What is funny? The short answer is: Who knows? The joke that causes a burst of laughter from one listener might be met with a puzzled look from another.
In general, you should avoid jokes at any business or social gathering where there are more than two people in your conversational group. If there are only two people — and they consist of you and your best friend — go ahead and tell it.
Admittedly, a few people possess a perfect sense of timing, appropriateness, and joke delivery. You are probably not one of them. You might be quite funny and have many great jokes. But there’s a place for jokes — over dinner with family, hiking with friends, but business or social affairs with colleagues and acquaintances (熟人) are not it. It takes a whole other level of joke-telling ability to put a joke into the more formal conversations.
The best jokes come into the conversation so that by the time listeners realize a joke is in progress, the punchline that produces humour is being delivered — to their surprise and delight.
Jokes don’t translate well when you’re in a group with mixed backgrounds: those whose first language is not English, those who might not understand a special term or an “in” expression, young people who wouldn’t catch a reference to some bit of culture familiar to older people — and vice versa (反之亦然).
Never joke about another person in the group — about their name, habits, hometown, profession, appearance, or past. It’s not a question of whether the joke is cheery or appropriate. No one enjoys being singled out this way. When you are the subject of the joke, the laughter doesn’t feel good no matter how hard you try to tell yourself they’re not laughing at you. Because that’s what it feels like.
What do you say if you realize your joke upset someone? Apologize as briefly and as sincerely as you can, and hope that someone changes the subject. Try saying: “I’m sorry. I should have known better” or “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
What do you do if people don’t get your joke or don’t appear to find it as funny as you do? First, do not retell it, only louder this time, hoping the point of the joke will be seen. Second, don’t try to push people to get it. People do not like people whose jokes they don’t understand. They feel stupid and need to blame someone. If you want to leave with the goodwill of your listeners, say something to make them feel less foolish. You could say: “I don’t know why I tell jokes when I’m so poor at it.”
The world needs laughter, and good humour is a success wherever it goes, so this caveat (告诫) about joke-telling is not meant to dampen high spirits or to advocate dull conversation. If you’re a gifted story-teller and you know people love your jokes, go for it. We need your kind. The rest of us will save our jokes for family and close friends.According to the passage, it might be appropriate for you to tell a joke at a business or social gathering if ______.
| A．the joke is well chosen |
| B．you have complete confidence in your listeners’ sense of humor |
| C．only you and your best friend are involved in the conversation |
| D．the audience consists of your colleagues and acquaintances |
Why do some jokes fail to work?
| A．Because the punchline is too long to catch. |
| B．Because the joke-teller uses wrong words and expressions. |
| C．Because the joke-teller and listeners don’t share the same background knowledge. |
| D．Because the jokes are not properly translated into the listeners’ native language. |
How will people feel when they are joked about?
| A．They will feel happy if the joke is a pleasant one. |
| B．They will be upset no matter what kind of joke it is. |
| C．They will enjoy the joke when realizing that people are not laughing at them. |
| D．They will panic because it makes them the center of attention. |
When people do not understand a joke they hear, they tend to ______.
| A．believe it’s the joke-teller’s fault | B．get someone to retell the joke |
| C．ask for explanation | D．say something foolish |
Which of the following best describes the writer’s opinion on joke-telling?
| A．Nobody knows what makes a joke funny. |
| B．We should not tell jokes unless we are asked to do so. |
| C．Joke-telling is a very complex thing. |
| D．Jokes should be told only to friends and family members. |
It's not a new phenomenon, but have you noticed how many nouns are being used as verbs? We all use them, often without noticing what we're doing.
I was arranging to meet someone for dinner last week, and I said “I’ll pencil it in my diary”, and my friend said “You can ink it in”, meaning that it was a firm arrangement not a tentative one!
Many of these new verbs are linked to new technology. An obvious example is the word fax. We all got used to sending and receiving faxes, and then soon started talking about faxing something and promising we'd fax it immediately. Then along came email, and we were soon all emailing each other madly. How did we do without it? I can hardly imagine life without my daily emails.
Email reminds me, of course, of my computer and its software, which has produced another
couple of new verbs. On my computer I can bookmark those pages from the World Wide Web that I think I'll want to look at again, thus saving all the effort of remembering their addresses and calling them up from scratch. I can do the same thing on my PC, but there I don't bookmark; I favorite—coming from “favorite pages”, so the verb is derived from an adjective not a noun.
