【官方】SAT阅读每日一题附答案和解析(2018年2月22日)

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阅读每日一练:

This passage is excerpted from Cindi May, “The Secret of Better Meetings:

Fun.” 2015 by Scientific American.

The benefits of humor as an individual coping mechanism and a social

lubricant are well established. Humor helps people cope with pain and tragedy,

reduces social conflict and promotes group cohesion. But [Nale]

Lehmann-Willenbrock and [Joseph] Allen explored whether humor in the workplace

might also help a corporation boost its bottom line. In a longitudinal

investigation of team efficiency and productivity, they evaluated humor patterns

in the regular team meetings of two industrial organizations in Germany, and

then examined short-term and long-term outcomes.

To assess humor patterns, Lehmann-Willenbrock and Allen first videotaped 54

different team meetings, each roughly forty-five minutes long, that collectively

involved over 350 employees. If you find work meetings to be arduous and dull,

you would not want to be on this research team, for the investigators then

watched all of those meeting tapes and coded the team interactions. They were

particularly interested in positive humor patterns, that is, upbeat, funny

remarks followed by laughter. They intentionally did not include negative humor

(sarcasm, put-downs) or failed humor (e.g., a joke followed by silence). After

coding the humor patterns, they then evaluated what happened after the

laughter.

Lehmann-Willenbrock and Allen found that within the meetings, humor patterns

triggered problem-solving behaviors (e.g., what do you think about this

approach?), procedural suggestions (e.g., let’s talk about our next step), and

goal orientation (e.g., we should target this issue). Humor patterns also

promoted supportive behaviors like praise and encouragement, and led to new

ideas and solutions.

Adapted from Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock and Joseph A. Allen, “How Fun Are Your

Meetings? Investigating the Relationship Between Humor Patterns in Team

Interactions and Team Performance.” 2014 by American Psychological

Association.

"promotes" most nearly means

A encourages.

B presents.

C recommends.

D advocates.

答案及解析:A

Choice A is the best answer. It is clear from context that when the author

says that humor “promotes group cohesion,” she means that it “encourages,” or

stimulates or helps to develop, a feeling of unity among a group.