A Moment of Science (II)
For each of
the following two exercises, (1) read the vocabulary and questions, (2) link
and listen to the audio file, and (3) answer the questions.
(1) Take a Hike and Improve Your
Memory
http://amos.indiana.edu/library/memory.ram
Vocabulary:
| Don, Yael twist: something new effect Well, how do you like that? fund drive: an activity to raise money for a good cause Arthur Kramer cognitive neuroscientist University of Illinois to perform judgment volunteers pretty: quite |
sedentary:
spending much of your time sitting down to work up to the point where to outperform psychologists "executive control processes" warranted: called for, appropriate to examine to impair: to weaken, harm the aging process literally: in reality to give something a boost: to improve effectively |
Listening
comprehension questions:
1. Volunteers in an experiment on the benefits of taking
walks improved how?
2. What characteristics did the volunteer participants have in common?
3. How much were the volunteers walking eventually?
4. Give some examples of
'executive control processes'.
5. Why were these processes examined in this experiment?
6. In what way did walking make the participants 'younger'?
(2) Laughter is a Social Signal?
http://amos.indiana.edu/library/laugh.ram
Vocabulary:
| to anticipate:
to guess, expect career: long-term job comedy pretty well: more or less to quash: to suppress ambition stand-up comedy: telling jokes on stage What on earth...? remarkable percentage sincere response humor social signal, situation, function as opposed to emotional outburst attempt at to spare s.o.'s feelings: prevent s.o. from feeling hurt |
described
relationship unfunny faking: pretending a good deal: a lot to elicit: get, obtain, draw out power dynamics: the power relationship between people dominance submission acceptance rejection that seems to be the case: this seems to be true to be laughed at, laughed with to ruin in general to explain the life out of s.t.: to explain s.t.so clearly that it's no longer fun |
Listening
comprehension questions:
1. Why was Don thinking about a career in comedy?
2. What alternative explanation did Yael give for what Don had noticed?
3. Research has found that less than 20% of laughter responses are actually
only what?
4. What is the purpose of 'polite' laughter?
5. Who laughs more often, and who gets more laughter responses?
6. Laughter may be a signal of what?