A joke is something ______ makes you laugh.

A．tell readers a joke

B．complain about his tools

C．teach readers some tricks

D．criticize himself humorously

A、Speck

B、Kaplan and Pascoe

C、Weinberger and Campbell

D、Kelly

The word "putdown" (Line 1, Paragraph 3) most probably means ______

A．a pun which can be interpreted in both positive and negative ways.

B．a tone-twisting joke which intends to make the hearer puzzled.

C．a response by understanding something deliberately in another way.

D．an indirect way of saying something to make someone humiliated.

ill be there because they have to be. So it helps if you start with a joke or something that captures their attention, and if you stop on a high note as well, you’ll find most people go away feeling good. If you find you’ve got time left, you can use that for questions from the audience.

(16)

听音频，回答题

Did you ever wonder what occurs inside your body when something funny happens？ What is this thing we have in our brains that makes us say "ha-ha" when someone26abanana？

One way to find out is to watch the brain laugh. That"s what Dartmouth neuroscientist William Kelley did. He and his team had a number of volunteers watch an27of Seinfeld while being monitored by an MRI， a machine that allows researchers to see which parts of the brain are active at any 28 time. They then matched the MRI data with the laugh track to see how the brain changes when it"s 29 something funny. There"s no one "funny center" in the brain——but the findings were pretty.

When subjects were looking at something funny， the two regions in their left hemispheres lit up. From 31 studies these regions are known to be associated with resolving unclear meanings. Is there something in "getting it" that"s 32 the process by which we work with unclear information until we suddenly see the pattern in it？

A couple seconds later two other brain regions became 33， called the insula（岛叶 ） and the amygdala（扁桃腺 ）. The insula is associated with 34， so it seems likely that this is the brain feeling good when it gets the joke——the "ha-ha" response. The amygdala is associated with memory formation. As the researchers35，while you may not be able to remember every plot detail in an episode of a soap opera， you can probably remember the jokes. Humor stays with us， forming a lasting memory.

第（26）题__________

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A young man sees a sunset and, unable to understand or

to express the emotion that it raises in hint, he concludes that it 【M1】______

must be the gateway to a world that lies beyond. It is difficult

for any of us in moments of tense aesthetic experience to resist 【M2】______

the suggestion that we are catching a glimpse of a light that

shines down to us from a different realm of existence. And, though

the gleams blind and dazzle, but do they convey a hint of beauty 【M3】______

and serenity greater than we have known or imagined？ Greater too

than we can describe; for language, which was discovered to 【M4】______

convey the meanings of this world, cannot readily be fitted to the uses of another.

That all great art has this strength of suggesting a world 【M5】______

beyond is undeniable. In some moods Nature shares with it. There 【M6】______

is no sky in June so blue that it does not point forward a bluer sky, 【M7】______

no sunset so beautiful that it does not waken the vision of a

greater beauty. Is this world merely a bad joke, like a vulgar flare

among the cool radiance of the stars, and existence an empty 【M8】______

laugh braying across the mysteries？ Are these intimations of a

something behind and beyond evil humor born of indigestion, or

whimsies sent by the devil to mock and madden us？ If, in a word,

beauty means something, we must not seek to interpret the

meaning. If we glimpse the unutterable, it is unwise to try to utter

it, or should we seek to invest with significance that which we 【M9】______

cannot grasp. Beauty in term of our human meanings is 【M10】______

meaningless.

【M1】

ny. He was nice to his employees (雇员) and often had a joke with them. They liked him very much and worked hard. So he paid them a lot.

The man had lots of work to do and often went to bed late at night. His friends advised him to do some exercise. He thought he was strong and didn't agree with them. But one day he fell in a faint (晕倒) while he was working in his office. He was sent to a hospital at once and the doctors examined him carefully. They found something was wrong with his heart and he had to be in hospital. Several months later he returned home and asked his son to manage the company.

Once his daughter wanted to travel in Australia. The old man decided to go there with her. As he went to the country for the first time, he was interested in all. He played well, had a good sleep and visited some places of interest. And one day they visited a farm. It was big and beautiful. Cows and sheep could be seen everywhere.

Pointing to a cow, Mr White asked, "What's this？"

"Haven't you seen a cow？" the guide asked surprisely.

"Cow？" Mr White said with a smile. "A cow in our country is five times (倍) as big as it!"

Having heard this, all the visitors began to laugh. After a while he saw a kangaroo (袋鼠) and asked again, "What's that？"

"It's flea (跳蚤), sir," answered the guide.

The employees worked hard because______.

A．Mr White was kind to them

B．Mr White had a company

C．Mr White often had a joke with them

D．they liked to use computers

any. He was nice to his employees(雇员)and often had a joke with them. They liked him very much and worked hard. So he paid them a lot.

