Question

Next time you hear a funny joke you’d better not laugh too hard. According to a paper published by the British Medical Journal, laughter isn’t always the best medicine. Sometimes it can even be harmful. Professor Robin Ferner from the University of Birmingham, one of the authors of the study, found that bad things could happen to people who laughed too much. He says: “We found people with heartbeat problems which had stopped their heart, we found people who had fainted(昏倒), and we found people who’d dislocated their jaws or burst their lungs.”

It seems that laughing can be no laughing matter. But it’s not all doom and gloom. Professor Ferner says there are benefits to laughing when you want to lose weight, for example. Yes, that’s right: laugh and be slimmer! Professor Ferner explains that: “You use energy when you laugh, you move your diaphragm(橫膈膜), you expand your lungs, and both those things can be helpful.”

According to the research, laughing for a quarter of an hour can burn up to 40 calories, and if you laughed all day you’d use up about 2,000 calories, which is what most people consume in a day. But don’t do that or you might end up with a painful jaw. Ouch! Or you might find people looking at you in a funny way.

But I don’t want to finish this article leaving you feeling desperate. Laughter comes naturally for most of us. Babies begin to laugh at around 3-6 months. So give in to your sense of humor and keep smiling. Life is short anyway.

1.Laughing too much may cause the following harmful results EXCEPT_________.

A. diaphragm movement B. heart stop

C. lung burst D. jaw dislocation

2.The underlined phrase “doom and gloom” in Paragraph 2 probably means_______.

A. nervous B. funny C. painful D. hopeless

3.How many calories can you use if you laugh for half a day?

A. About 40. B. About 2,000.

C. About 1,000. D. About 2,040.

4.What is the author’s attitude towards laughing in the last paragraph?

A. Uninterested. B. Favorable.

C. Worried. D. Disapproving.

Answer 1

1.A

2.D

3.C

4.B

【解析】

試題分析:本文提到最后一項研究表明，笑并不是最好的良藥，有時可能是有害的。但笑可以消耗很多熱量，盡管如何不要放棄微笑，畢竟生活是短暫的。

1. 細節題。根據第一段He says: “We found people with heartbeat problems which had stopped their heart, we found people who had fainted(昏倒), and we found people who’d dislocated their jaws or burst their lungs可知危害性有心臟驟停，昏倒，脫臼，傷到肺，故A項沒有提到。故選A.

2. 猜測詞意題。根據第二段It seems that laughing can be no laughing matter. But it’s not all doom and gloom. Professor Ferner says there are benefits to laughing when you want to lose weight, for example.可知好象笑并不是玩笑的事情，但它也不是無用，教授說當你想減肥時，笑是非常有效的。故選D.

3. 推斷題。根據第三段if you laughed all day you’d use up about 2,000 calories, which is what most people consume in a day.可知一天消耗2000，那么半天大概消耗1000.故選C.

4. 推斷題。根據最后一段So give in to your sense of humour and keep smiling. Life is short anyway.可知不要放棄幽默，保持微笑，畢竟生命是短暫的。故選D.

考點：考查科普類短文閱讀