What’s so Funny? - IELTS Reading Sample with Explanation
The IELTS Reading section assesses candidates' reading ability by presenting them with a passage and questions. Candidates must respond to a number of different questions, each of which is different. Students' comprehension skills are tested in the IELTS reading section utilizing a variety of issue types. There are three types of questions for the text "what’s so funny" in this section of the IELTS Reading Answers:
- True/False/Not Given
- Labeling a diagram using no more than two words
- Completing/matching sentences with correct headings
What’s so funny has an academic passage reading a passage from an IELTS exam. Answer questions 14 through 27 based on the passage below. After the questions, you'll find the answers, as well as where they're located in the passage and the keywords that will help you find them.
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Section 1
Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions
What’s so Funny? IELTS Reading Sample
John McCrone reviews recent research on humour
The joke comes over the headphones: ' Which side of a dog has the most hair? The left.' No, not funny. Try again. ' Which side of a dog has the most hair? The outside.' Hah! The punchline is silly yet fitting, tempting a smile, even a laugh. Laughter has always struck people as deeply mysterious, perhaps pointless. The writer Arthur Koestler dubbed it the luxury reflex: 'unique in that it serves no apparent biological purpose'.
Theories about humour have an ancient pedigree. Plato expressed the idea that humour is simply a delighted feeling of superiority over others. Kant and Freud felt that joke-telling relies on building up a psychic tension which is safely punctured by the ludicrousness of the punchline. But most modern humour theorists have settled on some version of Aristotle's belief that jokes are based on a reaction to or resolution of incongruity, when the punchline is either a nonsense or, though appearing silly, has a clever second meaning.
Graeme Ritchie, a computational linguist in Edinburgh, studies the linguistic structure of jokes in order to understand not only humour but language understanding and reasoning in machines. He says that while there is no single format for jokes, many revolve around a sudden and surprising conceptual shift. A comedian will present a situation followed by an unexpected interpretation that is also apt.
So even if a punchline sounds silly, the listener can see there is a clever semantic fit and that sudden mental 'Aha!' is the buzz that makes us laugh. Viewed from this angle, humour is just a form of creative insight, a sudden leap to a new perspective.
However, there is another type of laughter, the laughter of social appeasement and it is important to understand this too. Play is a crucial part of development in most young mammals. Rats produce ultrasonic squeaks to prevent their scuffles turning nasty. Chimpanzees have a 'play-face' - a gaping expression accompanied by a panting 'ah, ah' noise. In humans, these signals have mutated into smiles and laughs. Researchers believe social situations, rather than cognitive events such as jokes, trigger these instinctual markers of play or appeasement. People laugh on fairground rides or when tickled to flag a play situation, whether they feel amused or not.
Both social and cognitive types of laughter tap into the same expressive machinery in our brains, the emotion and motor circuits that produce smiles and excited vocalisations. However, if cognitive laughter is the product of more general thought processes, it should result from more expansive brain activity.
Psychologist Vinod Goel investigated humour using the new technique of 'single event' functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRl). An MRI scanner uses magnetic fields and radio waves to track the changes in oxygenated blood that accompany mental activity. Until recently, MRI scanners needed several minutes of activity and so could not be used to track rapid thought processes such as comprehending a joke. New developments now allow half-second 'snapshots' of all sorts of reasoning and problem-solving activities.
Although Goel felt being inside a brain scanner was hardly the ideal place for appreciating a joke, he found evidence that understanding a joke involves a widespread mental shift. His scans showed that at the beginning of a joke the listener'$ prefrontal cortex lit up, particularly the right prefrontal believed to be critical for problem solving. But there was also activity in the temporal lobes at the side of the head (consistent with attempts to rouse stored knowledge) and in many other brain areas. Then when the punchline arrived, a new area sprang to life -the orbital prefrontal cortex. This patch of brain tucked behind the orbits of the eyes is associated with evaluating information.
Making a rapid emotional assessment of the events of the moment is an extremely demanding job for the brain, animal or human. Energy and arousal levels may need, to be retuned in the blink of an eye. These abrupt changes will produce either positive or negative feelings. The orbital cortex, the region that becomes active in Goel's experiment, seems the best candidate for the site that feeds such feelings into higher-level thought processes, with its close connections to the brain's sub-cortical arousal apparatus and centres of metabolic control.
