What"s so funny?

　John McCrone reviews recent research on humour

　The joke comes over the headphones: " Which side of a dog has the most hair? The left." No, not funny. Try again. " Which side of a dog has the most hair? The outside." Hah! The punchline is silly yet fitting, tempting a smile, even a laugh（這個笑料很愚蠢，但是仍然足以讓人發(fā)笑，甚至大笑）. Laughter has always struck people as deeply mysterious, perhaps pointless. The writer Arthur Koestler dubbed it the luxury reflex: "unique in that it serves no apparent biological purpose".

　笑話從耳機中傳出來：“狗哪一邊的毛最多？左邊。”不對，不好笑，再猜。“狗哪一邊的毛最多？外邊。”哈！這個笑話的關鍵語句有些荒唐，卻很合適，令人宛爾，甚至捧腹大笑。笑一直讓人類感到神秘，或許笑沒有什么意義。作家 Arthur Koestler 稱笑為奢侈的反射作用，“笑的獨特之處就在于它沒有明顯的生物學目的。”

　 Theories about humour have an ancient pedigree. Plato expressed the idea that humour is simply a delighted feeling of superiority over others. Kant and Freud felt that joke-telling relies on

　building up a psychic tension which is safely punctured by the ludicrousn

　ess of the punchline. But most modern humour theorists have settled on some version of Aristotle"s belief that jokes are based on a reaction to or resolution of incongruity, when the punchline is either a nonsense or, though appearing silly, has a clever second meaning.

　幽默理論有著悠久的歷史。柏拉圖認為幽默就是一種因感到比別人優(yōu)越而體會到的快樂的感覺。康德和弗洛伊德認為講笑話時需要營造一種精神上的緊張氣氛，最后抖開笑話的包袱，讓其滑稽有趣之處化解這種緊張氣氛。但是大多數當代幽默理論家最終都采納了亞里士多德的觀點：笑話的基礎就是一種對不和諧情況的反應或解釋，這種情況下笑話的關鍵語句或者沒有什么特殊意義，或者貌似荒唐卻聰明地隱含了第二層含義。

　 Graeme Ritchie, a computational linguist in Edinburgh, studies the linguistic structure of jokes in order to understand not only humour but language understanding and reasoning in machines. He says that while there is no single format for jokes, many revolve around a sudden and surprising conceptual shift. A comedian will present a situation followed by an unexpected interpretation that is also apt.

　愛丁堡的計算語言學家 Graeme Ritchie 在研究笑話的語言結構，不僅為了理解幽默，同時也為了了解機器的語言理解能力及推理能力。他說，盡管笑話沒有固定的模式，但是許多

　歷史老照片不能說的秘密慈禧軍閥明末清初文革晚清

　 笑話都是圍繞某個出其不意的概念轉換展開的。喜劇演員會描述一個情景，然后給出一個出人意料卻又恰如其分的解釋。

　 So even if a punchline sounds silly, the listener can see there is a clever semantic fit and that sudden mental "Aha!" is the buzz that makes us laugh. Viewed from this angle, humour is just a form of creative insight, a sudden leap to a new perspective.

　所以，即使笑話的關鍵語句聽起來有些無聊，聽眾卻可以意識到其中有一個機靈恰當的語義，而心頭掠過的“對呀”這一恍然大悟的感嘆就是令我們發(fā)笑的信號。從這個角度看來，幽默就是一種創(chuàng)造性的洞察力，一種向新視角的突越。

　 However, there is another type of laughter, the laughter of social appeasement and it is

　important to understand this too. Play is a crucial part of development in most young mammals. Rats produce ultrasonic squeaks to prevent their scuffles turning nasty. Chimpanzees have a "play-face" - a gaping expression accompanied by a panting "ah, ah" noise. In humans, these signals have mutated into smiles and laughs. Researchers believe social situations, rather

　 than cognitive events such as jokes, trigger these instinctual markers of play or appeasement. People laugh on fairground rides or when tickled to flag a play situation, whether they feel amused or not.

　但是還有另外一種笑，就是社會交往中緩解緊張局面的笑。理解這種笑也是很重要的。在許多幼小的哺乳動物的發(fā)育當中，游戲都是關鍵的一部分。老鼠會在廝打游玩時發(fā)出超聲波似的尖叫聲，防止廝打變成真的爭斗。黑猩猩有一種游戲表情，把嘴張得大大的，同時發(fā)出“啊、啊”的喘息聲。對于人類來說，這些信號都已轉化成為了微笑和大笑。研究人員認為，激發(fā)這種本能的游戲信號或緩解緊張局面信號的因素不是笑話等認知活動，而是社會場景。人們玩旋轉木馬或被別人逗癢，開始玩鬧時，無論是否感到好笑都會發(fā)出笑聲。

　Both social and cognitive types of laughter tap into the same expressive machinery in our brains, the emotion and motor circuits that produce smiles and excited vocalisations. However, if

　cognitive laughter is the product of more general thought processes, it should result from more expansive brain activity.

　無論是社交場合中的笑還是認知活動中的笑，都是我們大腦中的同一表達機制在起作用。情感和運動神經網絡令人微笑，并發(fā)出笑聲。但是，如果認知活動中的笑是更多元的思維過程的產物的話，那么這種笑應當源于更廣泛的大腦活動。

　Psychologist VinodGoel investigated humour using the new technique of "single event" functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRl). An MRI scanner uses magnetic fields and radio waves to track the changes in oxygenated blood that accompany mental activity. Until recently, MRI

　scanners needed several minutes of activity and so could not be used to track rapid thought processes such as comprehending a joke. New developments now allow half-second "snapshots" of all sorts of reasoning and problem-solving activities.

