A
Facial expressions are a form of non-verbal communication, which make up a large partof our daily communication. By facial movements, we can suggest volumes ofinformation without ‘speaking any words’. They are a primary means of conveyingsocial information among humans but are also found in most other mammals and afew other animal species. Facial expressions and their significance in theperceiver can, to some extent, vary between cultures with evidence fromdescriptions in the works of Charles Darwin. Understanding facial impressionsis of great importance, and also, some essential elements should be taken intoaccount when people interpret the impressions.
B
Facial expressions are closely tied to emotions. Expressions are configurations ofdifferent small muscle movements in the face that show an individual’s discreteemotional states and a vast amount of cognitive information. A number ofstudies have proved that facial expressions are viewed as one of the bestmeasures of emotional response. Sometimes words do not necessarily coincidewith emotions, but the face might betray a person’s actual feelings. At thesame time, the close link between emotions and expressions can also work in theother direction; it has been observed that voluntarily assuming an expressioncan actually cause the associated emotion.
C
Some expressions like anger and extreme contentment can be accurately comprehendedeven between members of different species. Others, however, are hard tointerpret even in familiar individuals. For instance, disgust and fear can betough to distinguish. Because faces have only a limited range of movements,expressions rely upon fairly slight differences in the proportions and relativepositions of facial features, and reading them requires considerablesensitivity to some. Meanwhile, one’s life experiences, beliefs and conceptualknowledge will have an influence on how he deciphers the facial expressions.
D
Also, aperson’s eyes reveal much about how they are feeling or what they are thinking.Research by Boston College professor Joe Tecce suggests that stress levels arereflected by blink rates. He supports his findings with statistics on therelation between the blink rates of presidential candidates and their successin their races. Tecce claims that the faster blinker in the presidentialdebates has lost every election since 1980, which seems interesting. However,it is important to recognise that non-verbal communication is multichannelled,and focusing on only one aspect is biased. Nervousness can also be measured byexamining each candidate’s perspiration, eye contact and stiffness.
E
As Charles Darwin, the first person who pointed out that the facial expressions ofparticular emotions were universal, noted in his book The Expression of theEmotions in Man and Animals: ‘The young and the old of widely different races,both with man and animals, express the same state of mind by the same musclemovement.’ Still, up to the mid-20th century, most anthropologists believedthat facial expressions were entirely learned and could therefore differ amongcultures. Studies conducted in the 1960s by Paul Ekman eventually supportedDarwin’s belief to a large degree.
F
Ekman’s opinion, which was contrary to that of some anthropologists including MargaretMead, showed that facial expressions of emotions are not culturally determinedbut universal across human cultures. During the period between 1967 and 1968,Dr. Ekman travelled to Papua New Guinea to investigate the non-verbalcommunication behaviours of the South Fore people. If the South Fore tribe, aremote and primitive one, could interpret the facial expressions as theirwestern counterparts, we would gain significant evidence of the universality offacial expressions. Subjects, including 189 adults and 130 children from a veryisolated population, as well as 23 members who lived in a less-isolatedlifestyle, were shown three pictures (two for children) of facial expressionsand then asked to match those pictures to three different scenarios thatdescribed particular emotions.
G
It wasdiscovered that the isolated South Fore people could identify emotions with thesame accuracy as the less-isolated control group, but the study displayed someproblems including the fact that both fear and surprise are constantlymisidentified. He also drew a conclusion that certain facial expressionscorrespond to particular emotions and cannot be covered, no matter what thecultural background is, and regardless of whether or not the culture has beenisolated or exposed to the mainstream.
H
Expressions Ekman found to be generally recognised included those indicating anger,disgust, fear, joy, sadness and surprise (note that none of these emotions hasa definitive social component, such as shame, pride or schadenfreude). Findingson contempt (which is social), an expression which can occur with or without ahint of small muscle motions, are less clear, though there is at least somepreliminary evidence that this emotion and its expression are universal. Thismay suggest that the facial expressions are largely related to the mind, witheach part of the face expressing a particular emotion.
Questions14 - 19
Reading Passage 2 has eight paragraphs, A–H.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A–H, in boxes 14–19 on your answer sheet.
NB Youmay use any letter more than once.
14. mention of the data correlation between blink frequency and election results
15. early records of how culture influences the interpretation of facial expressions
16. the difficulty in identifying the actual meaning of facial expressions
17. reference to the sociality of several facial expressions
18. various indicators of how nervous a person is
19. mention of the relation between emotions and facial expressions
Questions20 - 24
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers inboxes 20–24 on your answer sheet.