The man had lots of work to do and often went to bed late at night. His friends advised him to do some exercise. He thought be was strong and didn't agree with them. But one day he fell in a faint(晕倒)while he was working in his office. He was sent to a hospital at once and the doctors examined him carefully. They found something was wrong with his heart and he had to be in hospi- tal. Several months later he returned home and asked his son to manage the company.

Once his daughter wanted to travel in Australia. The old man decided to go there with her. As he went to the country for the first time, he was interested in all. He played well, had a good sleep and visited some places of interest. And one day they visited a farm. It was big and beautiful. Cows and sheep could be seen everywhere.

Pointing to a cow, Mr. White asked, "What's this？"

"Haven't you seen a cow？" the guide asked surprised.

"Cow？" Mr. White said with a smile. "A cow in our country is five times(倍) as big as it!"

Having heard this, all the visitors began to laugh. After a while he saw a kangaroo (袋鼠)and asked again, "What's that？"

"It' s flea(跳蚤), sir. answered the guide.

The employees worked hard because________.

A．Mr. White was kind to them

B．Mr. White had a company

C．Mr. White often had a joke with them

D．they liked to use computers

.

［A］ Thus a joke is laughed at for its own sake, even though there is an independent value in laughter, which lightens our lives by taking us momentarily outside ourselves. Why should not something similar be said of works of art, many of which aspire to be amusing in just the way that good jokes are？

［B］ All discussion of the value of art tends, therefore, to turn from the outset in the direction of criticism: Can there be genuine critical evaluation of art, a genuine distinction between that which deserves our attention and that which does not？ (And, once again, the question may be extended to objects of natural beauty.)

［C］ Art is held to be a form. of education, perhaps an education of the emotions. In this case, it becomes an open question whether there might not be some more effective means to the same result. Alternatively, one may attribute a negative value to art, as Plato did in his Republic, arguing that art has a corrupting or diseducative effect on those exposed to it.

［D］ Artistic appreciation, a purely personal matter, calls for appropriate means of expression. Yet, it is before anything a process of “cultivation”, during which a certain part of one’s “inner self” is “dug out” and some knowledeg of the outside world becomes its match.

［E］ If I am amused it is for a reason, and this reason lies in the object of my amusement. We thus begin to think in terms of a distinction between good and bad reasons for laughter. Amusement at the wrong things may seem to us to show corruption of mind, cruelty, or bad taste; and when it does so, we speak of the object as not truly amusing, and feel that we have reason on our side.

［F］ Such thinkers and writers believe that art is not only an end in itself but also a sufficient justification of itself. They also hold that in order to understand art as it should be understood, it is necessary to put aside all interests other than an interest in the work itself.

Recently, some scientists decided to find out what the funniest joke in the world was. This wasclearly a (an) 21 task,as no two people ever really agree about what is funny and what is not--22 when they are from different 23 Telling jokes is something people often 24 around the worlD@25 , jokes are sometimes not funny to or are often not 26 by people who are not part of that culture(文化). Anyhow, 27 a year-long serious study, the scientists 28 the funniest joke in the world :Two hunters (猎人) are out in the woods. One of them 29 to the ground He doesn&39; t seemto be 30 , his eyes closeD@The other hunter takes out his phone and calls emergency (紧急)services."My friend is dead!"he 31 to the man on the other side."What can I do？"The man,in a(an) 32 voice,says," Dont&39; t worry. I can 33 . First, make sure he&39;s 34 "There is a silence,then a shot is 35 Bang! The hunter&39;s voice comes back on the line. He says,"OK,now what？"

请选择最佳选项()。

A.wonderfu

B.important

C.interesting

D.Difficult

请选择最佳选项()。A.especially

B.finally

C.gradually

D.Generally

请选择最佳选项()。A.companies

B.countries

C.families

D.Schools

请选择最佳选项()。A.ask

B.do

C.give

D.Play

请选择最佳选项()。A.Thus

B.Therefore

C.However

D.Anyhow

请选择最佳选项()。

A.guessed

B.held

C.proved

D.Understood

请选择最佳选项()。

A.A.for

B.B.during

C.C.before

D.D.After

请选择最佳选项()。A.wrote

B.touched

C.decided

D.Spread

请选择最佳选项()。A.jumps

B.falls

C.points

D.Gets

请选择最佳选项()。A.thinking

B.speaking

C.rising

D.Breathing

请选择最佳选项()。A.cries

B.nods

C.turns

D.Waves

请选择最佳选项()。A.anxious

B.angry

C.calm

D.Curious

请选择最佳选项()。A.help

B.feel

C.go

D.Show

请选择最佳选项()。A.buried

B.dead

C.hit

D.Sick

请选择最佳选项()。A.heard

B.made

C.taken

D.Told