What else can so enjoyably exercise the heart and boost the mood? What else can serve so well as both a social signal and a conv

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问题     What else can so enjoyably exercise the heart and boost the mood? What else can serve so well as both a social signal and a conversational lubricant? What else can bond parents to children, siblings to one another and teach powerful lessons about staying alive in a tooth-and-claw world? Laughter may seem like little more than evolution’s whoopee cushion, but if scientists studying it are right, we owe it an awful lot of thanks for some surprisingly serious things.
    One thing researchers notice about laughter is that it’s something we seldom do alone. "Laughter is 30 times more frequent in social than solitary situations," says Robert Pro vine, psychologist and neuroscientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. That’s not just because it’s devilishly hard to tell yourself a joke and convincingly respond, "No, no, I really haven’t heard that one before." Rather, it’s because most of the time laughter is more a tool of communication than anything else.
    Typically, Provine says, a laugh is what he calls social play vocalization, something we use instinctively to send disarming cues, hold a listener’s attention and offer—or seek—encouragement to go on. "In conversation," he says, "speakers are often more likely to laugh than listeners."
    In the course of his research, Provine has gone on discreet tours of his campus eavesdropping on the kinds of remarks speakers make before laughter occurs. Among the nonsidesplitters he has collected are "I’ve gotta go now," "I see your point" and the always rib tickling "I’ll see you guys later." In each case, the laughter seemed merely a bit of audible punctuation.
    Whether or not what the speaker says is genuinely funny, any reciprocal laughter from the listener serves as a powerful reward pellet, reinforcing the direction of the conversation. It also flatters the speaker, which can be a potent card to play when a conversation becomes flirtatious. "Women laugh most in the presence of men they find attractive," Provine says. "Men are the leading laugh getters; women are the leading laughers."
    Just why the pleasure we take in wordplay or pratfalls elicits the noise we recognize as laughter is uncertain, but Provine says it has roots in the physical play of other primates. The human ha-ha, he believes, is very similar to the simian pant-pant, something that occurs a lot when apes wrestle and chase. "Laughter is basically the sound of labored breathing," he says.
    While laughing adds a level of communication to conversation, it can also create a wordless bond across a room. As much as we might dread an attack of the giggles in the middle of a poetry reading or a eulogy, it can also be a lot of subversive fun—particularly when the bug spreads to the person sitting next to you.
What happens when a man says something flirtatious to a woman and she laughs?

选项 A、The man is being encouraged to continue flirting.
B、The woman is discovering that the man is physically attractive.
C、The man and woman are playing natural conversational roles.
D、The woman is telling the man that she finds him, or his remarks, funny

答案A

解析 属推断题。原文第五段指出:不管说的话是不是真的好笑,听者的笑可以成为对说话者有力的奖赏,促使谈话继续下去,当谈话变得妙趣横生时,听者的笑还会愉悦说话者,它是很有影响力的一张牌。依此推断A项正确。B、C、D选项不合题意。
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