That particularly humorless boss or dour neighbor may not have a personality defect---but a different brain structure, research

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问题     That particularly humorless boss or dour neighbor may not have a personality defect---but a different brain structure, research published Wednesday suggests. Scientists in Canada say they have found how brain damage can affect a person’s sense of humor, adding to evidence that humor may be hard-wired into the brain.
    A team at the University of Toronto and the Baycrest Center for Geriatric Care in Toronto found that people with damage to the right frontal lobe of their brains do not really "get" ironic jokes the way they should. Instead, they prefer slapstick humor. "We always thought of humor as an intangible part of our personality," Prathiba Shammi of the University of Toronto, a psychologist who worked on the study, said in a statement. "Now we know humor can be tested and scientifically scrutinized.”
    Shammi compared the responses of 42 volunteers aged 18 to 70 to written and verbal jokes and cartoons. Half the group had a brain injury caused by stroke, tumor or surgical removal. People with damage to the right anterior frontal lobe were the least able to appreciate jokes and cartoons, Shammi reported in the journal Brain. Instead, they showed a preference for silly slapstick humor. Shammi gave an example of one of her jokes and the responses.
    A teen-ager is being interviewed for a summer job. "You’ll get $ 50 a week to start off," says his boss. "Then after a month you’ll get a raise to $75 a week. "Volunteers were offered three possible punch lines:
     a. "I’d like to take the job. When can I start?"
     b. "That’s great! I’ll come back in a month."
     c. "Hey boss, your nose is too big for your face!"  
Look at the joke in the last part of the passage. We can infer that most people with damage to the right anterior frontal lobe ______.

选项 A、did not understand the joke
B、would choose answer c
C、would choose answer b
D、would choose answer a

答案B

解析 逻辑推断题。原文中的选项A不存在任何幽默,只是现实中最常见的、正常的回应。原文中B选项的回应是幽默的:“既然现在周薪是50美金,一个月后是75美金,那我一个月后再来好了。”而原文中的选项C则是较为粗俗的玩笑。由最后一段的“People with damage to the right anterior frontal lobe were the least able to appreciate jokes and cartoons...Instead, they showed a preference for silly slapstick humor.”可推断正确答案是B项,他们会选择开粗俗的玩笑。
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