雅思阅读真题（Part 3）
欺骗的艺术：微表情与测谎
本篇也叫：微表情、读脸术、测谎、面部表情识谎、谎言识别、Ekman微表情
Part 3 · 考频：超高频 · 最近考试：2021.2.6/2016.9.3/2013.9.21
本篇为雅思阅读真题（Part 3）《The art of deception》，共 14 题，2021.2.6/2016.9.3/2013.9.21雅思考试真题回忆，页面提供完整原文、题目、答案与解析，并支持在线机考模式免费练习。本页同时提供 Markdown 版本 供 AI 助手与搜索引擎直接读取。
文章讲述心理学家保罗·埃克曼研究面部微表情与说谎的关系。他发现持续时间极短、试图隐藏的强烈情绪会以微表情形式闪现，且基本情绪的面部表达具有跨文化普遍性。多数人难以察觉这些信号，但经过训练可提升识别谎言的能力，他的研究被FBI和CIA等机构采用。
Do tiny changes of facial expression show whether someone is telling lies?
A
Forty years ago, the research psychologist Dr. Paul Ekman was addressing a group of young psychiatrists in training when he was asked a question, the answer to which has kept him busy ever since. Suppose the group wanted to know: a particular patient swears they are telling the truth. They look and sound sincere. So here is the question: is there any way you can be sure they are telling the truth? Ekman did not know the answer then but wanted to find out.
B
As part of his research, he had already filmed a series of 12-minute interviews with psychiatric patients. In a subsequent conversation, one of the patients said that he had lied to him. So, Ekman sat and looked at the film but saw nothing noteworthy. Then he slowed it down and looked again. Then he slowed it even further. And suddenly, there, across just two frames of the film, he saw it: an intense expression of extreme anguish. It lasted less than a 15th of a second, but once he had spotted the first expression, he soon found three more examples in that same interview. He termed his discovery "micro-expression": very rapid intense demonstrations of emotion that the subject intended to be concealed.
C
Over the course of the next four decades, Ekman successfully demonstrated a proposition first suggested by Charles Darwin: that the ways in which we express disgust, contempt, fear, surprise, happiness, and sadness are universal. The facial muscles triggered by those seven basic emotions are, he has shown, essentially standard, regardless of language and culture, from the US to Japan and Brazil to Papua New Guinea. What is more, expressions of emotion are impossible to suppress and, particularly when we are lying, micro-expressions of powerfully felt emotions will inevitably flit across our face before we get the chance to stop them.
D
Fortunately for liars, most people will fail to spot these fleeting signals of inner torment. Of the 15,000 Ekman has tested, only 50 people, whom he calls "naturals," have been able to do it. But given a little more training, Ekman says, almost anyone can develop the skill. He should know, since these tests were completed in the mid-1980s and the first publication of his research, he has been called in by the FBI and CIA (among countless more law enforcement and other agencies around the world), not just to solve cases, but to teach them how to use his techniques for themselves. He has held workshops for defense and prosecution lawyers, health professionals, even jealous spouses, all of them wanting to know exactly when someone is not being 100 per cent candid.
E
Most recently, Ekman’s research has featured in a new television series about the exploits of the fictional Dr. Cal Lightman, a scientist who studies involuntary body language to discover not only if you are lying but why you might have been motivated to do so. According to the publicity blurb, Lightman is a human lie detector, even more accurate than a polygraph test. Ekman concedes he was skeptical when the producer first approached him with the idea of turning his life’s work into a TV series, and initially would have stopped the project if he could. In particular, he was fearful that the show would exaggerate the effectiveness of his techniques and create the quite inaccurate impression among audiences that criminals could no longer hope to get away with lying. In the worst-case scenario, he was concerned about unfair convictions, that one day someone not properly trained in his techniques might be sitting on a jury and wrongly find someone guilty of a crime simply on the basis of a television programme.
