剑桥雅思15阅读Test2Passage3译文答案解析

以下是小编整理的剑桥雅思15教材中，阅读Test2Passage3译文答案解析。希望能够作为参考资料，帮助大家练习雅思阅读哟！

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

Having a laugh

The findings of psychological scientists reveal the importance of humour

Humans start developing a sense of humour as early as six weeks old, when babies begin to laugh and smile in response to stimuli. Laughter is universal across all human cultures and even exists in some form in rats, chimps, and bonobos. Like other human emotions and expressions, laughter and humour provide psychological scientists with rich resources for studying human psychology, ranging from the development of language to the neuroscience of social perception.

Theories focusing on the evolution of laughter point to it as an important adaptation for social communication. Take, for example, the recorded laughter in TV comedy shows. Back in 1950, US sound engineer Charley Douglass hated dealing with the unpredictable laughter of live audiences, so started recording his own "laugh tracks". These were intended to help people at home feel like they were in a social situation, such as a crowded theatre. Douglass even recorded various types of laughter, as well as mixtures of laughter from men, women, and children. In doing so, he picked up on a quality of laughter that is now interesting researchers: a simple "haha" communicates a remarkable amount of socially relevant information.

In one study conducted in 2016, samples of laughter from pairs of English-speaking students were recorded at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A team made up of more than 30 psychological scientists, anthropologists, and biologists then played these recordings to listeners from 24 diverse societies, from indigenous tribes in New Guinea to city-dwellers in India and Europe. Participants were asked whether they thought the people laughing were friends or strangers. On average, the results were remarkably consistent: worldwide, people"s guesses were correct approximately 60% of the time.

Researchers have also found that different types of laughter serve as codes to complex human social hierarchies. A team led by Christopher Oveis from the University of California, San Diego, found that high-status individuals had different laughs from low-status individuals, and that strangers" judgements of an individual"s social status were influenced by the dominant or submissive quality of their laughter. In their study, 48 male college students were randomly assigned to groups of four, with each group composed of two low-status members, who had just joined their college fraternity group, and two high-status members, older students who had been active in the fraternity for at least two years. Laughter was recorded as each student took a turn at being teased by the others, involving the use of mildly insulting nicknames. Analysis revealed that, as expected, high-status individuals produced more dominant laughs and fewer submissive laughs relative to the low-status individuals. Meanwhile, low-status individuals were more likely to change their laughter based on their position of power; that is, the newcomers produced more dominant laughs when they were in the 4powerful5 role of teasers. Dominant laughter was higher in pitch, louder, and more variable in tone than submissive laughter.

A random group of volunteers then listened to an equal number of dominant and submissive laughs from both the high- and low-status individuals, and were asked to estimate the social status of the laugher. In line with predictions, laughers producing dominant laughs were perceived to be significantly higher in status than laughers producing submissive laughs. "This was particularly true for low-status individuals, who were rated as significantly higher in status when displaying a dominant versus submissive laugh, " Oveis and colleagues note. "Thus, by strategically displaying more dominant laughter when the context allows, low-status individuals may achieve higher status in the eyes of others? However, high-status individuals were rated as high-status whether they produced their natural dominant laugh or tried to do a submissive one.

Another study, conducted by David Cheng and Lu Wang of Australian National University, was based on the hypothesis that humour might provide a respite from tedious situations in the workplace. This "mental break5 might facilitate the replenishment of mental resources. To test this theory, the researchers recruited 74 business students, ostensibly for an experiment on perception. First, the students performed a tedious task in which they had to cross out every instance of the letter "e" over two pages of text. The students then were randomly assigned to watch a video clip eliciting either humour, contentment, or neutral feelings. Some watched a clip of the BBC comedy Mr. Bean, others a relaxing scene with dolphins swimming in the ocean, and others a factual video about the management profession.

The students then completed a task requiring persistence in which they were asked to guess the potential performance of employees based on provided profiles, and were told that making 10 correct assessments in a row would lead to a win. However, the software was programmed such that it was nearly impossible to achieve 10 consecutive correct answers. Participants were allowed to quit the task at any point. Students who had watched the Mr. Bean video ended up spending significantly more time working on the task, making twice as many predictions as the other two groups.

Cheng and Wang then replicated these results in a second study, during which they had participants complete long multiplication questions by hand. Again, participants who watched the humorous video spent significantly more time working on this tedious task and completed more questions correctly than did the students in either of the other groups.

