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I believe the immediate purpose of life is to live - to survive. All known forms of life go through life cycles. The basic plan is: birth - maturing - mating - reproducing - death. Thus the immediate purpose of human life is for each individual to fulfill his life cycle. This involves proper maturing into the fully developed adult of the specie. The pine tree grows straight unless harmful influences warp it. So does the human being. It is a finding of the greatest significance that the mature man and woman have the nature and characteristics of the good spouse and parent: the ability to enjoy responsible working and loving. If the world consisted primarily of mature persons - loving, responsible, productive, toward family, friends and the world - most of our human problems would beresolved（解决，决定）. But most people have suffered in childhood from influences which have warped their development. Hence, as adults they have not realized their full and proper nature. They feel something is wrong without knowing what it is. They feel inferior, frustrated, insecure, and anxious. And they react to these inner feelings just as any animal reacts to any hurt or threat: byreadiness（敏捷，迅速）to fight or to flee. Flight carries them into alcoholism and other mental disorders. Fightimpels（推动，驱使）them to crime, cruelty, war. This readiness to violence, this inhumanity of man to man, is the basic problem of human life - for, in the form of war, it now threatens toextinguish（熄灭，压制）us. | 
