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What makes us laugh?
Why do we laugh? Well it’s funny you should ask, but this question is a very interesting one to investigate. For what at first seems like a simple question turns out to require a surprisingly complex answer –– one that takes us on a journey into the very heart of trying to understand human nature.
Most people would guess that we laugh because something is funny. But if you watch when people actually laugh, you’ll find this isn’t the case. Laughter expert Robert Provine spent hours recording real conversations at shopping malls, classrooms, offices and cocktail parties, and he found that most laughter did not follow what looked like jokes. People laughed at the end of normal sentences, in response to unfunny comments or questions such as “Look, it’s Andre”, or “Are you sure?”. Even attempts at humor that provoked laughter didn’t sound that funny.
So if we want to understand laughter, perhaps we need to go deeper, and look at what is going on in the brain. The areas that control laughing lie deep in the sub cortex(下皮层), and in terms of evolutionary development these parts of the brain are ancient, responsible for primal(原始) behaviors such as breathing and basic reflexes(反射). This means laughter control mechanisms are located a long way away from brain regions that developed later and control higher functions such as language or even memory.
Perhaps this explains why it is so hard to control a laugh, even if we know it is inappropriate. Once a laugh is started deep within our brains these “higher function” brain regions have trouble interfering. And the opposite is true, of course. It is difficult to laugh on demand. If you consciously make yourself laugh it will not sound like the real thing – at least initially.
But this does not fully answer the original question. To answer this, perhaps we need to look outwards, to look at the social factors at play when people laugh. Provine’s study suggests that it isn’t just some independent process that happens to us while we are talking to someone. He also found that laughter was most common in situations of emotional warmth and so-called “in-groupness”.
Perhaps “transmission” is another most important feature of laughter. Just listening to someone laugh is funny. You can even catch laughter from yourself. Start with a forced laugh and if you keep it up you will soon find yourself laughing for real.
What these observations show is that laughter is both fundamentally social, and rooted deep within our brains, part and parcel of ancient brain structures. All these things are true. And biologists say each time we get closer to an answer for a fundamental question, it deepens our appreciation of the challenge remaining to answer the others. And there is a long way to go.
What makes us laugh? | ||
Introduction | Studying laugh is closely 1.to understanding human nature. | |
2. | ●The popular 3.is not true that we laugh because something is funny. ●The study of real conversations reveals that laughter didn’t 4. follow funny comments. | |
Causes | Inside | ● Ancient areas 5.for primal behaviors control laughing. ● “Higher function” regions can’t 6.with laughing. |
7. | ● Situations of emotional warmth and in-groupness give 8.to laughing. ●Laughter can be 9., which is another most important feature. | |
Conclusion | The origin of laugh is associated with both brain structures and 10.factors. |
In five minutes Buck had made fourteen hundred dollars for Thornton and his friends. The money made it possible for them to travel east, where they wanted to look for a lost gold mine. Men said that this mine had more gold than any other mine in the north. Many had looked for it, and some had died looking for it. The only men who knew where it was were now dead.
Thornton, Pete and Hans, with Buck and six other dogs, started off to the east in the spring. They travelled up the Stewart River and crossed the Mackenzie Mountains. They did not move quickly；The weather was good, and the men shot animals for food when they needed it. Sometimes they travelled for a week, and sometimes they stopped for a week and searched for gold in the ground. Sometimes they were hungry, and sometimes they had lots of food. They spent all the summer in the mountains, carrying everything they needed on their backs, sometimes making boats to go down rivers or across lakes.
In the autumn they came to a strange, flat country, with many lakes. They travelled on through the winter and met nobody, but once they found an old wooden house, with an old gun in it.
When the spring came, they found, not the lost mine, but a lake in a wide valley. Through the shallow water the gold showed like yellow butter, and here their search ended. There was gold worth thousands of dollars in the lake, and they worked every day, filling bag after bag with gold.
The dogs had nothing to do except watch the men and eat the food which the men shot for them. Buck spent many evenings sitting by the fire.
As he sat, he saw again his dream world, where the strange hairy man sat next to him. He also heard something calling him into the forest. Sometimes, in the middle of the day, he lifted his head and listened, and then ran off into the forest.
One night he woke up and heard the call again, a long howl. He ran into the forest, following the sound, and came to an open place in the trees. And there, his nose pointing to the sky, sat a wolf.
The wolf stopped howling and Buck walked slowly towards him. The wolf ran, and Buck followed. After a time, the wolf stopped and waited, watching Buck, ready to attack. But Buck did not want to fight, and soon the wolf realized this, and the two animals became friendly. Then the wolf started to run again, and he clearly wanted Buck to follow him. They ran for hours through the forest, and Buck remembered again his dream world where he, and others like him, had run through a much older forest.
Then they stopped to drink, and Buck remembered John Thornton. He turned and started to run back. The wolf followed him, then stopped and howled, but Buck ran on and did not turn.
Thornton was eating dinner when Buck returned. Buck jumped all over him, and for two days never left his side. He followed him everywhere, watching him while he ate and while he slept. But after two days the call of the wild came again, and he remembered the forest and the wolf who had run beside him.
