PROFICIENCY RANKING TEST

Name: ____________________

Date: ____________________

Mark: _____

This whole test must be completed in 160 minutes. The

spoken language section will take 15 minutes. Then you

must proceed to the next parts of the test. You may not

stop until you have finished all the activities. There will

be no break.

Spoken Language Understanding

Activity 1

You will watch a video about laughter. For questions 1-8 complete the gaps with no

more than five words. For questions 9-10 give a brief answer in the gap following. You

may watch the video twice.

1. Laughter involves 15 facial muscles, the ____________________ system and the

brain’s limbic system.

2. Pseudo bulbar affect affects ____________________ and MS patients.

3. The speaker suggests that you laugh more easily when you are

____________________.

4. You will laugh with your friend’s fall when you assure he’s _______________.

5. If you fell down, you would laugh seeing your friend ____________________.

6. People you don’t know in the room will probably laugh making fun of your

____________________.

7. Adolescents make fun of almost ____________________.

8. Laughing ____________________ makes you burn as much calories as a 15-minute

bicycle ride.

9. What the speaker considers laughter not to be at the end?

__________________________________________________

10. What one can do in order to learn more of ‘SciShow’?

__________________________________________________

Activity 2

You will listen to a recording extract taken from a podcast on contagious laughter. For

questions 1-7 choose the best answer A, B or C. You will hear the recording twice.

1. Where did the laughter at the beginning of the recording come from?

A. The host

B. The guest

C. The laugh box

2. What does the speaker suggest laughter is caused from?

A. Laughter

B. A joke

C. Nothing

3. The incident the speaker refers to happened in…

A. 1962

B. A boarding school

C. Kasasha

4. When does the laughter begin?

A. When the teacher gets upset

B. When a girls begun to laugh

C. When two girls begun to laugh

5. Why does the laughter spread to the whole school?

A. Because the teachers are unable to control the situation

B. Because of a girl overhearing someone laughing

C. Because the school was closed

6. When was the medical report written?

A. May 1963

B. 30th January 1962

C. Recently

7. For how long did the longest occurrence last?

A. A few minutes

B. A few hours

C. A few days

Written Language Understanding

Activity 3

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word

in each gap. There is an example at the beginning.

Endangered languages, just like endangered animals, are those which could die out. A

language (1) __________ considered to be endangered when very few people speak

it, and those who do are elderly. In North America, for example, there were once

about 300 different languages, (2) __________ which, only half are still used today. It

has been predicted that (3) __________ the middle of this century, there will only be

twenty.

There are many reasons (4) __________ a language disappears. Often parents teach

their children a more useful language than their own. This frequently happens in

countries (5) __________ a dominant language such as English is spoken by most

people. Those who have a different native language may (6) __________ the decision

to teach their children only English as they believe they will then have better

prospects. These children may never learn to read or write their native language, or

even to speak it well. Their children, in turn, may not learn it at (7) __________.

But why does (8) __________ matter if a language disappears? Well, when the last

speaker of a language dies, a (9) __________ deal of knowledge is lost, often (10)

__________ the form of legends, stories and songs.

Fortunately, though, languages can be saved (11) __________ extinction. In 1983, for

instance, only 1,000 people (12) __________ speak Hawaiian. Today, there are over

10,000.

Activity 4

Read each text and find the missing word or phrase.

(1) Passports are no longer checked at the borders between EU countries (with

the exception of the UK and Ireland). __________, if you enter an EU country

from a country which is not a member, the law states you must show a valid

passport.

A. Although

B. Additionally

C. However

(2) The court found the newspaper guilty of invasion of privacy, and ordered it to

pay and additional £500,000 __________.

A. In circulation

B. In compensation

C. In legal fees

(3) ‘You should pray to have a sound mind in a sound body,’ wrote the Roman

poet Juvenal two millennia ago, and the words still __________ today for any

athlete preparing for competition.

A. Hold true

B. Talk sense

C. Are heard

(4) The value of older books is determined by many of the same criteria as modern

books – condition, content and edition. Many people think that just because a

book is old, it is valuable, but a book has no collectible value by __________.

A. Age alone

B. Normal standards

C. Today’s collectors

(5) __________ the Bounty Islands on which plant species are limited, the sub-

Antarctic islands constitute a centre of plant diversity, and have the richest

flora in the area. The Snares, Antipodes and two of the Auckland Islands are

remarkable in that their vegetation is essentially unmodified by humans or

introduces animal species.

A. Because of

B. With the exception of

C. Accounting for

(6) I have __________ knowledge of how modern electronic gadgets work but

understanding the instructions and using the controller was very easy.

