According to the text,
Instrução: Leia o texto para responder às questões de números 40 a 45.
To Scientists, Laughter Is No Joke - It’s Serious
March 31, 2010.
So a scientist walks into a shopping mall to watch people laugh. There’s no punchline. Laughter is a serious scientific subject, one that researchers are still trying to figure out. Laughing is primal, our first way of communicating. Apes laugh. So do dogs and rats. Babies laugh long before they speak. No one teaches you how to laugh. You just do. And often you laugh involuntarily, in a specific rhythm and in certain spots in conversation.
You may laugh at a prank on April Fools’ Day. But surprisingly, only 10 to 15 percent of laughter is the result of someone making a joke, said Baltimore neuroscientist Robert Provine, who has studied laughter for decades. Laughter is mostly about social responses rather than reaction to a joke. “Laughter above all else is a social thing,’’ Provine said. “The requirement for laughter is another person.’’
Over the years, Provine, a professor with the University of Maryland Baltimore County, has boiled laughter down to its basics. “All language groups laugh ‘ha-ha-ha’ basically the same way,’’ he said. “Whether you speak Mandarin, French or English, everyone will understand laughter. ... There’s a pattern generator in our brain that produces this sound.’’
Each “ha’’ is about one-15th of a second, repeated every fifth of a second, he said. Laugh faster or slower than that and it sounds more like panting or something else. Deaf people laugh without hearing, and people on cell phones laugh without seeing, illustrating that laughter isn’t dependent on a single sense but on social interactions, said Provine, author of the book “Laughter: A Scientific Investigation.’’
“It’s joy, it’s positive engagement with life,’’ said Jaak Panksepp, a Bowling Green University psychology professor. “It’s deeply social.’’ And it’s not just a people thing either. Chimps tickle each other and even laugh when another chimp pretends to tickle them. By studying rats, Panksepp and other scientists can figure out what’s going on in the brain during laughter. And it holds promise for human ills.
Northwestern biomedical engineering professor Jeffrey Burgdorf has found that laughter in rats produces an insulin-like growth factor chemical that acts as an antidepressant and anxietyreducer. He thinks the same thing probably happens in humans, too. This would give doctors a new chemical target in the brain in their effort to develop drugs that fight depression and anxiety in people. Even so, laughter itself hasn’t been proven to be the best medicine, experts said.
(www.nytimes.com. Adaptado.)
To Scientists, Laughter Is No Joke - It’s Serious
March 31, 2010.
You may laugh at a prank on April Fools’ Day. But surprisingly, only 10 to 15 percent of laughter is the result of someone making a joke, said Baltimore neuroscientist Robert Provine, who has studied laughter for decades. Laughter is mostly about social responses rather than reaction to a joke. “Laughter above all else is a social thing,’’ Provine said. “The requirement for laughter is another person.’’
Over the years, Provine, a professor with the University of Maryland Baltimore County, has boiled laughter down to its basics. “All language groups laugh ‘ha-ha-ha’ basically the same way,’’ he said. “Whether you speak Mandarin, French or English, everyone will understand laughter. ... There’s a pattern generator in our brain that produces this sound.’’
Each “ha’’ is about one-15th of a second, repeated every fifth of a second, he said. Laugh faster or slower than that and it sounds more like panting or something else. Deaf people laugh without hearing, and people on cell phones laugh without seeing, illustrating that laughter isn’t dependent on a single sense but on social interactions, said Provine, author of the book “Laughter: A Scientific Investigation.’’
“It’s joy, it’s positive engagement with life,’’ said Jaak Panksepp, a Bowling Green University psychology professor. “It’s deeply social.’’ And it’s not just a people thing either. Chimps tickle each other and even laugh when another chimp pretends to tickle them. By studying rats, Panksepp and other scientists can figure out what’s going on in the brain during laughter. And it holds promise for human ills.
Northwestern biomedical engineering professor Jeffrey Burgdorf has found that laughter in rats produces an insulin-like growth factor chemical that acts as an antidepressant and anxietyreducer. He thinks the same thing probably happens in humans, too. This would give doctors a new chemical target in the brain in their effort to develop drugs that fight depression and anxiety in people. Even so, laughter itself hasn’t been proven to be the best medicine, experts said.
(www.nytimes.com. Adaptado.)
Gabarito comentado
Resposta correta: Alternativa D
Tema central: o trecho trata de laughter as a social behavior — risos são, principalmente, respostas sociais e não simples reações a piadas. Para resolver a questão é preciso localizar afirmações diretas no texto (citações dos pesquisadores) e comparar com cada alternativa, evitando generalizações.
Resumo teórico rápido: pesquisadores citados (Provine e Panksepp) afirmam que o riso é “deeply social” e que “the requirement for laughter is another person”. Dados mostram que apenas 10–15% do riso vem de uma piada, e estudos em animais (chimpanzés, ratos) reforçam a ideia social e biológica do comportamento (NYTimes; Provine, Laughter: A Scientific Investigation).
Justificativa da alternativa D: tanto Provine quanto Panksepp são citados dizendo explicitamente que o riso é uma resposta social — Provine: “Laughter above all else is a social thing” e Panksepp: “It’s deeply social.” Assim, D reflete fielmente o conteúdo do texto.
Análise das incorretas:
A — Incorreta. O texto diz que chimpanzés riem, mas a afirmação sobre “mesmo padrão” refere-se a grupos humanos (“All language groups laugh ‘ha-ha-ha’ basically the same way”), não a chimpanzés.
B — Incorreta. Embora o texto mostre que o riso dependa de interação social, a alternativa generaliza de forma vaga (“one responds if people around are laughing too”) — o texto fala em necessidade de outra pessoa e em respostas sociais, não afirma literalmente que qualquer riso é reação automática ao riso alheio; é uma inferência excessiva.
C — Incorreta. Contradita por dados do próprio texto: apenas 10–15% do riso resulta de uma piada, logo não é a causa principal.
E — Incorreta. O texto afirma que bebês riem muito antes de falar; dizer que riem “assim que começam a aprender uma língua” é impreciso e contraditório com “long before they speak”.
Estratégia prática: procure citações diretas e números no texto; evite alternativas que exagerem, passem de “implícito” para “absoluto” ou confundam grupos (humanos vs animais). Questões de interpretação exigem fidelidade ao enunciado.
Fontes citadas: trecho adaptado do NYTimes; Robert Provine, Laughter: A Scientific Investigation.
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