Analysts have had their go at humor, and I have read some of this interpretative liter ature, but without being greatly instructed. Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards (内在部分) are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.In a newsreel theatre the other day I saw a picture of a man who had developed the soap bubble to a higher point than it had ever before reached. He had become the ace soap bubble blower of America, had perfected the business of blowing bubbles, refined it, doubled it, squared it, and had even worked himself up into a convenient lather. The effect was not pretty. Some of the bubbles were too big to be beautiful, and the blower was always jumping into them or out of them, or playing some sort of unattractive trick with them. It was, if anything, a rather repulsive sight. Humor is a little like that: it won’t stand much blowing up, and it won’t stand much poking. It has a certain fragility, an evasiveness, which one had best respect. Essentially, it is a complete mystery. A hu man frame convulsed with laughter, and the laughter becoming mysterious and uncontrol lable, is as far out of balance as one shaken with the hiccoughs or in the throes of a sneez ing fit.One of the things commonly said about humorists is that they are really very sad peo ple-clowns with a breaking heart. There is some truth in it, but it is badly stated. It would be more accurate, I think, to say that there is a deep vein of melancholy running through everyone’s life and that the humorist, perhaps more sensible of it than some oth ers, compensates for it actively and positively. Humorists fatten on trouble. They have al ways made trouble pay. They struggle along with a good will and endure pain cheerfully, knowing how well it will serve them in the sweet by and by. You find them wrestling with foreign languages, fighting folding ironing boards and swollen drainpipes, suffering the terrible discomfort of tight boot (or as Josh Billings wittily called them, "tire boots"). They pour out their sorrows profitably, in a form that is not quite a fiction not quite a fact either. Beneath the sparking surface of these dilemmas flows the strong tide of human woe.Practically everyone is a manic depressive of sorts, with his up moments and his down moments, and you certainly don’t have to be a humorist to taste the sadness of situation and mood. But there is often a rather fine line between laughing and crying, and if a hu morous piece of writing brings a person to the point where his emotional responses are un trustworthy and seem likely to break over into the opposite realm, it is because humor, like poetry, has an extra content. It plays close to the big hot fire, which is Truth, and sometimes the reader feels the heat. A humorous piece of writing can make the reader’s emotional responses untrustwor- thy because()
A. it expresses the truth of the sadness of human life with a sparkling surface
B. everyone has his happy moments and unhappy moments
C. there is an obvious line between laughing and crying
D. it is like poetry, very rhythmic
查看答案
Assuming that a constant travel-time budget, geographic constraints and short-term infrastructure constraints persist as fundamental features of global mobility, what long-term results can one expect7 In high-income regions, (41) North America, our picture suggests that the share of traffic (42) sup plied by buses and automobiles will decline as high-speed transport rises sharply. In developing countries, we (43) the strongest increase to be in the shares first for buses and later for automobiles. Glob ally, these (44) in bus and automobile transport are partially offsetting. In all regions, the share of low-speed rail transport will probably continue its strongly (45) decline.We expect that throughout the period 1990—2050, the (46) North American will continue to de vote most of his or her 1. 1-hour travel-time (47) to automobile travel. The very large demand (48) air travel (or high-speed rail travel) that will be manifest in 2050 (49) to only 12 minutes per person a day; a little time goes a long way in the air. In several developing regions, most travel (50) in 2050 will still be devoted to nonmotorized modes. Buses will persist (51) the primary form of motorized transportation in developing countries for decades. (52) important air travel becomes, buses, automobiles and (53) low-speed trains will surely go on serving vital functions. (54) of the super-rich al ready commute and shop in aircraft, but average people will continue to spend most of their travel time on the (55) . 41()
A. frankly
B. exceptionally
C. unfortunately
D. notably
Why would any woman in her fight mind choose to walk on the balls of her feet with her heels propped up by spikes The historical answer is that high heels reflect aristocratic tastes-specifically, the tastes of the seventeenth-century French court, which first popularized them in Europe. Not only did heels keep the wearer’s feet relatively mud free, they also created a physical elevation to match the social elevation of the stylish, exaggerated the strutting gait of the noble classes, and they suggested, by their very precariousness, that their owners could afford not to worry about falling on their faces. Indeed, as Bernard Rudofsky points out, seventeenth-century wearers of high heels, men and women, frequently had to be transported in sedan chairs because they could not manage cobblestones on foot. Some "heels" in that era were actually full-soled platforms, and to walk on these things at all, one needed the constant elbow support of two Servants.The helplessness associated with the raised-heel style encouraged the notion that heeled persons were above having to care for themselves. In view of this, it is not surprising that even today it is women, almost exclusively, who wear heels. High