All warm-blooded animals make constant tiny adjustments in arousal in response to external events, but humans, who have developed a much more complicated internal life as a result of language, respond emotionally not only to their surroundings, but to their own thoughts. Whenever a sought-for answer snaps into place, there is a shudder of pleased recognition. Creative discovery being pleasurable, humans have learned to find ways of milking this natural response. The fact that jokes tap into our general evaluative machinery explains why the line between funny and disgusting, or funny and frightening, can be so fine. Whether a joke gives pleasure or pain depends on a person's outlook.
Humour may be a luxury, but the mechanism behind it is no evolutionary accident. As Peter Derks, a psychologist at William and Mary College in Virginia, says: 'I like to think of humour as the distorted mirror of the mind. It's creative, perceptual, analytical and lingual. If we can figure out how the mind processes humour, then we'll have a pretty good handle on how it works in general.
Section 2
Solution and Explanation
Questions 14-20
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
- Arthur Koestler considered laughter biologically important in several ways.
Answer: False
Supporting Sentence: The writer Arthur Koestler dubbed it the luxury reflex: 'unique in that it serves no apparent biological purpose'.
Keywords: Arthur Koestler, laughter, biologically, important, several ways
Keywords location: Paragraph 1, Line 5-6
Explanation: 'Arthur Koestler' coined the term 'luxury reflex,' describing it as "unique in that it serves 'no apparent biological purpose." The response is incorrect since the assertion contradicts the information.
Read More IELTS Reading Related Samples
- Plato believed humor to be a sign of above-average intelligence.
Answer: Not Given
- Kant believed that a successful joke involves the controlled release of nervous energy.
Answer: True
Supporting Sentence: Kant and Freud felt that joke-telling relies on building up a psychic tension that is safely punctured by the ludicrousness of the punchline.
Keywords: Kant, believed, successful joke, controlled release, nervous energy
Keywords location: Paragraph 2, Line 2-4
Explanation: In paragraph 2, it is stated that "Kant" and "Freud" believed that "joke-telling" relied on the development of a "psychic tension" (nervous energy) that is "safely punctured" (controlled release) by the "ludicrousness of the punchline" (successful). The solution is correct since the statement matches the information.
- Current thinking on humor has largely ignored Aristotle’s view on the subject.
Answer: False
Supporting Sentence: Aristotle's belief that jokes are based on a reaction to or resolution of incongruity, when the punchline is either nonsense or, though appearing silly, has a clever second meaning.
Keywords: Current thinking, humor, largely ignored, Aristotle’s view
Keywords location: Paragraph 2, Line 4-6
Explanation: In paragraph 2, we learn that "most modern humor theorists" (present humor thinking) have "decided on" some version of "Aristotle's belief" (view) that "jokes are founded on a reaction to or resolution of incongruity when the punchline is either nonsense or, albeit appearing ridiculous." The answer is false since the statement is contradictory to the information.
- Graeme Ritchie’s work links jokes to artificial intelligence.
Answer: True
Supporting Sentence: Graeme Ritchie, a computational linguist in Edinburgh, studies the linguistic structure of jokes in order to understand not only humor but language understanding and reasoning in machines.
Keywords: Graeme Ritchie’s work, links, jokes, artificial intelligence
Keywords location: Paragraph 3, Line 1-3
Explanation: Paragraph 3 states 'Graeme Ritchie,' an Edinburgh-based computational linguist, who examined the 'linguistic structure of jokes' in order to understand not only 'humor,' but also 'language understanding,' and 'reasoning in machines' (artificial intelligence). The solution is correct since the assertion matches the information.
- Most comedians use personal situations as a source of humor.
Answer: Not Given
- Chimpanzees make particular noises when they are playing.
Answer: True
Supporting Sentence: A comedian will present a situation followed by an unexpected interpretation that is also apt.
Keywords: Chimpanzees, particular noises, when playing
Keywords location: Paragraph 5, Line 4-5
Explanation: 'Chimpanzees have a 'play-face' (playing) – a gaping expression accompanied by a 'panting 'ah, ah' noise,' according to paragraph 5. (particular noises). The solution is correct since the assertion matches the data.
Questions 21-23
The diagram below shows the areas of the brain activated by jokes.
Label the diagram.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 21-23 on your answer sheet.