"Although humour has been found to help relieve stress and facilitate social relationships, the traditional view of task performance implies that individuals should avoid things such as humour that may distract them from the accomplishment of task goals/ Cheng and Wang conclude. "We suggest that humour is not only enjoyable but more importantly, energizing."

Questions 27-31

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

23 When referring to laughter in the first paragraph, the writer emphasises

A its impact on language.

B its function in human culture.

C its value to scientific research.

D its universality in animal societies.

24 What does the writer suggest about Charley Douglass?

A He understood the importance of enjoying humour in a group setting.

B He believed that TV viewers at home needed to be told when to laugh.

C He wanted his shows to appeal to audiences across the social spectrum.

D He preferred shows where audiences were present in the recording studio.

25 What makes the Santa Cruz study particularly significant?

A the various different types of laughter that were studied

B the similar results produced by a wide range of cultures

C the number of different academic disciplines involved

D the many kinds of people whose laughter was recorded

26 Which of the following happened in the San Diego study?

A Some participants became very upset.

B Participants exchanged roles.

C Participants who had not met before became friends.

D Some participants were unable to laugh.

27 In the fifth paragraph, what did the results of the San Diego study suggest?

A It is clear whether a dominant laugh is produced by a high- or low-status person.

B Low-status individuals in a position of power will still produce submissive laughs.

C The submissive laughs of low- and high-status individuals are surprisingly similar.

D High-status individuals can always be identified by their way of laughing.

Questions 32-36

Complete the summary using the list of words, A-H, below.

Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 32-36 on your answer sheet.

The benefits of humour

In one study at Australian National University, randomly chosen groups of participants were shown one of three videos, each designed to generate a different kind of 32………….. . When all participants were then given a deliberately frustrating task to do, it was found that those who had watched the 33………….. video persisted with the task for longer and tried harder to accomplish the task than either of the other two groups.

A second study in which participants were asked to perform a particularly 34………….. task produced similar results. According to researchers David Cheng and Lu Wang, these findings suggest that humour not only reduces 35………….. and helps build social connections but it may also have a 36………….. effect on the body and mind.

Questions 37-40

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?

In boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

37 Participants in the Santa Cruz study were more accurate at identifying the laughs of friends than those of strangers.

38 The researchers in the San Diego study were correct in their predictions regarding the behaviour of the high-status individuals.

39 The participants in the Australian National University study were given a fixed amount of time to complete the task focusing on employee profiles.

40 Cheng and Wang"s conclusions were in line with established notions regarding task performance.

来笑一笑吧

心理科学家们的研究发现揭示了幽默的重要性

人类早在六周大的时候就开始发展出了幽默感，此时的婴儿开始用大笑和微笑回应外界的刺激。笑在所有人类文化中都普遍存在，甚至以某种形式出现在老鼠、黑猩猩和倭黑猩猩身上。就像其他人类情绪和表达那样，笑与幽默为心理科学家们提供了研究人类心理学的丰富资源，从语言的发展到社会感知的神经科学，不一而足。

专注于研究笑的演变史的各种理论将它定位于一项社会交流的重要调适因素。我们用电视喜剧节目中事先录好的笑声来举个例子。回溯到1950年，美国声音工程师Charley Douglass对于要去处理现场观众不知道什么时候会发出的笑声这件事感到十分憎恶，于是开始录制他自己的“笑声背景音”。这些原本是为了帮助待在家里的人们感觉到自己好像身处于一个社交场合之中，比如一个人头攒动的剧场里。Douglass甚至还录了各种不同种类的笑声，还有一些则将男人、女人和孩子的笑声混合在了一起。在当时这个做法中，他注意到了一个现在正令研究者们感到兴趣十足的有关笑的特点：一声简单的“哈哈”能传达出数量惊人的社交信息。

2016年进行的一项研究中,录下了加利福尼亚大学圣克鲁兹分校几对母语为英语的学生的笑声样本。由30多位心理科学家、人类学家和生物学家组成的团队继而将这些录音播放给了来自24个不同社会——从新几内亚的原住民部落到印度和欧洲的城市居民——的听众。参与者被问到他们觉得这些正在笑的人是朋友还是素不相识的陌生人。平均来看，这些猜测结果惊人地一致：在全球范围内，人们的猜测大约有60%的时候都是正确的。

