Question

What is it that makes people laugh? More than two thousand years ago the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle defined (定義) jokes as the pleasure that results from a feeling of triumph by showing we’re better than someone else in a certain way. According to Aristotle and many other philosophers, all jokes depend mainly on showing inferiority in another person or group of persons--that is, putting it clearly, on showing that they are worse off than ourselves. Jokes raise our good opinion of ourselves at someone else’s expense.

Showing how much better than other people we are is only one reason we like jokes. Someone may also use a joke to express their anger or their cruelty or any other kind of action that is not acceptable to us. We feel free to laugh when we hear about someone sliding on a banana skin. The joke lets us express those attitudes which are usually unacceptable to society. This is probably the reason why some of the jokes, especially those involving cruelty, are so popular with certain people.

Besides, all jokes depend on our enjoyment of laughing at something that is strange and out of place because it’s different from things which are happening around it. The same situation can be either sad or pleasant, depending entirely on how strange and out of place it is. If a girl in a bathing suit falls into a swimming pool, we don’t laugh because nothing unusual has happened. But if a man in a smart suit falls in, the situation is at once unusual in a pleasant way and we laugh. A good joke?teller will always try to build up a situation in which one thing is expected until something unexpected suddenly happens, and so we laugh.

1.According to Aristotle, all jokes depend mainly on________.

A. showing inferiority in another person or group

B. resulting in a sense of success

C. having a good opinion of other people

D. making people laugh unexpectedly

2.What’s the main idea of Paragraph 2?

A. Showing we are better than other people is the only one reason we like jokes.

B. When people are angry, they would like to hear jokes.

C. People who like jokes are usually cruel.

D. To express those attitudes usually unacceptable to society is one of the reasons we like jokes.

3.What will a good joke?teller always try to do?

A. Make a sad situation into a pleasant one.

B. Make different things happen at the same time.

C. Make an unexpected thing happen in an expected situation.

D. Make people laugh at something unusual and out of place.

Answer 1

1.A

2.D

3.C

【解析】

試題分析：是什么促使人們發(fā)笑呢？古希臘哲學(xué)家亞里士多德給“笑話”下了定義，笑話就是通過展示我們在某方面比他人優(yōu)秀而獲得的一種成就感，這種成就感能讓我們感到愉快。

1.題1】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第一段第三行“According to Aristotle and many other philosophers, all jokes depend mainly on showing inferiority in another person or group of persons”可知，玩笑主要靠揭示他人的弱點，故選A。

2.2】段落大意題。根據(jù)第一句“Showing how much better than other people we are is only one reason we like jokes.”可知，向他人展示自己有多好只是開玩笑的原因之一，而不是唯一的原因，排除A；根據(jù)“Someone may also use a joke to express their anger”可知，有的人通過玩笑來表達(dá)內(nèi)心的憤怒，而不是生氣的時候想聽笑話，排除B；第二段提到人們喜歡聽帶有一點殘酷的笑話，并不是說喜歡笑話的人都是殘忍的，排除C；根據(jù)“The joke lets us express those attitudes which are usually unacceptable to society. This is probably the reason why some of the jokes...are so popular with certain people.”可知，玩笑可以讓人們表達(dá)他們不被社會接受的態(tài)度，故選D。

3.3】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)最后一段“A good joke?teller will always try to build up a situation in which one thing is expected until something unexpected suddenly happens”可知，一個好的講笑話的人總是努力在一個特定的情境中創(chuàng)造出意外的事情，以使人們發(fā)笑，故選C。

考點：生活類短文閱讀