He started to sleep out in the forest at night, sometimes staying out for three or four days. Once he was away for a week, fishing and killing animals for food. He ate well, and he grew stronger and quicker and more alive. His golden brown coat shone with health as he ran through the forest, learning its every secret, every smell, and every sound.
“He's the finest dog that I've ever seen,” said Thornton to his friends one day as they watched Buck walking out of camp. “There’11 never be another dog like him,” said Pete.
They saw him walking out of camp but they didn't see the change that happened when he was inside the forest. At once he became a thing of the wild, stepping softly and silently, a passing shadow among the trees.
1.How long did it take them to find gold?
A.About a year. B.About two years.
C.About six months. D.About three months.
2.What is the best title of this chapter?
A.The call of the wild.
B.The wolf in the forest.
C.The dog’s dream world
D.The lost gold mine.
3.This excerpt is a part of______?
A.a documentary novel.
B.a biography.
C.a fiction.
D.a news report.
4.In this excerpt(节选)we can clearly see that the author is good at______?
A.describing mental activities.
B.visualizing vivid scenes.
C.doing psychological analysis.
D.expressing personal belief.
5.What can we infer from the last four paragraphs?
A.Thornton and Pete noticed the change in Buck.
B.Thornton and Pete thought Buck was the best dog.
C.Buck became more and more obedient.
D.The wild life made Buck become stronger.
6.Which of the following about Buck is right?
A.Buck's hidden wildness was slowly awakened.
B.Buck liked to fight with the wolf in the forest.
C.Thornton and Pete didn't treat Buck well at all.
D.Buck didn't make any money for Thornton and his friends.
My whole career is about clothes – but I have no interest in fashion. What I love doing with clothes is using them to tell a story. That’s what costume design is all about. I wasn’t one of those little girls always dressing up dolls. My parents were musicians, so there was never any money, but our household was artistic.
As a child in the 1950s there was no TV, so we drew, painted and made things out of cardboard boxes. My parents encouraged me and my younger sister to be creative – making a mess was fine, and we were even allowed to draw on one of the walls at our home in Kensington, west London. After school I studied at Central Saint Martins School of Art, where I learned how to draw patterns and cut fabric. Back then it was set design, not costumes, that most interested me.
Thanks to a childhood friend, Nick Young, I was offered some unpaid work on early Merchant Ivory film productions. For a 1978 movie called Hullabaloo Over Georgie And Bonnie’s Pictures, I was asked to put together clothes for its star, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, to wear in India. After a meeting with her, Peggy took me aside. ‘My dear, we’re getting on quite well,’ she said. ‘They’ve given me a first-class ticket to India, now if I change it for two economy flights, will you come with me?’ Of course I said yes! No question.
It was before The Jewel In The Crown and A Passage To India, and Peggy had never been to India. At 70, she was a little nervous, but great fun. We shared a room and I looked after her in every possible way. At night we sat up in our little beds, having a brandy or whisky and discussing our day. After the shoot we went on holiday to Goa together. Peggy rode around on the back of my motorbike!
I became part of the Merchant Ivory team and went on to work on many other period films, including 1996’s Sense And Sensibility. I’ve known Emma Thompson for 30 years and she’s hilarious and wonderful.
I had won an Oscar before, in 1987 for A Room With A View, and have been nominated a further eight times. I keep my Oscars on a desk that belonged to my mother in my study, so they are very much on display but off the beaten track. Not in the living room and certainly not in the downstairs loo!
For a career I somehow fell into, it’s provided me with a wonderful life, really.
1.Why did Peggy and the author make friends with each other?
A.They were of the same age. B.They worked in the same theater.
C.They were both good actors. D.They got along very well.
2.Which of the following works’ location was not mentioned?
A.The Jewel In The Crown.
B.A Room With A View.
C.Hullabaloo Over Georgie And Bonnie’s Pictures.
D.A Passage To India.
3.Why did the author mention her parents when she was a child?
A.To show she was not talented in designing clothes.
B.To amuse the readers with a funny story.
C.To show her parents inspired her creativity.
D.To share a precious memory in her childhood.
4.Which of the following best describes the author as a designer?
A.Ambitious B.Dedicated
C.Caring D.Demanding
Researchers from Pennsylvania University suggest that loud snoring can be caused by having a fat tongue. Scientists have long known that losing weight can help the condition, but now they know why. It explains why losing weight reduces the risk of obstructive sleep apnoea (阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停).
Improved symptoms are linked to slimming down the unexpected part of the body - opening the door to better treatments. Professor Richard Schwab, chief of sleep medicine at Pennsylvania University, said: "Most clinicians, and even experts in the sleep apnoea world, have not typically focused on fat in the tongue for treating sleep apnoea."Having a large neck was previously believed to be the culprit(引起问题的事物). Prof Schwab said: "Now we know tongue fat is a risk factor and sleep apnoea improves when tongue fat is reduced, we have established a unique therapeutic target that we've never had before.
In sleep apnoea the airways become blocked - leading to snoring . It blights the lives of four and two percent of middle aged men and women, respectively, in the UK. Long term, sleep apnoea is linked with a number of chronic diseases, including high blood pressure , heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and depression.
