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  3. Joy and sadness are experienced by people in all cultures around the world, but how can we tell when other people are happy or d

Joy and sadness are experienced by people in all cultures around the world, but how can we tell when other people are happy or d

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问题   Joy and sadness are experienced by people in all cultures around the world, but how can we tell when other people are happy or despondent? It turns out that the expression of many emotions may be universal. Smiling is apparently a universal sign of friendliness and approval. Baring the teeth in a hostile way, as noted by Charles Darwin in the nineteenth century, may be a universe sign of anger. As the originator of the theory of evolution, Darwin believed that the universal recognition of facial expressions would have survival value. For example, facial expressions could signal the approach of enemies (or friends) in the absence of language.
  Most investigators concur that certain facial expressions suggest the same emotions in a people. Moreover, people in diverse cultures recognize the emotions manifested by the facial expressions. In classic research Paul Ekman took photographs of people exhibiting the emotions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, and sadness. He then asked people around the world to indicate what emotions were being depicted in them. Those queried ranged from European college students to members of the Fore, a tribe that dwells in the New Guinea highlands. All groups including the Fore, who had almost no contact with Western culture, agreed on the portrayed emotions. The Fore also displayed familiar facial expressions when asked how they would respond if they were the characters in stories that called for basic emotional responses. Ekman and his colleagues more recently obtained similar results in a study of ten cultures in which participants were permitted to report that multiple emotions were shown by facial expressions. The participants generally agreed on which two emotions were being shown and which emotion was more intense.
  Psychological researchers generally recognize that facial expressions reflect emotional states. In fact, various emotional states give rise to certain patterns of electrical activity in the facial muscles and in the brain. The facial-feedback hypothesis argues, however, that the causal relationship between emotions and facial expressions can also work in the opposite direction. According to this hypothesis, signals from the facial muscles ("feedback") are sent back to emotion centers of the brain, and so a person’s facial expression can influence that person’s emotional state. Consider Darwin’s words: "The free expression by outward signs of an emotion intensifies it. On the other hand, the repression, as far as possible, of all outward signs softens our emotions." Can smiling give rise to feelings of good will, for example, and frowning to anger?
  Psychological research has given rise to some interesting findings concerning ’the facial-feedback hypothesis. Causing participants in experiments to smile, for example, leads them to report more positive feelings and to rate cartoons (humorous drawings of people or situations) as being more humorous. When they are caused to frown, they rate cartoons as being more aggressive.
  What are the possible links between facial expressions and emotion? One link is arousal, which is the level of activity or preparedness for activity in an organism. Intense contraction of facial muscles, such as those used in signifying fear, heightens arousal. Self-perception of heightened arousal then leads to heightened emotional activity. Other links may involve changes in brain temperature and the release of neurotransmitters (substances that transmit nerve impulses). The contraction of facial muscles both influences the internal emotional state and reflects it. Ekman has found that the so-called Duchenne smile, which is characterized by "crow’s feet" — wrinkles around the eyes and a subtle drop in the eye cover fold so that the skin above the eye moves down slightly toward the eyeball, can lead to pleasant feelings.
  Ekman’s observation may be relevant to the British expression "keep a stiff upper lip" as a recommendation for handling stress. It might be that a "stiff" lip suppresses emotional response — as long as the lip is not quivering with fear or tension. But when the emotion that leads to stiffening the lip is more intense, and involves strong muscle tension, facial feedback may heighten emotional response.  
Which of the following statements would NOT Darwin agree with?
选项 A、Facial expressions can only reflect emotional states.
B、Facial expressions may help people survive.
C、Baring the teeth means the same to people all over the world.
D、Human emotions that were not expressed would become less intensive.
答案A
解析 推断题。题目询问达尔文不会同意哪一项论述。第三段中说面部肌肉传递的信息会反馈到大脑的情感中心，因此人的面部表情会影响到他的情感状态。作者引用了达尔文的话来证明这一点：一种感情的外部表现会加强这种感情；另一方面，如果这种感情在外在不能得到表达就会变弱。可见达尔文认为面部表情不仅可以反映人的感情，还可以影响、加强后者，故他不会同意选项A中的观点，而会支持D中的观点。再回头看第一段，作者指出，根据达尔文的观点，面部表情有助人生存的价值，故排除B；咬紧牙关在全世界都是愤怒的表示，故排除C。所以正确答案是A。
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