We all have a tendency to fake laugh, particularly when authority figures in our lives try to make a joke that just doesn’t land. Though it might feel rude not to laugh when your in-laws or boss try to say something funny, pretending to do so might not be much better. It turns out, even if you think that your forced laughing sounds genuine, people are usually pretty good at separating truly spirited belly laughs from fake ones. But how can they possible know the difference?
Well, when researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles studied the acoustic and perceptual differences between real and fake laughter, they found that some of the sounds associated with genuine laughter is “really hard to fake.” In their study, the researchers determined that subjects were only fooled by 37 percent of fake laughter.
The most prominent factor distinguishing real laughter from fake laughter is duration -- or, more specifically, the number of breaths taken in in between sounds. Seeing as it takes more effort and concentration to fake a laugh as opposed to do it genuinely, people tend to pause more in between their “ha-ha’s” when they’re faking it. Evidently, that pausing is pretty noticeable.
“A fake laugh is basically an imitation of a real laugh, but produced with a slightly different set of vocal muscles controlled by a different part of our brain,” Greg Bryant, the lead UCLA researcher on the study, explained. “The result is that there are subtle features of the laugh that sound like speech, and ... people are unconsciously quite sensitive to them.”
People have also proven to be emotionally sensitive to laughter as well. “Our rains are very sensitive to the social and emotional significance of laughter,” said Carolyn McGettigan, a scientist at Royal Holloway, University of London.
McGettigan conducted a 2014 study that recorded participants’ brain responses as they listened to the same people produce genuine laughter by watching funny videos, as opposed to fake laughter. “During our study, when participants heard a laugh that was posed, they activated regions of the brain associated with mentalizing in an attempt to understand the other person’s emotional and mental state,” she said.
So, while we may understand that certain social situations sometimes require fake laughter, most of the time, our instincts and emotional intelligence are just too smart to buy into them.
According to McGettigan, that’s a good thing. “Evolutionarily speaking, it’s good to be able to detect if someone is authentically experiencing an emotion or if they’re not,” she said. “Because you don’t want to be fooled.”
1.What do researchers at the University of California want to find out in this study?
A.What is the difference between a fake laugh and a real one.
B.Which part of the brain controls the sound of our laughter.
C.Why do people need to fake laugh when they don’t want to.
D.How to laugh as genuinely as possible when you are faking it.
2.Your forced laughing is more noticeable than you think, mainly because_______.
A.you seem more concentrated when you laugh for real
B.you take more breaths when you try to fake a laugh
C.a fake laugh often happens after a sudden pause
D.a real laugh usually lasts longer than a fake one
3.Which of the following is true according to Greg Bryant?
A.Real laughter is not at all controllable by our brain.
B.People may notice fake laughter without knowing why.
C.People use the same set of muscles to laugh and to speak.
D.Faking laugh shares the same techniques as making speech.
4.What has Carolyn McGettigan’s 2014 study proven?
A.Certain social situations may require us to fake a laugh.
B.Evolution has enabled us to recognize other’s emotions.
C.By instincts, we are able to tell a person’s mental state.
D.We can sense other’s emotional state when they laugh.
Just when you thought you figured out Millennials (those who reached young adulthood around the year 2000), Generation Z is now entering the workforce. A massive 72.8 million individuals are included in this group born between the mid - 1990s and the early 2000s.
Are you ready?
While we have learned how to create a culture where Millennials can do well, what Generation Z needs can be quite different:
Millennials | Generation Z |
Don’t just work for a paycheck, they want a purpose. | Money and job security are their top motivators. They want to make a difference but surviving an developing are more important. |
They aren’t pursuing job satisfaction, they are pursuing their own development. | They want to gather rewarding experiences. Gen Z tend towards being impatient and often experience FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), so instant feedback and satisfaction are key. |
They don’t want bosses, they want coaches. | They want to be guided in an environment where they can advance quickly. They want to look their leaders in the eye and experience honesty and transparency. |
They don’t want annual reviews, they want ongoing conversations. | They don’t want an annual work assessment, they want to be advised and given feedback on an ongoing frequent (daily) basis. |
They don’t want to fix their weaknesses, they want to develop their strengths. | They believe that there are winners and losers - and more people fall into the losing category. They want to have the tools to win, either through developing weaknesses or strengths. |
They have a cooperative way of thinking where everyone joins in and works together. | 72% of Gen Z said they are competitive with doing the same job. They are independent and want to be judged on their own value and showcase their individual talents. |
It’s not just their job, it’s their life. | Salary and benefits and how they can advance are central. They are a DIY generation and they feel that other generations have over complicated the workplace. |
1.According to the passage, Millennials and Gen Z share the same point of view on _______.