heels are the cobbler’s contribution to what I have called the pedestal ploy. They link physical incapacity with the notion of woman as a "higher being"--too high to get along on her own.Women have taken to high heels, of course, because they feel, correctly, that they increase their attractiveness to men. Part of that increased attractiveness has to do with male fantasies of female fragility. As fashion-iconoclast Elizabeth Hawes puts it, "The idea is that he, in his heavy shoes, should feel stronger and more capable than she on her fragile stilts. Never mind the realities." Another part of it may be biological. In his discussion of rump display among mammals, Dale Guthrie notes that the "lines of the buttocks, thigh, calf and ankle have a native sexual stimulation, but this can be increased with high-heeled shoes; the curves are exaggerated when the heel is lifted." Heels also exaggerate the lateral motion of buttocks the. ultimate function of high heels, therefore, may be to fuel the male belief that women are both impotent and seductive. The passage is mainly about ()
A. high heels
B. functions of high heels
C. history of high heels
D. women on high heels
In the simplest terms, a market is the place where seller meets buyer to exchange products for money. Traditional markets still function in many parts of the world. Even in the United Sates, during summer months, there are farmers’ markets where direct selling and buying take place between producers and consumers. Most service industries still operate at this market level.Manufacturing industries and most agricultural enterprises are more distant from the consumer. Their products pass through several hands--truckers, warehouse workers, wholesalers, and retailers before reaching the final consumer.Products, or commodities, are usually divided into two types: consumer and industrial. Consumer goods are those that are sold to final users, the customers. These goods include food, clothing, automobiles, television sets, appliances, and all those things people go to stores to purchase.Industrial goods are those that are sold to companies or other businesses for use in manufacturing or other purposes. Automobile makers buy many of the parts used to assemble cars. A tire manufacturer buys rubber, synthetic or otherwise, with which to make fires. Eventually these materials will end up in the hands of final users: the owners of the cars. The nature of industrial goods depends on the nature of the goods to be made for final users. The price of industrial goods and raw materials will influence the price of final goods, those that the consumer buys. It can be inferred that ()
A. most of the products exchanged at traditional markets are consumer goods
B. most of the products bought and sold at traditional markets are industrial goods
C. most farmers lived far away form marketplaces and never sold their products directly
D. most service industries have not yet developed mature markets for their products
Analysts have had their go at humor, and I have read some of this interpretative liter ature, but without being greatly instructed. Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards (内在部分) are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.In a newsreel theatre the other day I saw a picture of a man who had developed the soap bubble to a higher point than it had ever before reached. He had become the ace soap bubble blower of America, had perfected the business of blowing bubbles, refined it, doubled it, squared it, and had even worked himself up into a convenient lather. The effect was not pretty. Some of the bubbles were too big to be beautiful, and the blower was always jumping into them or out of them, or playing some sort of unattractive trick with them. It was, if anything, a rather repulsive sight. Humor is a little like that: it won’t stand much blowing up, and it won’t stand much poking. It has a certain fragility, an evasiveness, which one had best respect. Essentially, it is a complete mystery. A hu man frame convulsed with laughter, and the laughter becoming mysterious and uncontrol lable, is as far out of balance as one shaken with the hiccoughs or in the throes of a sneez ing fit.One of the things commonly said about humorists is that they are really very sad peo ple-clowns with a breaking heart. There is some truth in it, but it is badly stated. It would be more accurate, I think, to say that there is a deep vein of melancholy running through everyone’s life and that the humorist, perhaps more sensible of it than some oth ers, compensates for it actively and positively. Humorists fatten on trouble. They have al ways made trouble pay. They struggle along with a good will and endure pain cheerfully, knowing how well it will serve them in the sweet by and by. You find them wrestling with foreign languages, fighting folding ironing boards and swollen drainpipes, suffering the terrible discomfort of tight boot (or as Josh Billings wittily called them, "tire boots"). They pour out their sorrows profitably, in a form that is not quite a fiction not quite a fact either. Beneath the sparking surface of these dilemmas flows the strong tide of human woe.Practically everyone is a manic depressive of sorts, with his up moments and his down moments, and you certainly don’t have to be a humorist to taste the sadness of situation and mood. But there is often a rather fine line between laughing and crying, and if a hu morous piece of writing brings a person to the point where his emotional responses are un trustworthy and seem likely to break over into the opposite realm, it is because humor, like poetry, has an extra content. It plays close to the big hot fire, which is Truth, and sometimes the reader feels the heat. The passage’s success lies in its extensive use of()
A. parallelism
B. metaphors
C. metonymy
D. similes