Question

Laughter is a universal way to express joy. But as it turns out, your laughter reveals a lot more than the fact that you are happy. It enables listeners, even those that cannot observe you, immediately to realize if you are having a good time with a close friend or laughing politely with a complete stranger.

At least that is the conclusion reached by a team of scientists led by Greg Bryant, an associate professor of Communication Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. The researchers began by requesting participants from across the globe to send them audio clips(音频片段) of people laughing. The 48 tapes they received ranged from recent recordings of laughter between two college friends to ones from conversations that occurred a decade ago. The clips also had all possible combinations — interactions between friends, strangers, all-male groups, all-female groups, as well as a mix of both genders(性别).

The team then played the short recording, each lasting less than a second, to 966 people spread across 24 different cultures around the world. The listeners ranged from people living in remote areas to those living in some of the world’s most modern cities. To the team’s astonishment, despite the cultural and regional differences, the listeners were able to identify the difference in laughter between friends and strangers, 61% of the time.

The scientists, who published their findings in the Scientific Journal, say that the accuracy was even higher when it came to recordings of only women laughing. The researchers think that this is probably because women are more transparent in expressing their feelings than men.

Bryant says that the results of this cross-cultural examination show that people all over the world perceive laughter in similar ways. As Neuroscientist Carolyn McGettigan at the Royal Holloway University of London puts it, “A laugh among friends is a special sound, no matter where you live!”

1.What can we learn about Greg Bryant’s research?

A. It was based on tapes from 966 people.

B. Its findings were beyond the team’s expectations.

C. It proved that laughter is a universal way to express joy.

D. Most of his findings were published in the Scientific Journal.

2.Why did the listeners identify all-female laughing more accurately?

A. Women are sensitive to interesting things.

B. Women are less likely to hide their feelings.

C. Women prefer to express their joys by laughing.

D. Women are good at communicating with others.

3.What does the underlined word “perceive” probably mean?

A. Understand.    B. Receive.

C. Explain.    D. Spread.

Answer

1.B

2.B

3.A

【解析】本文是一篇说明文，布莱恩特团队通过收集来自不同关系的人之间的笑声，然后让来自不同地域、不同文化背景的人识别笑声，研究结果表面，尽管文化背景和地区有差异，但人们能够识别出朋友之间的笑声是特殊的。做题时，信息定位一定要准确，对于句子的理解建立在作者整篇文章的态度的基础上。

1.细节理解题，根据文章第三段“To the team’s astonishment, despite .....the listeners were able to identify the difference in laughter between friends and strangers, 61% of the time.”由此可知Greg Bryant的研究让团队感到不可思议，他们讲收集到的不同种类的笑声音频发送给不同区域、不同文化的人辨别，结果是他们能够辨别出与朋友之间和与陌生人之间的笑声差异。故选B。

2.细节理解题，根据第四段“he researchers think that this is probably because women are more transparent in expressing their feelings than men.”可知辨别女人的笑声结果更为准确，因为女人相对于男人来说更不容易隐藏自己的情感而开怀笑出来。故选B。

3.词义推断题，定位信息至第五段“Bryant says that the results of this cross-cultural examination show that people all over the world perceive laughter in similar ways.”布莱恩特认为研究结果表明全世界不同的人理解笑是没有差别的，

A laugh among friends is a special sound, no matter where you live，朋友之间的笑是一种特殊的声音，无论你生活在何方。所以这里的perceive意为understand.故选A.

【名师点睛】

词义理解题时阅读理解能力的重要指标，对词义的理解往往会影响到对全文的准确把握。词义理解题包括生词和熟词新义。

解题指导：

利用语境、常识和语法关系推断词义。2.利用词根词缀和合成词推断词义。例如第三小题需要推断perceive的含义，根据前缀“per”有“完全”的意思，比如我们学过的词汇perfect的意思是“完美的”，再看后缀“ceive”有“收到，接收”的意思，如学过的单词receive意为“接收”，那么组合在一起 perceive，可推测意思为“完全接收到、完全领会到”的意思，再结合文章句子，这里说全世界人不同的人理解笑的含义是无差别的。所以understand的最符合语境。