A.job satisfaction B.work assessment
C.weaknesses and strengths D.salary and benefits
2.Which of the following is true of Gen Z’s way of thinking?
A.They prefer to be team leaders, not members.
B.They enjoy working together with others.
C.They don’t want to cooperate, they compete.
D.They have talents and don’t want to be judged.
3.Who among the following are most probably the target readers of this passage?
A.Millennials. B.Generation Z.
C.Recruiters. D.FOMO patients.
When we say that residents in the Chicago suburb of North Riverside, Illinois, “wrote the book” on how to be good neighbors, we are not exaggerating. The residents of North Riverside really did write a book on neighborliness that has helped make their town a remarkable place.
Neighbors All: Creating Community One Block at a Time is a 65 - page manual filled with friendly suggestions and inspiring stories, all designed to build “family bonds” among neighbors. Every household gets a copy, delivered by a volunteer “block captain” tasked with welcoming new arrivals, helping seniors, making sure kids play nice, and more. It’s a big job, but the 90 captains across the town of 6,700 don’t do it alone. They are organized by their own captain, Caro Saple, and the neighborhood Services Committee, which appoints leaders of all ages, including a team of school - age “angels”.
If all this seems somewhat bureaucratic（宫僚制度的）, in practice Neighbors All has very much lived up to its title. One captain got to chatting with an elder couple who revealed that they couldn’t afford to replace their broken stove. Before long, the Neighborhood Services Committee had collected enough money to buy them a new one.
Another resident, a woman from Poland, told her captain that she was having trouble sorting out the paperwork to get her citizenship. The captain told the committee, which told the mayor, who got the help of their local congressperson, and soon the woman’s paperwork was all in order.
“ I have been in North Riverside over 34 years and am very proud of the small-town caring the community demonstrates every day,” said Vera Jandacek Wilt. “Waters rising in the river, ready to flood nearby homes? Residents and officials are filling sandbags to hold back the floods. Lonely seniors have not stepped out of the house? A block captain shows up to invite them to a block party. This community truly looks out for one another.”
Does all this mean that North Riverside is perfect? No -- neighbors still quarrel. Kids still fight. But the community spirit that is part of North Riverside’s DNA appears all over town.
1.In paragraph 1, the phrase “wrote the book” is closest in meaning to _______.
A.showed expertise B.learned a lesson
C.put down in writing D.revealed secrets
2.Which of the following is true of the book Neighbors All?
A.It includes inspiring stories written by Caro Saple.
B.It gives advice and instructions on how to be nice.
C.It is a historical record of the North Riverside.
D.It is for the Neighborhood Services Committee.
3.What among the following are the responsibilities of a block captain?
(1) Spreading copies of the book Neighbors All;
(2) Appointing school - age kids as volunteer “angels”;
(3) visiting and accompanying lonely seniors.
A.(1) and (2) B.(2) and (3)
C.(1) and (3) D.All of above
4.According to the passage, Vera Jandacek Wilt felt really proud of _______.
A.the neighborliness in North Riverside
B.the block parties for senior residents
C.living in a perfectly safe community
D.becoming a captain for those in need
In the food industry, it seems, the robot revolution is well underway, with machines mastering skilled tasks that have always been performed by people.
In Boston, robots have displaced _______ and are creating complex bowls of food for customers. In Prague, machines are _______ waiters and servers using an app. In Denver, they’re taking orders. Robots are even making the perfect loaf of bread these days, taking charge of a(n) _______that has remained in human hands for thousands of years.
Now comes Briggo, a company that has created a fully _______, robotic coffee machine that can push out 100 cups of coffee in a single hour -- equaling the _______ of three to four baristas（咖啡师）, according to the company.
