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  3. Man is the only animal that laughs. Why is this true? What makes us respond

Man is the only animal that laughs. Why is this true? What makes us respond

游客2023-11-20  40
问题      Man is the only animal that laughs. Why is this true? What makes us respond as we【C1】______  to pleasurable experiences? What is the history of this "happy convulsion", as someone once【C2】______  it, and just what is its function?
     We are not short【C3】______ theories to explain the mystery; for centuries, biologists, psychologists, and medical men have【C4】______  a definitive explanation of laughter. One writer theoried that its function is to intimidate others or to gain stature【C5】______  them by humiliating them. Another took the opposite view that we laugh in order not to cry. A psychologist offered the explanation that laughter functions as a remedy【C6】______  painful experiences, and that it serves to defend a person【C7】______ what the psychologist termed "the many minor pains【C8】______  which man is exposed". In the seventeenth century, a writer set【C9】______  the theory that we laugh when we compare ourselves with others and find ourselves superior; in effect, we laugh at the infirmities of others.【C10】______  every theory bas been concerned with either the structure or the function of laughter,【C11】______   relatively few have been devoted 【C12】______  the question of its origin. I propose to offer a theory which, so far as I am 【C13】______ , has not previously been set forth: that only those animals capable of speech are capable of laughter; and that therefore man, being the only animal that【C14】______  , is the only animal that laughs.
     Those of us who have observed chimpanzees closely feel quite confident that the chimpanzee occasionally【C15】______  behavior that looks very much like a primitive precursor of human laughter. This behavior, however, has been observed only in a human【C16】______  ; whether or not it occurs under natural【C17】______  is dubious; but the 【C18】______  fact that under any condition an ape is capable of such behavior is【C19】______  more than passing【C20】______ for does it not indicate that early man had the rudiments of laughter? [br] 【C16】
选项 A、way
B、context
C、situations
D、surroundings
答案 B
解析 此题考查词义辨析。context意为“背景、环境”，强调事实等发生的周围情况，侧重指人、事、物存在于其中的各种有关情况。C项的situations也有“环境”之意，但侧重“地理之环境”。而此处是指人文环境，故选context。
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