Ekman’s findings demonstrated that fear and surprise are persistently 20________ ,and Ekman concluded that some facial expressions coincide with certain 21________ andare impossible to be masked, regardless of 22 ________, or whetherthe culture is 23 ________or 24 ________the mainstream.
Questions25 - 26
Choose TWO letters, A–E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 25 and 26 on your answer sheet.
25-26 Which TWO ofthe following statements are true according to Ekman’s theory?
A. There is no evidence that animals have their own facial expressions
B.Facial expressions are associated with different cultures
C. There is an underlying relationship between facial expressions and mental states
D. Men's facial expressions are more controlled by psychology than women's.
E.Facial expressions that express certain emotions are the same even acrosscultures
In 1812,the Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, published in Germany the first of itsseven editions of their collection of short stories called Children's andHousehold Tales, commonly known today as Grimms' Fairy Tales. It leaves afairytale-like feeling to see the table of contents, as the names clearlyresemble those of well-known personalities: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, SnowWhite, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, Hansel and Gretel,and the Frog King. Converted mostly from spoken sources, the 210 stories in theGrimms' collection represent an anthology of fairy tales, animal fables, rusticfarces and religious allegories that remain unrivalled to this day.
Such lasting fame would have shocked the humble Grimms. During their lifetimes thecol-lection sold modestly in Germany, some hundred copies annually to beginwith. The early editions were not even to serve children. At first, thebrothers declined to consider illustrations, and academic footnotes occupiednearly as much space as the tales themselves. Jacob and Wilhelm deemedthemselves as patriotic folklorists instead of entertainers of children. Theybegan their work at a time when Germany had been overrun by the French underNapoleon, who was intent on suppressing local culture. Workaholic, unmarriedand living in an overcrowded apartment, the brothers created this collection offairy tales in an effort to preserve Germany's oral heritage, which is on theverge of extinction.
For much of the 19th century, teachers, parents and religious figures, especially in theUnited States, criticised the Grimms' collection for its unprocessed, savagedescriptions. Irritated adults objected to the horrifying punishments imposedon the stories' villains. In the original Snow White, the evil stepmother isforced to dance in red-hot iron shoes until she drops dead. Even today someprotective parents shy away from reading the Grimms' tales because of theirreputation for violence.
Regardless of its sometimes negative criticism, Grimms' Fairy Tales gradually took rootwith the public. The brothers had not anticipated the advent of their workwould coincide with a boom of children's literature in Europe. Englishpublishers led the way, issuing high-quality picture books such as Jack and theBeanstalk and handsome folktale collections, all to satisfy a newly literateaudience seeking virtuous material for the nursery. Noticing these newaudiences, the brothers began to refine and polish their stories, which hadtheir origins centuries earlier in unadorned peasant tales. In the Grimms'hands, cruel mothers became nasty stepmothers, unmarried lovers were madechaste, and the incestuous father was recast as the devil.
By the 20th century, Grimms' Fairy Tales had taken up bookshelves in children'sbedrooms. The stories read like dreams come true: handsome lads and beautifuldamsels, armed with magic, triumph over giants and witches and wild beasts.They outsmart the malevolent, selfish adults. The hero and heroine naturallyfall in love and live happily ever after. And parents keep reading because theyapprove of the finger-wagging lessons inserted into the stories: keep yourpromises, don't talk to strangers, work hard, and obey your parents. Accordingto the Grimms, the collection served as 'a manual of manners'.
In total about two score of people verbalised tales to the Grimms. Many of the narratorsvisited the Grimms' house in Kassel. The brothers particularly welcomed thevisits of Dorothea Viehmann, a widow who often came to town on foot to sell herproducts grown in her garden. As an innkeeper's daughter, Viehmann had grown uplistening to stories from travellers on the road to Frankfurt. Among hertreasures was 'Aschenputtel' – Cinderella. Marie Hassenpflug, a 20-year-oldfriend of their sister Charlotte, came from an educated French-speaking family.Marie's wonderful stories blended motifs from the oral tradition and fromPerrault's influential 1697 book, Tales of My Mother Goose, which containedelaborate versions of Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Sleeping
Beauty,among others. Many of these had been adapted from earlier Italian fairy tales.