Now my children bought me a mobile phone, known simply as a mobile and I had to learn yet more new verbs. I can message someone, that is, I can leave a message for them on their phone. Or I can text them, write a few words suggesting when and where to meet, for example. How long will it be before I can mobile them, that is, phone them using my mobile? I haven’t heard that verb yet, but I’m sure I will soon. Perhaps I’ll start using it myself! “I’ll pencil it in my diary” in the second paragraph probably means.
| A．it was a firm arrangement |
| B．it was an uncertain arrangement |
| C．the arrangement should be written as a diary |
| D．he prefers a pencil to a pen |
A website address can be easily found if it has been______.
| A．emailed | B．messaged | C．favorited | D．texted |
Which of the following has not been used as a verb, yet?
| A．message | B．page | C．email | D．mobile |
The best title for this passage is____.
| A．New Verbs from Nouns |
| B．The Development of the English language |
| C．New Technology and New words |
| D．Technology and Language. |
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to play the character of Ronald McDonald for the McDonald's Corporation.
One day each month，we visited hospitals bringing a little happiness to the children there. But there were two rules placed on me during a visit. First, I could not go anywhere in the hospital without permission. And second, I could not physically touch anyone within the hospital. They did not want me to carry germs(细菌)from one patient to another. Breaking either of these rules, I was told, I could lose my job. One day, as I was heading down a hallway and on my way home, I heard a little voice coming through a halfopened door，“Ronald，Ronald.”
I stepped in and saw a boy，about five years old, lying in his dad's arms, Mom with a nurse on the other side. I knew by the feeling in the room that the situation was grave. I asked his name. He told me it was Billy and that I did a few simple magic tricks for him. As I stepped back to say goodbye, he asked me “Ronald, would you hold me？”
At such a simple request, my heart was screaming, “Yes！”But my mind was screaming louder. “No！You are going to lose your job！”
“Hold me” was such a simple request, and yet I searched for any reasonable excuses that allowed me to leave, but none. It took me a moment to realize that in this situation, losing my job may not be the disaster I feared. Then, I picked up this little boy. He was so weak and so scared. We laughed and cried for 45 minutes. With tears in my eyes, I left them. Less than 48 hours later, I received a phone call from Billy's mom that Billy had passed away. She and her husband simply wanted to thank me for making a difference in their little boy's life.
Billy's mom told me shortly after I left the room. Billy looked at her and said, “Momma, I don't care any more if I see Santa this year because I was held by Ronald McDonald.”
For the record, McDonald's Corporation did find it out, but, given the situation，permitted me to go on with my job. I continued as Ronald for another year before leaving the corporation to share the story of Billy and how important it is to take risks.The underlined word “grave” in Paragraph 3 means “________”.
| A．weak | B．serious | C．interesting | D．exciting |
When Billy asked the author to hold him, at first the author ________.
| A．was unwilling to do so | B．was glad to do so |
| C．hesitated to do so | D．hurried to do so |
What lesson did the author draw from his experience?
| A．To amuse others is enjoyable. | B．To take risks is important. |
| C．To break rules is necessary. | D．To be fired is not fearful. |
We learn from the story that ________.
| A．the author left the corporation because he broke the rules |
| B．the author left the corporation because he didn't like the rules |
| C．the boy was quite happy with the experience with the author |
| D．the boy was quite happy with Santa at Christmas |
Because plants cannot move or talk, most people believe that they have no feelings and that they cannot receive signals from outside. However, this may not be completely true.
People who studied plants have found out that plants carry a small electrical charge (电荷). It is possible to measure this charge with a small piece of equipment called “galvanometer”. The galvanometer is placed on a leaf off the plant, and it records any changes in the electrical field of the leaf. Humans have a similar field which can change when we are shocked or frightened.
A man called Backster used a galvanometer for his studies of plants and was very surprised at his results. He found that if he had two or more plants in a room and he began to destroy one of them － perhaps by pulling off its leaves or by pulling it out of its pot － then the galvanometer on the leaves of the other plants showed a change in the electrical field. It seemed as if the plants were signalling a feeling of shock. This happened not only when Backster started to destroy plants, but also when he destroyed other living things such as insects (昆虫).
Backster said that the plants also knew if someone had destroyed a living thing some distance away, because they signalled when a man who had just cut down a tree entered the room.