　心理學家 VinodGoel 使用“單事件”官能磁共振成像這一新技術對幽默進行調查研究，磁共振成像掃描儀使用磁場和無線電波跟蹤伴隨著心理活動的充氧血液中發(fā)生的變化。直到最近，這種掃描儀都還需要數分鐘的時間才能完成掃描，所以無法用于跟蹤理解笑話這樣迅速的思維過程。而新的進展使所有的推理和解決問題活動都能在半秒鐘就快速成像。

　Although Goel felt being inside a brain scanner was hardly the ideal place for appreciating a joke, he found evidence that understanding a joke involves a widespread mental shift. His scans

　showed that at the beginning of a joke the listener"$ prefrontal cortex lit u

　p, particularly the right prefrontal believed to be critical for problem solving. But there was also activity in the temporal lobes at the side of the head (consistent with attempts to rouse stored knowledge) and in many other brain areas. Then when the punchline arrived, a new area sprang to life -the orbital prefrontal cortex. This patch of brain tucked behind the orbits of the eyes is associated with evaluating information.

　盡管 Goel 感到弄清了大腦內部的活動并不能完美地解決笑話的理解問題，他卻發(fā)現理解笑話需要思維的大轉換。他的掃描儀顯示聽笑話的人在笑話開始時前額腦皮層會發(fā)亮，尤其是對解決問題起關鍵作用的右前額會發(fā)亮。但是在頭部側面的顳葉也會有活動，表明在試圖激發(fā)已有的知識，大腦其他許多區(qū)域也有活動。然后，當包袱抖開時，一個新的區(qū)域——前額眼眶腦皮層活躍起來。這個蜷縮在眼眶后邊的大腦區(qū)域是與處理信息相聯系的。

　Making a rapid emotional assessment of the events of the moment is an extremely demanding job for the brain, animal or human. Energy and arousal levels may need, to be retuned in the blink of an eye. These abrupt changes will produce either positive or negative feelings. The

　orbital cortex, the region that becomes active in Goel"s experiment, seems the best candidate for the site that feeds such feelings into higher-level thought processes, with its close connections to the brain"s sub-cortical arou

　sal apparatus and centres of metabolic control.

　無論人腦還是動物的大腦，迅速對眼前的事件作出情感上的判斷都是一件非常艱巨的任務。能量和受激反應的程度都要在一眨眼的功夫作出調整。這些突然的改變產生的感覺既有積極的又有消極的。在 Goel實驗中變得活躍的眼眶腦皮層區(qū)域由于與大腦的次腦皮層喚激結構和新陳代謝控制中樞有著密切的聯系，似乎最有可能是將這些感覺轉入更高一層的思維過程的區(qū)域。

　 All warm-blooded animals make constant tiny adjustments in arousal in response to external events, but humans, who have developed a much more complicated internal life as a result of language, respond emotionally not only to their surroundings, but to theirown thoughts. Whenever a sought-for answer snaps into place, there is a shudder of pleased recognition. Creative discovery being pleasurable, humans have learned to find ways of milking this natural response. The fact that jokes tap into our general evaluative machinery explains why the line between funny and disgusting, or funny and frightening, can be so fine. Whether a joke gives pleasure or pain depends on a person"s outlook.

　所有的溫血動物對外界變化的刺激都在不斷地作出細微的調整，但人類由于擁有語言而有著更為復雜的內心活動，所以人類不僅會對周圍的環(huán)境產生感情上的反應，而且會對自身的思維產生感情上的反應。一旦某一苦苦尋找的答案出現了，人就會突然產生一種快樂的認可感。由于創(chuàng)造性的發(fā)現是令人愉悅的，人類學會了尋找獵取這種自然反應的途徑。笑話可以進入我們的一般評估機制，這就說明有趣與惡心，或者有趣與恐怖之間的界限是十分微妙的。一個笑話給人帶來的是快樂還是痛苦取決于一個人的價值觀。

　 Humour may be a luxury, but the mechanism behind it is no evolutionary accident. As

　, a psychologist at William and Mary College in Virginia, says: "I like to think of humour as the distorted mirror of the mind. It"s creative, perceptual, analytical and lingual. If we can figure out how the mind processes humour, then we"ll have a pretty good handle on how it works in general.

　幽默可能算是一種奢侈品，但其背后的機制卻不是進化過程中的偶然事件。正如弗吉尼亞州威廉—瑪麗學院的心理學家 Peter Derks 所說：“我樂意將幽默想像成是思維的歪曲鏡，幽默是創(chuàng)造性的、感性的、與分析和語言有關的。如果我們能夠找出思維是如何處理幽默的，我們就能從整體上處理好其運作機制。”

　 14 Arthur Koestler considered laughter biologically important in several ways. F 15 Plato believed humourtobe a sign of above-average intelligence.NG

　16 Kant believed that asuccessfuljoke involves the controlled release of nervous energy.T 17 Current thinking on humour has largely ignored Aristotle’s view on the subject.F 18 Graeme Ritchie"s work linksjoketo artificialintelligence. T

　19 Most comedians use personal situations as a source of humour. NG

　20 Chimpanzeesmake particularnoises when they are playing.

　 T

　Questions 21-23

　The diagram below shows the areas of the brain activated by jokes.

　 Label the diagram.

　Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

　 Write your answers in boxes 21-23 on your answer sheet.

　Questions 24-27

　Complete each sentence with the correct ending A-G below.

　 Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 24-27 on your answer sheet.

　 24

　One of the brain’s most difficult tasks is to

　25

　Because of the language they have developed, humans

　 26

　Individual responses to humour

　 27

　PeterDerks believes that humour

　A

　react to their own thoughts. B

　helped create language in humans. C

　respond instantly to whatever is happening.

　problem solving

　Temporal lobes

　evaluating information

　C

　A

　F

　D

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