题目内容
Dr Wiseman started “ the laugh lab” project in September 2001. It is the largest study of humor. Participants (参加者) are invited to log on the laugh lab website, give a few personal details, tell their favorite jokes and judge the jokes told by other people.
The project will last for a year, and the organizers hope to finally discover the world’s funniest joke. But there is also a serious purpose. The researchers want to know what people from different nations and cultures find funny. And they want to find out the differences between the male and female sense of humor. The idea is that if we want to understand each other , we have to find out what makes us laugh.
This is a subject that has long held the attention of psychologists (心理学家) and philosophers(哲学家). Most of the time, people are not completely honest. We do things that society expects of us and say things that help us get what we want. But laughing cannot be controlled. When we laugh, we tell the truth about ourselves.
By December 2001 over 10, 000 jokes had been submitted. This gave the scientists enough evidence (证据) to make early conclusions. It seems that men and women do have different senses of humor, for instance.
“Our findings show the major differences in the ways in which males and females use humor,” said Dr Wiseman. “Males use humor to appear superior (优越) to others, while women are more skilled in languages and prefer word play.”
Researchers also found that there really is such a thing as a national sense of humor. The British enjoy what is usually called “toilet humor”. But the French like their jokes short and sharp: “You’re a high priced lawyer. Will you answer two questions for $ 500?” “Yes. What’s the second question?”
The Germans are famous for not having a sense of humor. But the survey found that German participants were more likely to find submitted jokes funny than any other nationality . Perhaps that proves the point: Is this joke funny? I don’t know, but let’s say yes, just to be safe.
Dr Wiseman and his workmates also submitted jokes created by computer. But none of those who took part in the survey found any of them amusing. Perhaps this is relief. Computers already seem like they can do everything. At least they should leave the funny thing to us.
64. We can infer from the passage that____.
A. most of the people all over the world are completely honest
B. psychologists and philosophers take interest in “the laugh lab” project
C. people tell the truth about themselves only when they laugh
D. ordinary people are not interested in “the laugh lab” project at all
65. The writer gave the examples of the British, the French and the Germans to ____.
A. show that the French people have a better sense of humor
B. show people from different nations have different sense of humor
C. prove that the Germans have no sense of humor
D. prove the British people have a sense of “toilet humor”
66. What is the main idea of the 4th and 5th paragraphs?
A. About 10,000 jokes have been submitted from September 2001 to December 2001.
B. Scientists have collected enough evidence to make conclusions.
C. Man and woman have different senses of humor.
D. Male and female have similar senses of humor.
BB C
名师金手指领衔课时系列答案If you lose your wallet, how often do you think someone will be kind enough to return it to you, with cash and credit cards?
Some people may be greedy, and others are simply too lazy to bother(打搅) with the trip to the post office to send back a wallet to a stranger. But according to a psychology study by Dr. Richard Wiseman, there’s one thing that’ll greatly increase your odds of being reunited with a lost wallet: a photograph of a cute baby.
In the study, hundreds of wallets were scattered(分散) around the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland. The psychologists wanted to see how many strangers would take the trouble to return them to the addresses listed on the drivers’ licenses inside—but more than that, they wanted to find out what would make a person more likely to help out a stranger.
To finish this, they included personal things in most of the wallets: some included a photo of a happy elderly couple, some contained a cute puppy, some contained a family portrait, and some held a photo of a lovely baby. Others had receipts(发票) showing that the wallet’s owner had recently donated to a charity（慈善）. Some contained no personal details.
As the psychologists soon discovered, the sight of a smiling baby is enough to warm nearly any heart: only one in ten of the strangers who retrieved such wallets did not return them. In contrast, the second most successful image, the puppy, had a 53% return rate. When the wallet included no photograph, it stood only a one in seven chance of being returned to the owner.
The success of the baby photograph shows a human compassion(同情) for the young that’s been passed down through the ages, according to Dr. Wiseman. “The baby kicked off a caring feeling in people, which is not surprising from an evolutionary perspective(进化的角度),” he told the Times.
To ensure our species’ survival, scientists think that we must feel empathy and compassion for our young. Scientists say that this study supports the argument that we won’t feel compassion only for our own babies, but for any that we see—hence, the strong desire a stranger would feel to return a wallet to the baby’s parent.
On a more basic level, the study also provides a great tip to help ensure that if your wallet is ever lost, you’re more likely to get it back. “If you want to increase the chances of your wallet being returned if lost, gain a photograph of the cutest baby you can find and ensure that it is clearly displayed,” said Dr. Wiseman.
【小题1】The main purpose of the psychologists’ leaving hundreds of wallets around was to find out________.
| A．whether people were as honest as before |
| B．what made people willing to help strangers |
| C．what kind of feelings could be caused by a smiling baby |
| D．how evolution influenced human beings |
| A．picked up | B．spread out | C．found out | D．looked for |
| A．Because the wallet was not attractive enough to keep. |
| B．Because the sight of a baby could cause a caring feeling in them. |
| C．Because they were curious to know the parents of the baby |
| D．Because the sight of a cute baby reminded them of their own children. |
| A．Only 3. | B．About 15. | C．20 or so. | D．About 27. |
| A．humans usually have compassion for the young |
| B．the caring feeling in people is gone during evolution |
| C．scientists believed that people only feel compassion for their own babies |
| D．a wallet with a cute baby’s picture in it cannot be lost |