A
It is widely believed that smiling means a person is happy,and it usually occurs when they're meeting another person or a group of people.However,a new study led by the body language expert Dr Harry Witchel shows this isn't always the case.
In his research,he asked 44 participants aged 18-35 to play a geography quiz game consisting of nine difficult questions so that they often got the answer wrong.Participants seated interacted with a computer alone in a room while their faces were video recorded.
After the quiz,the participants were asked to rate their experience using a range of 12 emotions including“bored”,“interested”and“frustrated”.Meanwhile,their facial expressions were then computer analysed frame by frame in order to judge how much they were smiling based on a scale of between 0 to 1.
Dr Witchel said:“According to some researchers,a real smile reflects the inner state of cheerfulness or amusement. However, behavioural ecology theory suggests that all smiles are tools used in social interactions, meaning cheerfulness is neither necessary nor rich for smiling. Our study showed that in these humancomputer interaction experiments, smiling isn't driven by happiness; it is associated with subjective involvement (主观参与), which acts like a social fuel for smiling, even when socialising with a computer on your own.”
Surprisingly, participants didn't tend to smile during the period when they were trying to figure out the answers.However,they did smile right after the computer game informed them if their answer was correct or wrong.Participants smiled more often when they got the answer wrong.Dr Witchel added:“During these computerised quizzes,smiling was greatly increased just after answering questions incorrectly.This behaviour could be explained by selfratings of involvement,rather than by ratings of happiness or frustration.”
语篇解读:本文是一篇说明文。人们普遍认为微笑意味着一个人是快乐的,但是研究表明,微笑仅是社交的需要,并不表明这个人一定是快乐的。
1.Why did Dr Witchel use difficult questions in the quiz game?
A.To make it hard for participants to answer them correctly.
B.To make the answer period last as long as possible.
C.To discover the most intelligent participants.
D.To create a stressful situation for participants deliberately.
解析:选A 细节理解题。根据第二段第一句可知,设计难题的目的是让参与者难以答对题目,故A项正确。
2.What can we infer from what Dr Witchel said in Paragraph 4?
A.Other researchers' opinion of a real smile is quite right.
B.Smiles aren't necessarily useful tools in social interactions.
C.Subjective involvement doesn't motivate smiling in social interactions.
D.Witchel's study finding is consistent with behavioural ecology theory.
解析:选D 推理判断题。根据第四段尾句可知,试验结果表明,微笑不是由快乐驱动的,它与主观参与有关;结合第四段第二句可知,行为生态学理论认为,所有的微笑都是社会交往中使用的工具,这意味着快乐对微笑来说既不是必要的,也不是丰富的。据此可以推断,研究的结果与行为生态学理论一致,故D项正确。
3.What do we know about the text?
A.Participants were asked to interact with each other in the quiz.
B.Participants in the quiz smiled less often when they got the answer wrong.
C.In Dr Witchel's opinion, smiling is connected with subjective involvement.
D.Dr Witchel thinks that a real smile reflects the inner state of cheerfulness.
解析:选C 细节理解题。根据第四段尾句可知,Witchel博士认为,微笑不是由快乐驱动的,它与主观参与有关。故C项正确。
4.What can be a suitable title for the text?
A.What Contributes to Real Happiness?
B.How to Identify Whether a Person Is Really Happy?
C.Smiling Doesn't Necessarily Mean Happiness
D.People Generally Hold a Wrong View on Happiness
解析:选C 标题归纳题。通读全文,并结合文章第一段第二句可推知,文章陈述了这样的事实:微笑仅是社交的需要,并不表明这个人一定快乐。故C项最适合作本文的标题。