研究者们还发现：不同类型的笑可以像密码一样代表复杂的人类社会阶级分层。由加利福尼亚大学圣地亚哥分校的Christopher Oveis所带领的一支团队发现，社会地位高的人与社会地位低的人有着不同的笑法，而陌生人对于某个人社会地位的判断会因为他们笑声中支配性或服从性的感觉而受到影响。在他们的研究中，48名男大学生被随机分成了四人小组，每一组里有两名身份地位低的成员，刚刚加入自己大学的兄弟会组织，另外两名则是身份地位高的成员，是已经在兄弟会中活跃了至少有两年的学长。每个学生轮流由其他人逗笑，方式手段中包含使用有着轻微冒犯意味的外号， 这些笑声都被录了下来。分析显示，正如事先预料到的那样，相比于身份地位低的人，那些高身份地位者发岀了更多的支配性笑声和更少的服从性笑声。同时，低身份地位者更有可能基于自己的权力位置而改变发出的笑声;也就是说，新人在处于逗别人笑的“掌权”角色中时，会发出更多的支配性笑声。支配性笑声比服从性笑声的音调更高、音量更大，语调起落变化方面也更多样。

然后由一组志愿者来听同等数量的支配性和服从性笑声，发出这些笑声的既有高身份地位者也有低身份地位者，并要求志愿者们通过笑声来判断发笑者的社会地位。与先前的预测毫无二致，发出支配性笑声的人被认为在社会地位上远高于那些发出服从性笑声的人。“这一点在那些社会地位低的人身上尤其如此，他们在发出支配性笑声时所得到的社会地位判定要比他们在发出服从性笑声时的判定明显更高。”Oveis及其同事们注意到。“因此，当情景允许的时候，通过策略性地展示出更多支配性笑声，身份地位低的人就有可能在其他人的眼中营造出更高的身份地位感。”然而，身份地位高的人无论是发出他们顺其自然的支配性笑声，还是试着去发出服从性笑声，都会被评估为高身份地位者。

另一项由澳大利亚国立大学的David Cheng和Lu Wang所主持的研究则基于这样一个假想所展开：幽默也许能提供一个从工作场合的无聊乏味中暂时释放出来的短时解脱。这一“头脑间歇”也许可以促进思维能量的补充。为了测试这个理论，研究者们招募了74位商学院学生，表面上是为了做一个关于感知方面的实验。首先，这些学生要完成一项乏味的工作，要把整整两页纸的文本中的每一个字母e都划掉。接下来，这些学生被随机指定观看了一段视频，引发要么幽默、要么满足、要么平淡无起伏的某种感受。有些人观看的是BBC喜剧《憨豆先生》,另一些人看了海豚在广阔海洋中游泳的轻松画面，还有一些人看的则是关于管理学专业的一部平铺直叙的纪录片。

接下来这些学生要完成一项需要发挥毅力的任务，他们被要求根据一些提供的简介来猜测这些员工可能的工作表现，并被告知如果能连续做出十次正确的评估就赢了。然而，软件的设计会令连续答对十次这件事变得几乎不可能。参与者可以随时退出任务。先前看过《憨豆先生》的那些学生，最终花了明显更多的时间在坚持进行任务上，比另外两组的参与者们多做了一倍的预测。

Cheng和Wang接下来又在第二项研究中得到了完全相同的结果，这一回是要求参与者们手动完成长长的乘法运算。仍然是那些观看了幽默视频的参与者们在这项无聊乏味的工作上花了明显更多的时间，正确地完成了更多运算，另外两组中没有任何一组的学生比得上他们。

“虽然幽默早已被发现可以帮助缓解压力和推动社会关系，然而有关完成工作任务的传统看法却认为，人们应当避免诸如幽默这种可能会分散注意力、从而不能专注完成任务目标的事情。”Cheng 和Wang这样总结道。“我们认为，幽默不但是令人享受的，而且更重要的是还能为人们赋能。”

Question 27

答案：C

关键词：first paragraph, emphasises

解题思路：本题无论是题干还是对应原文都不难找也不难看懂，唯一的挑战来自于对考生耐心的考验：第一段一共只有三句话，但考生需要完整看完这三句话，依次对比四个选项，才能在排除法的辅助下顺利判定正确答案为选项C：它对于科学研究的价值。 A项说“它对于语言产生的影响”；B项说“它在人类文化中的功能”；D项说“它在动物社会中的普遍性”。不可否认，这三者中确实都包含若干个零星出现在原文第一段中的词汇，但是对比选项意思的表达，却都可以分别进行排除，因此迷惑性并不大。