A. Quite a lot of

B. An adequate

C. Only a basic

(7) Pidgin languages develop groups of people who have no language __________

with which to communicate. This is the reason why pidgins have no native

speakers.

A. To speak of

B. In common

C. Learning skills

(8) Communication is significantly easier when people who use different sign

languages meet than it is for those who use different spoken languages.

Therefore, a signer from Britain would be able to communicate fairly well with

one from Japan, although there is no actual __________.

A. International deaf community

B. Worldwide intercommunication

C. Global sign language

(9) “The rent on our flat was getting too expensive. Then the landlord kicked us

out and we had nowhere to go,” explained Alison, mother of a 6 year old child.

“The thought of not having a roof over our head was a terrible __________

and so frightening for my little girl.”

A. Strain

B. Event

C. Wound

(10) As complementary medicine moves towards the mainstream, therapists must

be prepared to answer more critical and discriminating questions such as

“Does this treatment work?” and “What kind of evidence supports it?” People

are hungry for a new kind of medicine, but not __________.

A. In any case

B. For this kind

C. At any price

Activity 5

Read the text below and decide which word A, B, C or D best fits each space. There is

an example at the beginning.

Turning on the TV and ordering from shirts or blouses, or a box of soap powder to

wash them, could become an everyday occurrence for millions of people (1)

__________ the country. Sofa shopping has already taken (2)__________ in the US

and accounts for £1.7 billion of the American retail market.

Now a (3) __________ by market analysts Verdict Research, published today,

estimates TV shopping in Britain may (4) __________ become a £300 million-a-year

market.

The report (5) __________ that people will be able to buy a wide (6) __________ of

goods from the (7) __________ of their own home.

US operator QVC – it (8) __________ for Quality, Value, Convenience – launched TV

shopping in the UK last year (9) __________ satellite television with a service which is

(10) __________ to cable and Sky subscribers.

And mail order giant Freemans has started a trial hoping to be the first of the UK

catalogue groups to (11) __________ in on the act.

Hilary Monk, senior analyst at Verdict Research, believes home shopping groups will

have to adopt new technology to keep (12) __________.

1. A. throughout

2. A. out

3. A. record

4. A. future

5. A. warns

6. A. range

7. A. warmth

8. A. represents

9. A. on

10. A. used

11. A. get

12. A. before

B. during

B. off

B. report

B. next

B. protests

B. series

B. comfort

B. looks

B. at

B. made

B. put

B. forward

C. amongst

C. all

C. speech

C. soon

C. cautions

C. product

C. happiness

C. describes

C. to

C. available

C. let

C. back

D. inside

D. through

D. debate

D. instant

D. predicts

D. content

D. relief

D. stands

D. in

D. offering

D. fit

D. ahead

Activity 6

Read the text below. Use the word given in capitals in brackets to form a word that fits

in the corresponding gap. There is an example at the beginning.

The A1GP racing car is revolutionary (REVOLUTION) in its shape, fuel and material. (1)

__________ (HISTORY), racing cars have been designed to have a shape that causes

wind (2) __________ (RESIST) to press the car down so that it grips the road firmly.

But, (3) __________ (FORTUNE) this shape creates air pockets behind the car which

slow down other drivers. The A1GP has been designed to (4) __________ (MINIMUM)

these undesirable air pockets, thus creating more opportunities for pursuing drivers

to (5) __________ (TAKE). From the spectator’s viewpoint, this guarantees a much

more exciting race.

The A1GP runs on a bio fuel made from sugar, which means that there are fewer

harmful (6) __________ (EMIT). It is constructed from lightweight, stress-absorbent

materials that help to reduce the physical strain of the driver. Also, the seat and safety

harness in the A1GP have been designed to provide a secure and comparatively

comfortable driving position. Test drivers remarked positively on this.

Finally, the A1GP is an (7) __________ (AFFORD) car. This means that drivers can take

up the sport without the need to (8) __________ (SURE) that they have a virtually (9)

__________ (LIMIT) source of financial support, such as generous levels of corporate

(10) __________ (SPONSOR). So, this is a great advantage.

Activity 7

Read the passage and answer the questions below. Circle the correct answer A, B or C.

There is an example at the beginning.

Prehistoric Koalas didn’t eat gum, study says

Ancient koalas may have enjoyed a more diverse diet than today’s koalas, but were

probably just as loud and lazy as their modern cousins.

