Imaginethatyou’rethecreatorandshowrunnerofthenewestcome...

问题详情：

Imagine that you’re the creator and show runner of the newest comedy show on television. Only it isn’t so popular yet, and your live Studio audience isn’t giving you the big laughs the show deserves. Do you film the show all over again, hoping that this time the audience will laugh? Or is there another option for making a joke sound funnier than it was received?

Sweeten(改善) the sound by adding a laugh track! “Sweetening,” or the addition of sound effects such as laughs, screams, and other audience-produced noises to the audio track of a TV show, has been used since the 1940s to produce the appearance, or rather the sound, of an engaged and entertained response to a show’s comedy. Laugh tracks came into existence as not only a solution, and sometimes replacement, for an unengaged live audience but also as a way to engage an at-home audience into a more-traditional, public, and theater like experience. Adding a laugh track to a television show makes the viewers at home feel much less like they’re sitting on a couch staring at the television screen and much more like they’re in a room full of laughing happy people to varying degrees of success.

Though the art of sweetening has risen and fallen in popularity over the past 60 years, credit for its creation and continued use is owed to laugh-track pioneer and sound engineer Charles Douglass. Douglass was the first to develop, in 1953, a machine for producing “canned laughter”, accessible at the push of a button or pull of a lever (*纵杆). Despite being artificial, sensibly edited laugh tracks are found by television studios to bring about a positive audience response, as their use is usually accompanied by higher ratings and increased audience memory. Though some television audiences may disagree with the value of the laugh track, the cheerful and repetitive sound holds a permanent place in the history and future of television comedy.

author uses the first paragraph to         .

oduce the topic “sweetening”                    solutions for the problem

t out a way of making comedies               se readers’ interest in comedies

effect does a laugh track produce?

creation of a show.                                 ier sound in a show,

engaged live audience                           unication among TV viewers.

’s the author’s attitude towards the use of the laugh track?

tful.                 tive.                   ral (中立的).      rtain,

does the passage mainly talk about?

reason for using laugh tracks.                  brief history of laugh tracks.

development of TV comedies.                 way to improve television shows.

【回答】

1.A; 2.B; 3.B; 4.A 解析：1.推理判断题.根据第一段中Do you film the show all over again, hoping that this time the audience will laugh? Or is there another option for making a joke sound funnier than it was received?和第二段第一句Sweeten(改善) the sound by adding a laugh track! 可知你是希望这一次观众会笑,把整个节目都拍一遍吗?还是有别的办法让一个笑话听起来比收到的更有趣?通过添加笑料来增加声音的亲和力!由此可见,作者用第一段来引入本文话题"sweetening".故选A. 2.推理判断题.根据第二段中"Sweetening," or the addition of sound effects such as laughs, screams, and other audience-produced noises to the audio track of a TV show, has been used since the 1940s to produce the appearance, or rather the sound, of an engaged and entertained response to a show's comedy.可知甜蜜",或者在电视节目的音频轨上添加一些声音效果,如笑声、尖叫声和其他观众产生的噪音,从20世纪40年代起就被用来制作一个对一个节目的喜剧有兴趣和**的反应的外观,或者更确切地说是声音.由此可见,笑声声带在一场表演中会带来更有趣的声音.故选B. 3.推理判断题.根据最后一段最后一句Though some television audiences may disagree with the value of the laugh track, the cheerful and repetitive sound holds a permanent place in the history and future of television comedy.可知尽管有些电视观众可能不同意笑轨的价值,但欢乐和重复的声音在电视喜剧的历史和未来中占有永久的地位.由此可见,作者对笑声声带的态度是肯定的.故选B. 4.主旨大意题.根据第二段中Adding a laugh track to a television show makes the viewers at home feel much less like they're sitting on a couch staring at the television screen and much more like they're in a room full of laughing happy people to varying degrees of success.可知在电视节目中添加一个笑纹会让家里的观众感觉更不像是坐在沙发上盯着电视屏幕看,更像是坐在一个充满欢笑的人的房间里,取得了不同程度的成功.由此可见,本文谈论的是使用笑声声带的原因.故选A.

知识点：社会现象类阅读

题型：阅读理解