Question 28

答案：A

关键词：Charley Douglass

解题思路：虽然利用大写人名Charley Douglass，考生可以迅速定位到第二段的第三句话，然而无论是单看这句话本身、发现没有可以对应到任何一个选项的内容，还是再多看一句、觉得有可能是在说选项A的内容但又不敢肯定，都不是选择题的最正确解答方式。如前文所说，考生还是需要比较准确地通读全段或一段的大部分内容，对四个选项逐一对比和排除，才能比较肯定地确认答案为选项A：他能理解在一个群体环境中享受幽默的重要性。 B项说“他认为那些在家看电视的观众需要被告知什么时候应该发笑”；C项说“他希望自己的节目能够对社会各阶层观众都具有吸引力”；第二段里虽然确实有这两个选项中的词组或类似意思出现，但整句意思的表达却都与选项所说不符；D项说“他更喜爱那些有观众出席在录制工作室里的节目”，这个信息则完全没有岀现过，因此这三项都可以在对比后予以排除。

Question 29

答案：B

关键词：Santa Cruz

解题思路：本题的情况与前两题类似：考生依然可以依靠大写Santa Cruz轻松定位到第三段的第一句话，但却完全无法凭借这句话本身锁定正确选项，而是需要耐心再往下多看几句，结合全段的共同意思表达来敲定正确答案为选项B：由一系列各种各样的文化所得出的类似结果。 A项说“被研究的各种各样不同类型的笑声”，这是本段中不曾出现过的信息；C项说“所涉及的不同学术领域的数目”，虽然原文中确实提及了几种不同的专家，算是来自不同的学术领域，但他们只是参与进行研究的团队成员，既非被研究的对象，也不是使得研究重要的原因；D项说“被录下来笑声的许多种类的人们”，这就是个故意利用原文表达、试图混淆视听的偷换概念，因为“许多种类的人们”在原文表达中，是听录音的研究对象而非被录下笑声的录音提供者。

Question 30

答案：B

关键词：San Diego

解题思路：要解答本题所需的阅读量比较大，尤其是在本段中包含了相对较多的结构略复杂的长难句的情况之下，考生需在平时注意练习精读分析的速度和准确性，在用San Diego定位到段落第二句的情况下，至少连续读到第四句，才能锁定正确答案为选项B：参与者交换过角色。 A项说“一些参与者变得很不开心”；C项说“以前素未谋面的参与者变成了朋友”；D项说“一些参与者笑不出来”。这几个选项无论从理解的难度上、还是从迷惑性上来看，其实都并不高，考生只要能完整及时读过本段内容，就都能顺利排除。

Question 31

答案：D

关键词：fifth paragraph, results

解题思路：本题仍延续了前面几题的特点：看似容易定位，却无法只看某句作答，而是需要考生耐心阅读定位段落的大部分内容来进行综合理解，才能结合排除法锁定正确答案为D项：高身份地位者总是能通过他们发笑的方式被辨认出来。 A项说“支配性笑声到底是由一个身居高位还是低位的人发出来的，很明显能看出来”，这个信息与原文中的“低身份地位者处于掌权位置时发出的笑声会让听众认为这是个身居高位者”相矛盾；B项说“低身份地位者处在掌权位置时还是会发出服从性笑声”，这还是与原文相矛盾；C项说“无论身份地位高低的人发出的服从性笑声都是惊人地类似”，这属于原文中没有明确提及的信息，迷惑性也不强。

Question 32

答案：F

关键词：Australian National University, videos, generate

解题思路：本题乍一看好似容易定位，有Australian National University这个大写信息可以帮助较快地找到第六段第一句，但是接下来，考生却需要连续阅读寻找若干个句子，才能最终在本段倒数第二句里找到与video有关的表述。也许题干中generate 一词在原文中的对应词elicit对于考生来说略显陌生，但是根据题干句子大意其实也可以推理知道，空格中应该是填“观看了视频后观众所产生的感受”，也就是对应原文中的feelings 一词，进而用这个词与词库选项比对，可以得出答案为：F. emotion。