F
In the end, though, he was won over because the series is unusual in several respects. It is the first time, as far as Ekman is aware, that a commercial TV drama has been based on the work of just one scientist. That scientist is also deeply involved in the project, talking through plot ideas and checking five successive drafts of each script to ensure details are correct. He was also impressed with the producer’s manifestly serious and well-intentioned reasons for making the programme. Now that the first series has been completed, he believes probably 80-90 per cent of the show is based on fact and that’s good enough for what it is. After all, a drama, not a documentary.
G
Ekman, incidentally, professes to have been a terrible liar ever since he was a small boy and observes that the ability to detect a lie and the ability to lie successfully are completely unrelated. He has been asked by people running for high office if he could teach them to become more credible with the public but has always refused to use his skills in that way on ethical grounds. He also insists that there are various kinds of lies. A "true" lie can be identified by having two essential characteristics: there must be a deliberate intent to mislead and there must be no notification that this is what is occurring. This means that an actor or a poker player isn’t a true liar. They are supposed to deceive you, it’s part of the game, and the same is true of flattery. He prefers to focus on the kinds of lies where the liar would be on grave trouble if they were found out and where the target would feel properly aggrieved if they knew.
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答案：students
原文定位：Forty years ago, the research psychologist Dr. Paul Ekman was addressing a group of young psychiatrists in training when he was asked a question, the answer to which has kept him busy ever since
答案：describe the origins of Ekman’s theories
原文定位：As part of his research, he had already filmed a series of 12-minute interviews with psychiatric patients;And suddenly, there, across just two frames of the film, he saw it: an intense expression of extreme anguish... He termed his discovery "micro-expression": very rapid intense demonstrations of emotion that the subject intended to be concealed
答案：micro-expressions are common to all people
原文定位：Over the course of the next four decades, Ekman successfully demonstrated a proposition first suggested by Charles Darwin: that the ways in which we express disgust, contempt, fear, surprise, happiness, and sadness are universal. The facial muscles triggered by those seven basic emotions are, he has shown, essentially standard, regardless of language and culture, from the US to Japan and Brazil to Papua New Guinea
答案：Few untrained people can detect lies
原文定位：Fortunately for liars, most people will fail to spot these fleeting signals of inner torment. Of the 15000 Ekman has tested, only 50 people, whom he calls "naturals," have been able to do it. But given a little more training, Ekman says, almost anyone can develop the skill
答案：they have been in great demand
原文定位：He should know, since these tests were completed in the mid-1980s and the first publication of his research, he has been called in by the FBI and CIA (among countless more law enforcement and other agencies around the world), not just to solve cases, but to teach them how to use his techniques for themselves. He has held workshops for defense and prosecution lawyers, health professionals, even jealous spouses, all of them wanting to know exactly when someone is not being 100 per cent candid
答案：false beliefs
原文定位：In particular, he was fearful that the show would exaggerate the effectiveness of his techniques and create the quite inaccurate impression among audiences that criminals could no longer hope to get away with lying
答案：justice
原文定位：In the worst-case scenario, he was concerned about unfair convictions, that one day someone not properly trained in his techniques might be sitting on a jury and wrongly find someone guilty of a crime simply on the basis of a television programme
答案：research
原文定位：It is the first time, as far as Ekman is aware, that a commercial TV drama has been based on the work of just one scientist
答案：motives
原文定位：He was also impressed with the producer’s manifestly serious and well-intentioned reasons for making the programme
答案：accuracy
原文定位：Now that the first series has been completed, he believes probably 80-90 per cent of the show is based on fact and that’s good enough for what it is. After all, a drama, not a documentary
答案：NOT GIVEN
原文定位：Ekman, incidentally, professes to have been a terrible liar ever since he was a small boy
答案：FALSE
原文定位：and observes that the ability to detect a lie and the ability to lie successfully are completely unrelated
答案：NOT GIVEN
原文定位：This means that an actor or a poker player isn’t a true liar. They are supposed to deceive you, it’s part of the game, and the same is true of flattery
答案：TRUE
原文定位：He prefers to focus on the kinds of lies where the liar would be in grave trouble if they were found out and where the target would feel properly aggrieved if they knew