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  3. Why Are You Laughing? Man is the only an

Why Are You Laughing? Man is the only an

游客2024-06-18  1
问题                                     Why Are You Laughing?
    Man is the only animal that laughs. Wily is this true? What makes us respond as we do to pleasurable experiences? What is the history of this "happy convulsion(痉挛)", as someone once termed it, and just what is its function?
    We are not short of theories to explain the mystery; for centuries, biologists, philosophers, psychologists and medical men have sought a definitive explanation of laughter. One writer theorized that its function is to intimidate others or to gain stature over 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 for painful experiences, and that it serves to defend a person against what the psychologist termed: "the many minor pains to which man is exposed". In the seventeenth century a writer set forth the theory that we laugh when we compare ourselves with others and find ourselves superior: in effect, we laugh at the frailty of others.
    Virtually every theory has concerned with either the structure or the function of laughter, whereas relatively few have been devoted to the question of its origin. I propose to offer a theory which, so far as I am aware, 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 speaks, is the only animal that laughs.
    Those of us who have observed chimpanzees closely feel quite confident that the chimpanzee occasionally exhibits behavior that looks very much like a primitive human laughter. This behavior, however, has been observed only in a human context; whether or not it occurs under natural conditions is dubious; but the very fact that under any conditions an ape is capable of such behavior is more than passing interest—for does it not indicate that early man had the rudiments(初级阶段) of laughter?
    Laughter is defined as an emotional response, expressive normally of joy, involving characteristic sounds of the voice and movements of the features and the body. The joy may take the form of gladness, amusement, ridicule, and so on. Why should laughter be as intimately associated with the power of speech as I have suggested? Speech is the verbal, or vocal, expression of symbols and the relations between symbols. Probably at about the same time speech evolved, laughter originated too, as a kind of semiverbalized social expression of pleasure. With the development of speech, the number of occasions producing sudden experiences of pleasure increased, and, since laughter was closely associated with speech, man had this means of expressing his pleasure. Having broken the "sound barrier", as it were, man could express with laughter what other animals could not. Since the lower animals had no speech, they encountered fewer pleasurable situations and, furthermore, were unable to laugh no matter what the stimulation.
    Once the first laughter had been laughed by primitive man, with such apparently pleasurable effects all around, laughter began to take on an intrinsic value within the society of man. The person possessing the ability to communicate pleasure in a loud laugh began to enjoy social advantages over his more serious colleagues; he became a "good mixer", socially selected and liked by society. Thus the process of natural selection would tend to operate in favor of those able to express their pleasurable states in laughter, as compared with those not so able. Throughout the course of evolution, laughter would become established throughout the human species as a function of sociological and psychological value.
    Thus laughter gradually became established as a capacity among virtually all human beings. In addition, laughter’s infectious quality, helped distribute it as a characteristic common to all mankind. Laughter was advantageous; therefore it survived.
    Everyone likes a good laughter; he brings good cheer with him wherever he goes; the very thought of him makes life more bearable. Even today our most highly paid entertainers are not tragedians but comedians. Laughter is infectious, and most of us go out of our way to acquire the infection. We cannot think that it was otherwise in the earlier days of man’s evolution, and if that was indeed so, then it would follow that the capacity to laugh would tend to become increasingly distributed as a trait common to all men.
    In society, laughter became a characteristic that served to "humanize" men because it is essentially a social phenomenon, largely controlled by the civilization in which it takes place. The times change, and the situations about which laughter is acceptable change correspondingly. A few hundred years ago it was socially acceptable to laugh at the frailties of others; today it is unacceptable. In the Western world it is not customary to smile at the reproach of others, as it is in Japan. Movie personalities should smile or laugh in their photographs, but college professors should look serious. Each of these examples emphasizes laughter’s social function.
    Let us now consider a second stage of our hypothesis: that nature favors those capable of expressing their pleasure in laughter. It is well known that laughter has a tensional effect on the mind and body, charging the body with a feeling of well-being that few other activities are able to provide, refreshing, relieving, and involving the whole body in its "happy convulsion". The action of the trunk and diaphragm(横膈膜) accelerates the intake and output of air to and from the lungs. The freshening effect follows as the blood receives more oxygen and circulation becomes more efficient.
    What is the explanation for the loud, distinctive noises that are characteristic of hearty laughter? Possibly early man was uninhibited(不受抑制的) about expressing his pleasure at times of sudden happiness, and the loudness of his laughter enhanced it for persons who heard it. Even today our inhibitions seem to be driven away when we are laughing, and often the volume of genuine laughter makes it more infectious to individuals around us.
    There remains one matter with which we should deal: the relation of the smile to laughter insofar(到这种程度) as it bears upon our theory of the origin of laughter. The smile comes before laughter, as demonstrated by the infant who can barely smile after six days, but sometimes laughs at twelve weeks. By the twelve-week stage he becomes a comparatively sophisticated creature, although not much differently equipped physically than he was at six days. At twelve weeks, although he cannot speak, he begins to understand the general meaning and tone of uttered human sounds, and the dawn of the smile becomes the bright noonday sunlight of audible laughter. Consequently, we may again connect the origin of laughter with the origin of speech, as indicated by the gradual development of these two capacities in the human infant.
    The development of speech undeniably is an indispensable factor in the development of man’s capacity to think and establish a mastery of his environment; it was also, I theorize, the basic condition in the development of laughter. You are laughing because man learned to speak and therefore to laugh, and because nature confers benefits on the animal capable of laughter.
选项 A、Y
B、N
C、NG
答案 C
解析 第2段最后一句：In the seventeenth century a writer set forth the theory that we laugh when we compare ourselves with others and find ourselves superior: in effect, we laugh at the frailty of others．原文只提到17世纪有一种理论解释了笑的功能，但没有提到被大多数人接受，因此题目最后的后置定语部分没有在文中提到，答案为NG。
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