Question

What is it that makes people laugh? More than two thousand years ago the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle defined (定义) 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】

试题分析：是什么促使人们发笑呢？古希腊哲学家亚里士多德给“笑话”下了定义，笑话就是通过展示我们在某方面比他人优秀而获得的一种成就感，这种成就感能让我们感到愉快。

1.题1】细节理解题。根据第一段第三行“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点，故选A。

2.2】段落大意题。根据第一句“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开玩笑的原因之一，而不是唯一的原因，排除A；根据“Someone may also use a joke to express their anger”可知，有的人通过玩笑来表达内心的愤怒，而不是生气的时候想听笑话，排除B；第二段提到人们喜欢听带有一点残酷的笑话，并不是说喜欢笑话的人都是残忍的，排除C；根据“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，玩笑可以让人们表达他们不被社会接受的态度，故选D。

3.3】细节理解题。根据最后一段“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，一个好的讲笑话的人总是努力在一个特定的情境中创造出意外的事情，以使人们发笑，故选C。

考点：生活类短文阅读