The excerpt of the first paragraph – You just do. – means that
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
Alternativa correta: A - people simply laugh.
Tema central: interpretação de sentido de uma expressão curta em contexto. A frase "You just do." funciona como uma paráfrase que expressa naturalidade e espontaneidade — ou seja, algo que acontece por si, sem instrução. Para resolver, é preciso identificar o sentido global no parágrafo: riso como comportamento inato e social.
Resumo teórico: em compreensão de texto, pequenas frases podem ter significado idiomático ou inferencial. Pergunte: o que a expressão resume no contexto imediato? Aqui, o texto afirma que ninguém ensina a rir; bebês riem antes de falar; animais riem; logo, "You just do." resume essa ideia de ação natural e simples (Provine; Panksepp; NYTimes, 2010).
Justificativa da alternativa A: "People simply laugh" reproduz fielmente o sentido de "You just do." — indica que rir é algo que as pessoas fazem por natureza, sem ser ensinado. É a paráfrase direta e neutra do enunciado no contexto apresentado.
Por que as outras alternativas estão erradas:
- B - you laugh because you learned it. Contradiz o texto. O trecho anterior afirma explicitamente que "No one teaches you how to laugh." Logo, B inverte o sentido.
- C - people laugh involuntarily. É atraente (o texto menciona que muitas risadas são involuntárias), mas a frase "You just do." enfatiza simplicidade/naturalidade, não necessariamente a ideia estrita de involuntariedade. “Simply do” = fazem, é normal; não afirma que sempre ocorre sem controle.
- D - you started laughing since you were a baby. Parcialmente verdade (bebês riem cedo), mas a frase generaliza para todo comportamento humano, não apenas início temporal. Portanto é definição mais restrita e não equivalente.
- E - people laugh the same way. O texto fala que diferentes línguas têm padrão similar, mas "You just do." não se refere à uniformidade entre pessoas, e sim ao fato de que rir é algo que se faz naturalmente.
Estratégias úteis:
- Leia a frase dentro do parágrafo: pequenas sentenças costumam resumir a ideia anterior.
- Procure negações no contexto ("No one teaches...") para eliminar alternativas inconsistentes.
- Evite sinônimos muito próximos que acrescentam nuance (ex.: “involuntarily” vs “simply”).
Fontes relevantes: Robert Provine, Laughter: A Scientific Investigation (2000); reportagem adaptada do NYTimes (2010).
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