Analyzing MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans of the throat and nose of obese patients, the researchers found reducing tongue fat is the key. They found that a reduction in tongue fat volume was the key factor. Weight loss also resulted in a smaller pterygoid - the jaw muscle that controls chewing. This is irrespective of whether they appear to fall into the typical "high-risk" obese categories, said Prof Schwab.
He added: "Primary care doctors, and perhaps even dentists, should be asking about snoring and sleepiness in all patients, even those who have a normal body mass index, as, based on our data, they may also be at risk for sleep apnoea."
Twenty-two million Americans suffer from sleep apnoea, in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts, causing patients to wake up randomly throughout their sleep cycles. One of the recommended treatments is CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), which has been free on the NHS since March 2008.
1.What can we learn from Prof Schwab?
A.People with high tongue fat must be at high risk of obesity.
B.Sleep apnea improves when tongue fat is reduced.
C.Patients with a normal body mass index won’t develop sleep apnea.
D.Most clinicians focus on the fat on the tongue to treat sleep apnea.
2.What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?
A.The shape of tongue fat.
B.The harm of tongue fat.
C.The feature of tongue fat.
D.The cause of tongue fat.
3.What does the underlined word “blight” in the third paragraph most probably mean?
A.harm B.affect
C.benefit D.cost
Back in November, we did a study that found (surprise) that Babbel ranks as one of the most efficient ways to learn a language. The independent study was conducted by researchers at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of South Carolina, and evaluated the overall efficacy（功效） of Babbel Spanish courses, examining the progress of 391 randomly selected learners and assessing participants’ knowledge of Spanish at the beginning
STUDY FINDING #1: “Truly novice users（初学者） with no knowledge of Spanish need on average 15 hours of study in a two-month period to cover the requirements for one college semester of Spanish.”
STUDY FINDING #2: “The average study time for the final study sample was about 19 hours, or a little over two hours a week.”
STUDY FINDING #3: “The Babbel app works similarly well for people with different gender, age, native language, education, employment status, etc.”
Learning a language is about speaking a language, and with the help of Babbel, our novice challenge participants were able to start having conversations in just three weeks’ time, proving that Babbel is, indeed, the shortest path to a real-life conversation.
1.How does the writer recommend Babbel to readers?
A.By listing research findings.
B.By introducing some of its contents.
C.By telling stories at the beginning.
D.By comparing it with other apps.
2.What is the purpose of the last paragraph of the text?
A.To introduce Babbel .
B.To appreciate Babbel.
C.To advertise Babbel.
D.To analyze Babbel.
I’m from California, where I have the honor of serving as an ocean lifeguard. The ocean is _______ for its massive currents. If you want to _______ lives, that’s where you work.
One day, I was working in _______ Fifteen. Mike, working in Seventeen, _______ me over the phone and said, “Hey, I got a couple kids and got to give them a(n) _______. Keep an eye on us.” _______ you get out of your tower, you should let somebody else know, _______ a situation develops. As soon as he grasped his buoy (救生圈), a current was snapped under these two kids, and they were getting _______ into the currents. Mike saw it before it happened, and he ran toward the ocean. I _______ the water with my binoculars (双筒望远镜). ________, the mother of the kids had realized what was happening. She was on her ________ and screamed. Mike told me later that he got the boy first, and when he turned to the girl, he had to ________ down into the water and catch her by the hair to ________ her back. When I reached their mother, Mike was in waist-deep water. These kids were so exhausted, so Mike got one under each arm.
I saw the ________ start to drain out of the kids’ mother. Then she got her first look at Mike, I saw a new kind of panic ________ over her as though there was some new, equally dangerous ________ to her kids’ lives. She rushed up to Mike, ________ her kids and left the beach without a thank you.
Mike had a rough upbringing, and his shaved head showed the ________ he got from a broken bear bottle. Although he lacks something, he ________ it with lifesaving ability. As I jogged back, I promised I’d never let my own fear or ________ prevent me recognizing a hero when I see one.
1.A.mysterious B.known C.endless D.sacred
2.A.save B.enrich C.find D.cultivate
3.A.tower B.house C.office D.place
4.A.addressed B.emailed C.faxed D.called
5.A.explanation B.caption C.warning D.notice
6.A.Anytime B.Unless C.Anywhere D.While
7.A.as if B.in case C.even though D.or else
8.A.drowned B.pressed C.sucked D.wrapped
9.A.identified B.noticed C.detected D.scanned
10.A.On occasion B.At present C.Until then D.By now
11.A.legs B.feet C.shoes D.back
12.A.bend B.lay C.fall D.reach
13.A.pull B.push C.hug D.scratch
14.A.excitement B.terror C.calmness D.pain
15.A.get B.knock C.wash D.turn
16.A.threat B.challenge C.suffering D.struggle
17.A.protected B.scolded C.comforted D.grasped
18.A.stain B.scar C.wound D.injury
19.A.makes up for B.stands up for C.catches up with D.puts up with
20.A.conservation B.injustice C.prejudice D.definition