Given that many of the Grimms' tales originate throughout Europe, even in the MiddleEast and beyond, it is worth asking: How German are they? Very, says scholarHeinz Rolleke. Love of the underdog, rustic simplicity, creative energy – theseare Teutonic traits. In medieval Germany, when many of the tales began to betold by word of mouth, the coarse texture of life also coloured the narratives.Throughout Europe children were often neglected and abandoned, like Hansel andGretel. Convicted witches were burned at the stake, like the wickedmother-in-law in The Six Swans. 'The brutality in the stories was not theGrimms' illusion,' Rolleke points out. 'It mirrored the law-and-orderinstitutions of the past.'
The editorial fingerprints left by the Grimms contradicted the particular values ofconservative Christian middle-class Germans in the 19th century. Yet that didnot preclude the tales from being accepted by almost every culture andnationality in the world. What has contributed to this widespread and enduringpopularity? Bernhard Lauer points to the 'universal style' of the writing: 'Youhave no concrete descriptions of the land, or the clothes, or the forest, orthe castles, so that these stories are not bound by time and place.' 'The talesmake it possible for us to express ''our utopian longings'',' says Jack Zipesof the University of Minnesota, whose full translation of these fairy tales in1987 has seized the basic spirit of the original work. 'They show a strivingfor happiness that none of us knows but that we sense is possible. We canidentify with the heroes of the tales and become in our minds the masters andmistresses of our own destinies.'
Fairy tales act as an exercise for the unconscious, psychoanalysts contend. BrunoBettelheim is famous for valuing the therapeutic effects of the Grimms'stories, calling fairy tales the 'great soothers'. By confronting fears andphobias, symbolised by witches, heartless stepmothers and hungry wolves,children find they can master their anxieties. There has been much debate aboutBettelheim's theory, but most young readers show little interest in practisingtheir unconsciousness. In fact, Grimms' Fairy Tales please in many ways, someof which seem to reflect our emotions and interests as we read. Thisflexibility in interpretation makes them applicable to almost any era andculture.
Questions27 – 32
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes27–32 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE ifthe statement agrees with the information
FALSE ifthe statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
27. The first edition of Grimms' Fairy Tales sold more widely in England than inGermany.
28. The Grimm brothers believed they would achieve international fame.
29. The brothers were forced to work in secret.
30. Some parents today still think Grimms' Fairy Tales are not suitable for children.
31.Adults like reading the Grimms' tales for reasons different from those ofchildren.
32. The Grimms based the story Cinderella on the life of DorotheaViehmann.
Questions33 – 35
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 33–35 on your answer sheet.
33.According to paragraph four, what changed in Europe at that time?
A. Literacylevels of the population increased.
B. The development of printing technology made it easier to publish books.
C. Schools were open to children.
D. People began to like to collect superb picture books.
34. What changes did the Grimms make in later editions?
A. They made the stories shorter.
B. The yused more oral language.
C. They changed the content of the stories to be less violent.
D. They found otherorigins of the tales.
35. What did Marie Hassenpflug contribute to the Grimms' tales?
A. She wrote stories.
B. She discussed the stories with the brothers.
C. She translated a popular book for the brothers using her talent for languages.
D.She told oral stories that were based on traditional Italian stories.
Questions36 – 40
A.reflect the living conditions of people under the old system.
B. help childrendeal with their mental problems.
C.reflect the specific values of part of the middle class.
D. tell of thesimplicity of rural life in Germany.
E.encourage people to believe that they can do anything.
F. make people aware ofthe heroes in real life.
G.encouragepeople to believe in the power of nature.
H avoid details about the characters'social settings.
36. Heinz Rolleke says the Grimms' tales are 'German' because they
37. Heinz Rolleke says the abandoned children in the tales
38.Bernhard Lauer says the writing style of the Grimms' tales is universal becausethey
39. Jack Zipes says the pursuits of happiness in the tales
40. Bruno Bettelheim says the therapeutic value of the tales means that they
Answerkeys
27. Not Given
28.False
29.Not Given
30. True
31. True
32. False
33. A
34. C
35. D
36. D
37. A
38. H
39. E
40. B
|Archiver|手机版|小黑屋|雅思托福英语全球网
( 闽ICP备14014910号 )
|
闽公网安备 35020302034732号
发表于 2025-8-7 12:20:40
QQ好友和群
QQ空间
腾讯微博
腾讯朋友
收藏