Dr Wiseman started “the laugh lab” project in September 2001. It is the largest study of humour. Participants are invited to log on  to 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 researches 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 interested psychologists and philosophers. Most of the time, people are not completely honest. We do things that society expects us to 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(提交). This gave the scientists enough evidence 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(优越的) 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 stuff to us.

1.Scientist started “the laugh lab” project ____________

   A．to find the funniest joke in European countries

   B．to know what funny people are from different nations and cultures

   C．to find out the differences between the male and female sense of humor

   D．to get more personal details about participants

2.What is the main idea of the 4 th and 5 th paragraph?

    A．Man and woman have different senses of humour.

    B．Male and female have similar senses of humour.

    C．About 10,000 jokes have been submitted from September 2001 to December 2001.

    D．Scientists have collected enough evidence to make conclusions.

3.The writer gave the examples of the British, the French and the Germans        .

    A．to show that French people have a better sense of humour

    B．to prove the British people have a sense of “toilet humour”

    C．to show people from different nations have different senses of humour

    D．to prove that the Germans have no sense of humour

4.Which statement is TRUE according to the passage?

   A．The jokes by computer are less funny than those by humans

   B．The Germans cannot find the submitted jokes amusing

   C．Males are better at word play compared with women

   D．Females like to use humor to show that they are superior

There is probably no field of human activity in which our values and lifestyles are shown more clearly and strongly than they are in the clothes that we choose to wear．The dress of an individual is a kind of “sign language” that communicates a set of information and is usually the basis on which immediate impressions are formed．Traditionally, a concern for clothes was considered to be an affair of females，while men took pride in the fact that they were completely lacking clothes consciousness．

   This type of American culture is gradually changing as man’s dress takes on greater variety  and color．Even as early as 1955，a research in Michigan said that men considered that the value of clothing in daily life was very important．White—collar workers in particular viewed dress as a symbol of ability，which could be used to impress or influence others，especially in the work situation．The white-collar worker was described as extremely concerned about the impression his clothing made on his boss．Although blue-collar workers were less aware that they might be judged on the basis of their clothing，they recognized that any difference from the accepted pattern of  dress would be made fun of by fellow workers．

   Since that time，of course，the patterns have changed，the typical white-collar worker may now be wearing the blue shirt，while the blue-collar may be wearing a white shirt，but the importance of dress has not become less. Other researchers in recent years have helped to prove its importance in the lives of individuals at various age levels and in different social and economic status groups.

1.The passage tells us that       .

  A．our values and lifestyles are in no field of human activity

  B．the clothes that we choose to wear have something to do with our values and lifestyles

 C．our values and lifestyles are from the sign language

  D．the clothes we choose to wear depend on a set of information and immediate impression

2.Traditionally，people usually thought that       .

  A．men cared very much for clothes

  B．neither men nor women showed interest in clothes

  C．both men and women paid great attention to their clothes

  D．women concerned greatly about what they wore while men didn’t

3.White-collar workers pay great attention to their clothes because       ．

  A．they extremely concern about the impression their clothes make on their bosses

  B．they know that people might judge them on the basis of their clothes

  C．they want to impress and influence others

  D．they don’t want to be laughed at

4.What does the underlined word“status”in the last paragraph mean？

  A．雕塑        B.身份        C.状况         D.资格

For centuries people dreamed of going into space. This dream began to seem possible when high-flying rockets were built in the early 1900s.

In 1903 a Russian teacher named Konstantin Tsiolkovsky figured out how to use rockets for space travel. His plan was the first one in rocket science to use correct scientific calculation. About 30 years later, a U.S. scientist named Robert Goddard built the first rockets that could reach high altitudes. During World War II, German scientists built large rockets that could travel very far and carry dangerous explosives. After the war, scientists from Germany went to the United States and the Soviet Union to help those countries build space rockets.

These two countries were soon racing to get to space first. Each of these countries wanted to prove that it was stronger and more advanced than the other one. Both countries also had powerful bombs. People in the United States were worried when the Soviets were first to launch a space satellite, which was called Sputnik. The Soviets were also first to send a person into space. Yury Gagarin orbited the earth in the Vostok I spaceship in 1961.

The US government set a goal for its space program to be the first country to put a person on the Moon. The U.S. space program built a series of Apollo spaceship. These vehicles were powered by huge Saturn 5 rockets. In 1969 Apollo II took three men to the moon successfully. Nell Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon.

The Soviets may have lost the race to fly people to the Moon, but they built the first space station in 1971. The United States also built a space station. The space stations allowed people to live and work in space. Then the Soviet Union and the United States cooperated to hook two spaceships together in space. This action ended the "space race". Today a much larger space station, built by several countries together, orbits Earth.

Another new way to go to space is by space shuttle. A space shuttle, first made in the United States in 1981, looks like an airplane. Astronauts who fly spaceships have used shuttles to help put satellites into space.