Another scientist, named Sauvin, achieved similar results to Backster’s. He kept galvanometers fixed to his plants all the time and checked regularly to see what the plants were doing. If he was out of the office, he telephoned to find out about the signals the plants were sending. In this way, he found that the plants were sending out signals at the exact times when he felt strong pleasure or pain. In fact, Sauvin could cause a change in the electrical field of his plants over a distance of a few miles simply by thinking about them.Backster was surprised at the results of his studies because _____.
| A．he destroyed an insect |
| B．he destroyed a plant by pulling off its leaves |
| C．he found that plants could express feelings of shock |
| D．he found that plants could move and speak after all |
The plants sent out signals _____.
| A．only when Backster Started to destroy plants |
| B．when Backster destroyed plants or other living things |
| C．only when he destroyed things such as insects |
| D．only when Backster placed the galvanometer on the leaves of the plants |
The scientist called Sauvin _____.
| A．did not agree with Backster’s ideas |
| B．did not get the same sort of results as Backster did |
| C．got different results from Backster’s |
| D．found out some of the same things that Backster did |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．The electrical charge plants carry may shock or frighten us. |
| B．A tree will signal when it has been cut down. |
| C．Sauvin could make his plants send out signals some distance away. |
| D．Plants have feelings because they can receive signals without moving. |
Advertising is a highly developed twentieth-century industry. The development of radio, television, cinema, magazines and newspapers has gone hand in hand with the development of advertising. Why is advertising so popular? Is it a waste of money? It has been proved again and again that repeated advertising increases product sales. Since it increases production, the price can be reduced. Therefore advertising, instead of making a product more expensive, makes it cheaper.
Advertising is now a scientific business. Once managers would say jokingly, " I know that half of what I spend on advertising is wasted, but I don't know which half." Now, all parts of an advertising program are properly measured and researched.
What makes a good advertisement? There have been major changes in advertising in the past sixty years. People read advertisements partly for information and partly for pleasure. Today's advertisements often start with a question, or a puzzle, with the purpose of attracting the reader's attention. Of course, most advertisements contain information. But this is usually contained in a text that is interesting and often funny. Humor is very important. Sometimes advertisements tell a story, or the story may be continued over a number of advertisements. However, there is a danger in this. It is possible that the reader or viewer will remember the advertisement but not the name of the product.The purpose of advertising is ____.
| A．to increase product sales |
| B．to make a product much better |
| C．to spend more money |
| D．to reduce the production |
Which of the following can be used in place of the underlined phrase "hand in hand" ?
| A．Here and there. | B．Again and again. |
| C．As usual. | D．At the same time. |
What is meant by what managers said in the second paragraph?
| A．A11 the money on advertising was wasted. |
| B．Not all the advertisements were well designed. |
| C．A11 the managers knew about advertising then. |
| D．Managers spent no money on advertising. |
What does the writer think of advertising?
| A．Useless. | B．Unnecessary. | C．Important. | D．Wasteful. |
Cara Lang is 13. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts, in the U. S. Last Thursday, she didn't go to school. She went to work with her father instead. Every year, on the fourth Thursday in April, millions of young girls go work. This is Take Our Daughters to Work Day. The girls are between the ages of 9 and 15. They spend the day at work with an adult, usually a mother, father, aunt, or uncle. They go to offices, police stations, laboratories, and other places where their parents or other family members work. Next year, the day will include sons, too.
The Ms. Foundation, an organization for women, started the program about ten years ago. In the U.S., many women work outside the home. The Ms. Foundation wanted girls to find out about many different kinds of jobs. Then, when the girls grow up, they can choose a job they like.
Cara's father is a film director. Cara says, “It was very exciting for me to go to the studio with my dad. I saw a lot of people doing different jobs.” Many businesses have special activities for girls on this day. Last year, Cara went to work with her aunt at the University of Massachusetts. In the engineering department, the girls learned to build a bridge with toothpicks and Candy. In the chemistry department, they learned to use scales. They learned about many other kinds of jobs, too.
Right now, Cara does not know what job she will have when she grows up. But because of Take Our Daughters to Work Day, she knows she has many choices.What is Cara's father?
| A．An engineer. | B．An official. | C．A moviemaker. | D．A professor. |
According to the passage, Take our Daughters to work Day is ______.
| A．on every Thursday in Apri |
| B．a holiday for girls of all ages |
| C．a day for girls to know about jobs |
| D．a day for girls to get a job easily |
On this special day, Cara has done all the following EXCEPT that ____.
| A．she learned to use scales |
| B．she worked as an actress |
| C．she went to work with her aunt |
| D．she used toothpicks and Candy to build a bridge |
What is probably the best title for the passage?
| A．Cara Lang, a Fortunate Girl |
| B．Take Our Daughters to Work Day |
| C．Children's Day and Work Day |
| D．Ms. Foundation, an Organization for Women |