Question

Before I studied psychology ( 心 理 學(xué) ), I used to think that funny things make people laugh. While I was right about that, I discovered that there are lots of other psychological factors ( 因 素 ) that make people laugh other than the funny part of a joke. When someone laughs at a joke, there will usually be more than one reason that makes him laugh — and the more reasons there are, the more powerful the joke will be．If your joke supports the opinions of a person, he will laugh more.

I was attending a talk show in Egypt, and when the man started to make fun of the way pedestrians (行人) cross the streets, everyone laughed their hearts out. The main reason those people strongly laughed was that almost all of them felt angry towards pedestrians who crossed the streets carelessly. The joke wasn’t only funny, it also made people feel that they were right about being angry at those pedestrians. That is, people were laughing both because of the funny joke and because of the happiness experienced as a result of the psychological support they got．

The better a joke makes a person feel, and the more it includes other psychological factors, the more the person will like it. For example, if you are jealous (嫉妒) of a friend, and someone tells a joke that is funny and, at the same time, makes your friend seem stupid, then most probably you will laugh at it louder than if you weren’t jealous of him．

In short, we don’t laugh only when we hear something funny; we also laugh when we experience some kind of happiness that results from the other psychological factors involved in the joke. I strongly discourage making fun of anyone or belittling (貶低) someone to make someone else laugh. All I want to explain is that if your joke supports a person’s emotions in any possible way, he will certainly like it a lot. You can do this in a better way by supporting their opinions without making fun of anyone in a funny way to make them laugh.

1.Before studying psychology, the writer thought .

A.only good jokes made people laugh B.many factors led to people laughing

C.funny things could make people laugh D.laughing could make people healthy

2.Why did people laugh loud at the pedestrians in paragraph 2?

A.Because they played a joke on the pedestrians.

B.Because the pedestrians behaved in a funny way.

C.Because they could feel the pedestrians’ happiness.

D.Because their emotions were supported by the show.

3.What is the writer’s main purpose in writing this passage?

A.To introduce a talk show the writer attended.

B.To draw people’s attention to psychology learning.

C.To question about the psychological factors that make people laugh.

D.To stress people can make others laugh by supporting their opinions.

Answer 1