Dr. Wiseman started the “laugh lab” project in September 2001. It is the largest study of humor. Participants are invited to log on the laugh lab website, give a few personal details, tell their favorite jokes and judge the jokes told by other people.
Their project will last for a year, and the organizers hope to finally discover the world’s funniest joke. But there is also a serious purpose. The researchers want to know what people from different nations and cultures find funny. And they want to find out the differences between male’s and female’s sense of humor. The idea is that if we want to understand each other, we have to find out what makes us laugh.
This is a subject that has long interested psychologists (心理学家) and philosophers (哲学家). Most of the time, people are not completely honest. We do things that society expects us to and say things that help us get what we want. But laughing cannot be controlled. When we laugh, we tell the truth about ourselves.
By December 2001 over 10,000 jokes had been submitted (公认的). This gave the scientists enough evidence to make early conclusions. It seems that men and women do have different senses of humor, for example.
“Our findings show the major differences in the ways in which males and females use humor,” said Dr Wiseman. “Males use humor to appear superior (高傲的，有优越感的) to others, while women are more skilled in languages and prefer word play.”
Researchers also found that there really is such a thing as a national sense of humor. The British enjoy what is usually called “toilet humor”. But the French like their jokes short and sharp, “You’re a high priced lawyer. Will you answer two questions for $ 500?” “Yes. What’s the second question?”
The Germans are famous for not having a sense of humor. But the survey found that German participants were more likely to find submitted jokes funny than any other nationality. Perhaps that proves the point. Is this joke funny? I don’t know, but let’s say yes, just to be safe.
Dr Wiseman and his workmates also submitted jokes created by computer. But none of those who took part in the survey found any of them amusing. Perhaps this is relief (安慰). Computers already seem like they can do everything. But at least they should leave the funny things to us.
小题1:The scientist started the “laugh lab” project ________.
A．to find the funniest joke in European countries
B．to know what funny people are from different nations and cultures
C．to find out the differences between the male’s and female’s sense of humor
D．to get more personal details about participants小题2:The writer gave the examples of the British, the French and the Germans_____.
A．to show that the French people have a better sense of humor
B．to prove the British people have a sense of “toilet humor”
C．to show people from different nations have different senses of humor
D．to prove that the Germans have no sense of humor小题3:Which statement is true according to the passage?
A．The jokes by computer are less funny than those by humans.
B．The Germans cannot find the submitted jokes amusing.
C．Males are better at word play compared with women.
D．Females like to use humor to show that they are superior.
