slipped to 18th place,
five places down on 2016. The top four places
are taken by Nordic nations, with Finland followed
by Norway, Denmark and Iceland.
2 Burundi in east Africa, scarred by bouts of
ethnic cleansing, civil wars and coup attempts,
is the unhappiest place in the world. Strikingly,
there are five other nations – Rwanda, Yemen,
Tanzania, South Sudan and the Central African
Republic – that report happiness levels below
that of even Syria.
3 For the first time, the UN also examined the
happiness levels of immigrants in each country
and found Finland also scored highest.
4 “Finland has vaulted from fifth place to the top of
the rankings,” said the report’s authors, although
they noted that the other three Nordic
countries (plus Switzerland) have almost
interchangeable scores.
5 The report, an annual publication, said all the
Nordic countries scored highly on income,
healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom,
trust and generosity. The rankings are based on
Gallup polls of self-reported wellbeing, as well
as perceptions of corruption, generosity
and freedom.
6 The UN placing is the latest accolade for Finland,
a country of 5.5 million people that only 150
years ago suffered Europe’s last naturally caused
famine. The country has been ranked the most
stable, the safest and the best governed country
in the world. It is also among the least corrupt
and the most socially progressive. Its police are
the world’s most trusted and its banks
the soundest.
7 “That Finland is the top scorer is remarkable,”
said Meik Wiking of the Happiness Research
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NEWS LESSONS / Finland is the happiest country in the world / Advanced
Institute in Denmark. “GDP per capita in Finland
is lower than its neighbouring Nordic countries
and is much lower than that of the US. The Finns
are good at converting wealth into wellbeing.
8 “In the Nordic countries in general, we pay some
of the highest taxes in the world but there is
wide public support for that because people see
them as investments in quality of life for all. Free
healthcare and university education go a long
way when it comes to happiness. In the Nordic
countries, Bernie Sanders is not viewed as
progressive – he is just common sense,” added
Wiking, referring to the left-wing US politician who
galvanized the Democrat primaries in the 2016
presidential election.
9 In Britain, figures from the Office for National
Statistics suggest people have become happier
in recent years. But the UN ranking places the
UK in a lowly 19th place, the same as 2017 but
behind Germany, Canada and Australia, although
ahead of France and Spain.
10 The UN report devotes a special chapter to why
the US, once towards the top of happiness table,
has slipped down the league despite having
among the highest income per capita. “America’s
subjective wellbeing is being systematically
undermined by three interrelated epidemic
diseases: obesity, substance abuse (especially
opioid addiction) and depression,” said Jeffrey
Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable
Development at Columbia University in New York
and one of the report’s authors.
11 Despite African countries getting the worst
happiness scores, one west African nation
has bucked the trend. Togo came bottom in
2015 but was the biggest improver in the 2018
report, rising 18 places. Latvians and Bulgarians
are also reporting higher levels of happiness.
Venezuela recorded the biggest fall in happiness,
outstripping even Syria, although in absolute
terms, it remains a mid-ranking country. The
report notes that Latin American countries
generally scored more highly than their GDP per
capita suggests, especially in contrast to fast-
growing east Asian countries.
12 Latin America is renowned for corruption, high
violence and crime rates, unequal distribution
of income, and widespread poverty, yet has
consistently scored relatively highly in the
happiness report. The authors attributed this
to “the abundance of family warmth and other
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Finland is the happiest country in the world
Level 3 l Advanced
supportive social relationships frequently
sidelined in favour of an emphasis on income
measures in the development discourse”.
13 Meanwhile, the greatest human migration in
history – the hundreds of millions of people who
have moved from the Chinese countryside into
cities – has not advanced happiness at all, the
report found. “Even seven-and-a-half years after
migrating to urban areas, migrants from rural
areas are on average less happy than they might
have been had they stayed at home,” according
to John Knight of the Oxford Chinese Economy
Programme at the University of Oxford and one
of the contributors to the UN report.
© Guardian News and Media 2018
First published in The Guardian, 14/03/18

4 Comprehension check
Choose the best answers according to the text.

1. In which position in the happiness ranking was the USA in 2016?

a. 5th
b. 13th
c. 18th

2. Why do people in Nordic countries support high taxes?

a. because they are rich so they can afford to pay high taxes
b. because they know that their taxes provide quality of life for everyone
c. because high taxes produce trustworthy police and sound banks

3. What reason is given for the USA’s lower position in the happiness rankings?
a. There have been epidemics of diseases there.
b. A lot of people there are overweight, depressed and addicted to drugs.
c. It has the highest income per capita in the world.

4. Why is Latin America’s relatively high position in the happiness rankings surprising?
a. because there is a strong emphasis on income there
b. because of family warmth and supportive social relationships
c. because the region is famous for corruption, crime and poverty
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NEWS LESSONS / Finland is the happiest country in the world / Advanced

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 Finland is the happiest country in the world
Level 3 l Advanced
5 Find the word
Find the following words and phrases in the text.
1. a two-word phrasal verb meaning try hard to understand a difficult idea or solve a difficult problem (para 1)
2. an adjective meaning badly affected (para 2)
3. a verb meaning jump (para 4)
4. a two-word adverb meaning based on calculations that show the average amount for each person affected
(para 7)
5. a three-word verb phrase meaning succeed in doing something even though there is a general tendency for
this not to happen (para 11)
6. a verb meaning do something better than someone else (para 11)
7. a verb meaning not include or involve in something (para 12)
8. a verb meaning help something progress and become more developed or successful (para 13)

6 Two-word phrases
Match the words in the left-hand column with those in the right-hand column to make phrases from
the text.

1. life a. rate
2. coup b. cleansing
3. substance c. attempt
4. social d. expectancy
5. crime e. support
6. ethnic f. abuse

7 Word-building
Fill the gaps in the sentences using the correct form of the word in brackets at the end of each sentence.

1. The Nordic countries had high scores in areas such as social support, life expectancy and
_______________________. [GENEROUS]
2. Latin America is renowned for _______________________ distribution of wealth. [EQUAL]
3. In China, _______________________ from rural areas are less happy in big cities. [MIGRATE]
4. Finland is regarded as the most socially _______________________ country. [PROGRESS]
5. The four Nordic countries and Switzerland have almost _______________________ scores. [CHANGE]
6. GDP in Finland is lower than in _______________________ Norway. [NEIGHBOUR]

8 Discussion
Discuss the statements.
• Money doesn’t make you happy.
• Taxes should be higher to pay for better social support.
• My country is the best in the world.
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NEWS LESSONS / Finland is the happiest country in the world / Advanced

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Finland is the happiest country in the world
Level 3 l Advanced
KEY

1 Warmer 5 Find the word

education; freedom; wealth; taxes; healthcare; family 1. grapple with

2. scarred
3. vault
2 Key words 4. per capita
5. buck the trend
1. decline 6. outstrip
2. obesity 7. sideline
3. bout 8. advance
4. ranking
5. perception
6. corruption 6 Two-word phrases
7. accolade
8. sound 1. d
9. galvanize 2. c
10. renowned 3. f
4. e
5. a
3 What do you know? 6. b

1. T
2. F 7 Word-building
3. F
4. F 1. generosity
5. T 2. unequal
6. F 3. migrants
4. progressive
5. interchangeable
4 Comprehension check 6. neighbouring

1. b
2. b
3. b
4. c
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NEWS LESSONS / Finland is the happiest country in the world / Advanced

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