Part1
One of the most important human emotions is love.
However, there are many different kinds of love.
Romantic love is certainly one of the most interesting kinds of love.
It can be beautiful, wonderful and heart-breaking, sometimes all at the same time.
Romantic love can make our lives full and meaningful, but it can also be an escape from loneliness and suffering.
Other kinds of love include the love between a parent and child.
If romantic love has a purpose, neither psychology nor biology has discovered it.
However, throughout history, philosophers have offered opinions about it.
The Greek philosopher, Plato, said love makes us complete.
He relates a comic（n.漫画;喜剧演员;(尤指儿童看的)连环画杂志;(报刊上的)连环漫画栏adj.滑稽的;喜剧的;使人发笑的） story in which humans originally had four arms, four legs, and two faces.
Then when they angered the gods, they were cut in half.
Since then every person has been searching for their soul mate, the other half of his or her self.
Another philosopher(哲学家) believes that love is an illusion([ɪˈluːʒn] 幻觉、错觉、幻想).
In his view, people fall in love because they believe the other person can make them happy.
But in fact, this is just an illusion designed to make us have children.
Once we have children, we are right back to where we were, still searching for happiness.
For nature this is a success, because we have children to maintain(维持、保持、维修、保养) our species.
But it leaves us still searching for something more.
Some people say love can be a disguise(Vt./n. 假扮;装扮;) for our sexual desires or a biological trick(v./n.把戏、欺骗) to make us have children.
If something is an illusion, it isn’t what it seems to be.
In Buddhism, romantic love is seen as an attempt to(企图) satisfy our desires.
These desires are a defect(vi./n 背叛、缺点), something we need to overcome.
The way to free ourselves from suffering is to remove desires.
Once free of desires we can reach a state of peace and wisdom（智慧）.
This state of being is called Niwana.
Part2
In one of the China’s greatest classical novels, Dream of the Red Chamber（红楼梦）, love is present as a state of foolishness（爱是一种愚蠢的状态）.
A young man falls in love with a beautiful woman who tricks and makes a fool of him.
This results confluent（adj./n 汇合的/支流/溪流） emotions of love in hate, which tear him apart.
To cure him, a priest（[priːst] 牧师，僧侣（文中应该是道士）； v.使成为教士） gives him a magic mirror.
The priest tells him to look into the reverse side of the mirror, but never to look in the front side.
When the young man looks into the mirror, he doesn’t like what he sees, so he looks into the forbidden side, the front side.
There he sees the lovely image of his love, who invites him to the mirror, to be with her.
He does this several times, until he is finally dragged away in chains.
He dies while looking into the mirror.
Perhaps the point of the story is that all such attachments should be avoided.
He is dragged away in chains and dies while looking into the mirror.
He enters the mirror to be with his love and satisfy his desires.
A famous France writer, Simone de Beauvoir has another point of view.
For her, love is the desire to integrate(v.整合;(使)合并，成为一体;(使)加入，融入群体;adj.完全的) with another, like in a great friendship.
However, it is important that love is not becoming too dependent on the other person.
Becoming dependent on the other person can lead to boredom(厌倦) or power games.
Lovers should support each other in discovering themselves and developing their potentials（n.可能性;潜在性;潜力;潜质;电位;电势;电压）.
In this way, romantic love can enrich the world.
Falling in love can be exciting and frightening.
Maybe we lose ourselves and maybe we find ourselves. Will you dare（胆敢） to find out?