Question 33

答案：H

关键词：longer, harder, the other two groups

解题思路：本题的定位比较困难，主要原因在于距离上一道题的岀处跨度范围较大，且表述比较隐晦，可以说是这部分摘要填空题中难度最高的一个。分析题干可知，此处需寻找三组人完成任务结果的对比，按照这个思路来逐句阅读原文，可以最终在第七段的最后一句里了解到，那些先前观看了《憨豆先生》的参与者坚持得最久最努力;而从前文第六段最后一句的原文表述中，考生即使之前并没有听说过或看过《憨豆先生》，也能从句子列举三种内容的顺序对应中看出来，《憨豆先生》对应的是humour这种感受，海豚在海洋中游泳对应的是contentment这种感受，而讲管理学专业的内容则是对应neutral feelings，这样一来，便可知道答案应该是humour在词库中的对应选项。同时，分析题干可知，此处空格内需填写一个修饰video的形容词，二者结合可以帮助考生得出答案为：H. amusing。

Question 34

答案：C

关键词：second study

解题思路：相比于前两道题来说，本题的难度相对低一些。首先，考生可以利用题干中的second study直接定位到第八段第一句话;其次，即使并不熟悉原文中的replicate这个词，看不出来这就是对produce similar results的同义替换，考生只需看懂第一句的大致意思，就能明白本句中并没有包含题干所需的信息。此时，只需再耐心向下多看一句，就能找到第二句中对于任务性质的描述：tedious，进而对应词库选项得出答案为：C. boring。

Question 35

答案：D

关键词：Lu Wang，David Cheng

解题思路：由于填空题一般都是顺序出题为主，因此考生可以利用上一题的定位提示，预测本题和下一题大概率的出处都会在文章最后一段，从而更加安心地阅读答题。题干中reduce与原文中relieve的同义替换关系也比较清晰，从而得出减少或缓解的对象是stress,进而对比词库可得答案为：D. anxiety。

Question 36

答案：E

关键词：David Cheng，Lu Wang

解题思路：本题因为与上一道题位置接近，所以定位并不困难;但阅读原文后会发现，原文中的enjoyable和energising这两个词，似乎都可以填进题干的空格处。此时词库的另一个作用也就体现出来了：题干要求空格中需为一个形容词，而词库选项中既符合词性要求，也能与enjoyable或energising进行同义替换的，只有唯一的一个选项：E. stimulating。

Question 37

答案：NOT GIVEN

解题思路：本题的定位非常简单，凭借题干中的专有名词Santa Cruz就能迅速找到第三段第一句；但是本句并没有直接说到“参与者在猜测友人还是路人的哪一种方面更准确”这个题干信息，因此考生需耐心再向后文看看；直到读完全段，发现文章只说了参与者们猜测的结果非常一致，大概都有60%的命中率，但没有提及在猜测朋友和陌生人这个方面参与者哪种猜得更正确，可知答案为NOT GIVEN。

Question 38

答案：YES

解题思路：本题要定位不难，凭借非常显眼的大写San Diego即可找到第四段第二句话；然而无论是只读这句话本身，还是继续向后文又多读了两句，似乎都没有看到关于题干中“研究人员的推测是否准确”这个表述。此时考生很容易举棋不定，或得出结论为“原文并未提及”；但如果是在运用平行阅读、逐句扫读原文每一句话和对比每一种题型，便会在更从容的心态下，在本段第五句话中看到as expected这个对于题干进行了同义表述的描写，从而准确得出答案为YES。

Question 39

答案：NO

关键词：Australian National University

解题思路：如果是单独只做本题，考生需要完成的阅读量就会相当大，因为虽然Australian National University这个大写信息好找，在第六段第一句话里就出现了，但正确答案却位于第七段的末尾，考生需要有足够的耐力才能最终敲定正确答案为NO。 但是，如果运用平行阅读的方法来解题，则考生在阅读此部分文章内容时，是在同时对比寻找上一个题型（即词库摘要填空题）和本题型中的相关内容，于是可以一箭三雕：首先，是较好地掌握了这部分文章的行文逻辑和内容背景；其次，是可以得出填空题第32和33题的对应答案；然后，结合二者可知，既然在实验过程中，先看了幽默视频的一组实验者比另外两组都坚持了更长时间、进行了更努力的尝试，可见实验时间并非给定的固定量，可知文章信息与题干相矛盾。

Question 40

答案：NO

关键词：Cheng and Wang

解题思路：本题同样可以运用平行阅读的方法，结合上一个题型同时在文章中定位和对比做题，可以根据第九段第一句得出结论：题干中的established notions正是原文中所说的traditional view；但是本句并没有直接提及Cheng和Wang的研究结论是否与此相符，考生仍需耐心读到下一句，才能根据两人对幽默的高度评价，看出两位研究者其实并不赞同传统观念，从而确定正确答案为NO。