- Right, prefrontal cortex lights up - area of brain linked to______
Answer: Problem-solving
Supporting Sentence: His scans showed that at the beginning of a joke the listener'$ prefrontal cortex lit up, particularly the right prefrontal believed to be critical for problem-solving.
Keywords: Right, prefrontal cortex, lights up, area, linked to
Keywords location: Paragraph 8, Line 3-4
Explanation: In paragraph 8, Goel used a brain scanner to show that the listener's 'prefrontal cortex lit up' at the start of a joke, particularly 'the right prefrontal,' which is thought to be 'critical for problem-solving.'
- ________ become active too.
Answer: Temporal lobes
Supporting Sentence: But there was also activity in the temporal lobes at the side of the head (consistent with attempts to rouse stored knowledge) and in many other brain areas.
Keywords: become, active, too
Keywords location: Paragraph 8, Line 4-5
Explanation: Paragraph 8 points out that there was also ‘activity in the temporal lobes at the side of the head and in many other brain areas when there were consistent attempts to reuse stored knowledge.
- Orbital prefrontal cortex is activated –involved with ________
Answer: evaluating information
Supporting Sentence: Then when the punchline arrived, a new area sprang to life -the orbital prefrontal cortex. This patch of brain tucked behind the orbits of the eyes is associated with evaluating information.
Keywords: Orbital prefrontal cortex., activated, involved with
Keywords location: Paragraph 8, Line 6-8
Explanation: Paragraph 8 states that when the punchline arrived, a ‘new area sprang to life’ -the ‘orbital prefrontal cortex. ‘This patch of the brain’ (orbital prefrontal cortex) is ‘associated with evaluating information.
Questions 24-27
Complete each sentence with the correct ending A-G below.
Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 24-27 on your answer sheet.
- react to their own thoughts.
- helped create language in humAnswer:
- respond instantly to whatever is happening.
- may provide valuable information about the operation of the brain.
- cope with difficult situations.
- relate to a person’s subjective views.
- led our ancestors to smile and then laugh.
- One of the brain’s most difficult tasks is to
Answer: C -respond instantly to whatever is happening
Supporting Sentence: Making a rapid emotional assessment of the events of the moment is an extremely demanding job for the brain, animal, or human.
Keywords: One of, brain’s, most, difficult, tasks
Keywords location: Paragraph 9, Line 1-2
Explanation: Paragraph 9 mentions that making a ‘rapid emotional assessment of the events of the moment’ (respond instantly to whatever is happening) is an ‘extremely demanding job’ (one of the most difficult tasks) for ‘the brain’, animal, or human.
- Because of the language they have developed, humans
Answer: A-react to their own thoughts
Supporting Sentence: All warm-blooded animals make constant tiny adjustments in arousal in response to external events, but humans, who have developed a much more complicated internal life as a result of language, respond emotionally not only to their surroundings but to their own thoughts.
Keywords: Because of, language, they, developed, humans
Keywords location: Paragraph 10, Line 1-4
Explanation: In paragraph 10, the writer says that as ‘humans’ have ‘developed’ ‘language’, they ‘respond’ (react) emotionally not only to their surroundings but ‘to their own thoughts’.
- Individual responses to humor
Answer: F-relate to a person’s subjective views
Supporting Sentence: Whether a joke gives pleasure or pain depends on a person's outlook.
Keywords: Individual, responses, humor
Keywords location: Paragraph 10, last Line
Explanation: Paragraph 10 states that whether ‘a a joke’ gives ‘pleasure or pain’ (individual responses) depends on a person’s outlook (subjective views).
- Peter Derks believes that humor
Answer: D-may provide valuable information about the operation of the brain
Supporting Sentence: 'I like to think of humor as the distorted mirror of the mind. It's creative, perceptual, analytical, and lingual. If we can figure out how the mind processes humor, then we'll have a pretty good handle on how it works in general.
Keywords: Peter Derks, believes, humor
Keywords location: Last paragraph
Explanation: In the last paragraph, the writer mentions the belief of ‘Peter Derks’, a psychologist at William and Mary College in Virginia, that ‘humor’ can help to ‘figure out’ (provide) how the ‘mind’ (brain) processes humor. It will help to have a ‘pretty good handle’ (valuable information) on how ‘it’ (brain) ‘works in general’.
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