What makes children laugh

文章大意

一项针对小学生幽默感的大规模研究，旨在了解儿童在校内外觉得什么好笑、如何用幽默互动。研究访谈了六所小学的150名儿童，采用小组访谈和让家长记录六个月的幽默日记等方法，发现孩子面对陌生情境时也常发笑。

题目与答案

1. Aim of study

   To find out what children laugh about at school and at home, e.g.

   · the types of 31_____ told in the playground

   · humour on television at home

   答案：jokes

   原文定位：when they were in the playground, we wanted to know what sort of jokes they told one another and which ones were most popular

   同义替换：「types」↔「sort」

2. Methods

   Children were interviewed at school in small 32_____ .

   答案：groups

   原文定位：We had originally intended to have one-to-one interviews;So instead, each interviewer had several groups, each consisting of three or four children

3. A “humour diary” was kept by some 33_____ for six months.

   答案：parents

   原文定位：We asked the parents of some of the children to keep a diary like this for six months

4. Main findings

   Children laugh:

   · when they don`t know what 34_____ to take

   答案：action

   原文定位：They're a bit nervous because they're not sure what sort of action it's appropriate for them to take, so they laugh

   同义替换：「don't know」↔「not sure」

5. · when people do things which don`t follow conventions

   · when people, especially 35_____, look foolish.

   答案：adults

   原文定位：nearly all primary school children find situations particularly humorous if they involve people looking foolish, and particularly if these are adults

   同义替换：「especially」↔「particularly」

6. In games and role plays, laughter is connected with the opportunity to be 36_____ .

   答案：creative

   原文定位：Our research showed there's a strong link between laughter and being creative

   同义替换：「connected with」↔「link between」

7. Other findings

   What children find funny depends very little on their 37_____ .

   答案：gender

   原文定位：One quite surprising finding was the fact that when looking at what children find funny, there seems to be hardly any difference between boys and girls. So the children's gender doesn't seem to be significant

   同义替换：「depends very little on」↔「doesn't seem to be significant」

8. There has been little 38_____ in children`s humour.

   答案：change

   原文定位：There hasn't been much change in what they laugh at over the years

   同义替换：「little」↔「not much」，「humour」↔「laugh」

9. Children still react positively to

   · humour shown in 39_____ in the media

   答案：pictures

   原文定位：in the media, they enjoy humor, which is non-verbal, where the humor comes from pictures rather than words

   同义替换：「shown in」↔「comes from」

10. · humour which is based on 40_____, since they know it`s unreal.

    答案：danger

    原文定位：what children find incredibly funny is humor that is founded on some kind of danger

    同义替换：「based on」↔「founded on」，「since they know it’s unreal」↔「The fact that they know it isn’t real」