Using a mix of Latin American beans, the machine creates _______ cups of coffee that can be ordered via an app, giving customers control over ingredients, flavorings and temperature without any human interaction. The company says no other business in the world has applied as much _______ to “specialty coffee.”
Removing the _______ element from ordering a cup of coffee is one of the company’s primary selling points. “No more lines, no more counter confusion, no more misspelled names,” Briggo’s website says.
Kevin Nater, Briggo’s president and chief executive, said the machine would best fit locations in which _______ is highly valued, like airports and office buildings, where several of the machines currently operate.
“Imagine you’re coming into the security line at the airport, your flight is coming up, and you know that if you want a coffee you’re going to stand in a long line,” said Nater. “From the security line, you can simply order your cup of coffee and pick it up at the coffee haus and make it to your flight ________.”
“I’ve never found anyone who wants to stand in line a long time,” he added. “We’ve just changed the ________.”
But Olive Geib, a 24-year-old barista in Annapolis, Md., remained ________. As coffee is being made by a barista, he said, subtly（细微地）adjusting the ratio of water to coffee bean as flavor develops through refined taste tests, is a crucial part of the process. “All the numbers and data in the world can’t actually tell you how the coffee ________,” Geib said.
Asked whether he was worried about losing his job to a robot, Gerb said, “absolutely not.” He said there’s a ________ group of people who will always seek out the slower, interactive experiences at coffee shops.
“A lot of customers really appreciate watching a barista carefully pouring water or steaming the milk,” he added. “This ________ aspect, the atmosphere and the interaction with the barista, is a big part of the experience of drinking coffee.”
1.A.waitresses B.baristas C.cooks D.machines
2.A.replacing B.recruiting C.restoring D.resisting
3.A.room B.art C.school D.oven
4.A.typical B.inaccessible C.challenging D.automatic
5.A.quality B.output C.time D.cost
6.A.sugar-free B.fruit-flavored C.customized D.professional
7.A.inspiration B.technology C.correction D.strictness
8.A.safety B.stress C.human D.design
9.A.service B.preparation C.reliability D.convenience
10.A.on time B.for real C.in advance D.without notice
11.A.game B.price C.fact D.myth
12.A.nervous B.sad C.annoyed D.doubtful
13.A.looks B.changes C.sells D.tastes
14.A.distinguished B.difficult C.loyal D.lazy
15.A.cultural B.social C.skillful D.mindful
Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
May Day in India
Each May 1, workers in India join others around the world to mark May Day, depending on local customs.
It’s quite appropriate that India celebrates with an official holiday in some of its 29 states and seven union territories. After all, the country has an 1. (estimate) 522 million workers, more than the entire population of the United States.
Here’s a Q&A on May Day in general:
Isn’t May Day about dancing around a pole?
You are correct — dancing is involved. That’s because “May Day” actually does double duty, celebrating two different things.
May Day originally started out as a celebration with roots in roman traditions. By the Middle Ages, May Day also 2. (involve) the maypole, which is made of wood and covered with decorations. Those are held by dancers 3. circle around the pole.
That 4. be the May Day you remember from your childhood, and that’s one of the two ways May Day is celebrated.
What does that have to do with workers?
This is where May Day’s double duty comes in.
In May 1886, US activists organized a national strike 5. (seek) an eight-hour workday. In Chicago’s Haymarket Square, the protest turned violent with around 11 to 15 deaths 6. police and participants.
7. (honor) the workers in the Haymarket disturbance, the International Socialist Conference declared May 1 would be a day labeled for labor, to be called International Workers’ Day. The holiday 8. (establish) at a meeting in 1889 and eventually spread to many parts of the world.
And that’s 9. maypoles, labor parades and protests are all part of May 1.
So where does India fit in with all of this?
India’s first Labor Day was celebrated in 1923 in Madras, now called Chennai. Over time, the holiday spread to other parts of the country.
According to Hindu.com, organizations and trade unions arrange parades and “children enter contests 10. they can understand the importance of fairness for workers.”
假定你是李华，学校英语俱乐部负责人。俱乐部计划举行经典英文电影赏析会( Classical English Film Night)，请你给美籍外教Liz写一封电子邮件邀请她参加。内容包括：
1．赏析会时间、地点；
2．活动内容介绍；
3．邀请Liz并请她推荐电影。
注意：1.词数100左右；
2.可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