A team led by Julien Louys, at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) compared

skull fragments of two fossil species – Litokoala kutjamarpensis and Nimiokoala

greystanesi – to the one living species. Both prehistoric marsupials lived about 20

million years ago. They have been known about for many years, but researchers have

only recently collected enough cranial fossil material to make the study possible.

The new research shows there were significant differences in the teeth, palate and

jaws of prehistoric koalas compared to modern koalas, but the remainder of the skull

were similar. “It’s not uncommon to see changes in jaw structure impacting on the

ability to hear,” Louys says. “But in this case such differences don’t appear to have had

that impact.”

Louys says that over time koalas underwent substantial changes to their facial bones.

The changes allowed koalas to chew with greater force to cope with a new diet

consisting entirely of tough eucalyptus leaves, which are low in nutritional content

and have high levels of tannins.

The paper also suggests that prehistoric koalas already had a sedentary lifestyle and

the ability to communicate over long distances found in koalas today. Similarities in

the size and shape of auditory ‘bullae’ – large bony structures that enclose the middle

and inner ears – mean that prehistoric koalas probably shared the ability to produce

the loud, low-frequency bellows of the modern-day koala. These can be heard by

potential mates or competitors nearly a kilometre away.

UNSW palaeontologist Mike Archer says prehistoric koalas may have used the loud

bellows, rather than moving around to communicate – which could suggest a

sedentary lifestyle – but they were also necessary because the animals were probably

rare and population densities were low.

The study contradicts the claim made by some conservationists that koalas are

endangered and says the fossil record shows that six million years ago, as the

rainforests opened up and eucalypts became more common, the abundance of koalas

increased ‘staggeringly’.

“Having picked gum trees, they lucked out,” he says. “Koalas are not one of the

animals you would regard to be endangered.” Federal Government studies have

estimated the national koala population in the hundreds of thousands, but the

Australian Koala Foundation has estimated that the population is between 40,000 and

80,000.

0. In total, how many species of koalas were compared in the study?

A. Two

B. Three

C. Unknown

The correct answer is B

1. What is unusual about the way koalas evolved?

A. Changes in their bones did not affect their capacity to do

something.

B. Their energy levels fell due to a change in lifestyle.

C. They changed their mode of interaction.

2. Who attributes the changes in koalas’ bone structure to what they feed on?

A. Julien Louys

B. Mike Archer

C. Conservationists

3. Prehistoric koalas are similar to koalas today in terms of their…

A. Habitat.

B. Teeth.

C. Call.

4. The research suggests that ‘bullae’ enabled koalas to…

A. Produce sounds that were different from other koalas in

their group.

B. Make themselves known to rivals at a distance.

C. Develop an acute sense of hearing.

5. On which subject is there disagreement?

A. The best way to protect koalas.

B. The current population of koalas.

C. The reasons for the continued survival of the koala

Activity 8

Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first one. Use the

word given in bold and other words to complete each sentence. You must use between

two and five words. Do not change the word given.

1. Paul knows a lot more about it than John does.

John doesn’t know ______________________________ Paul does. much

2. I prefer playing basketball to volleyball.

I’d ______________________________ basketball than volleyball. rather

3. She is sorry now that she didn’t invite him to dinner.

She ______________________________ him to dinner. wishes

4. Vegetables can’t possibly grow in such dry ground.

It is ______________________________ in such dry ground. impossible

5. My car needs to be washed.

I ______________________________ car washed. have

6. “You broke my radio, Mark!” said Jane.

Jane ______________________________ her radio. accused

7. Handicapped people find travelling by bus difficult.

It is difficult ______________________________ by bus. travel

8. She never finds it difficult to get up early in the morning.

She ______________________________ early in the morning. used

Activity 9

Read the two extracts below and then answer the questions related to each one. Do

not use more than nine words for each of your answer.

The advent of the 24-hour news channel and the instant access the Internet provides

us with has utterly changed the way we view the news. It would at first glance seem

to be a good thing to be able to find out in a moment what has happened on the other

side of the globe, but the problem is that the first glance is all we get. The moment a

new story breaks, all attention switches away from the ‘old’ one, and nothing is heard

of it again.

With competing news channels all covering the latest big event, another worrying

trend emerges: sensationalism. The only way to get viewers to watch your show is by

shouting the loudest; the most lurid story gets the headlines, and the serious but dull

is relegated to the news in brief section, if it is mentioned at all. A good example of

this is the oil spill in the Mexican Gulf, which was on the screen all day every day until

it was plugged. But where is the coverage of the extent of the contamination, the lives

it has affected, the compensation payments and the clean-up? For the 24-hour news

cycle, it is as if the oil simply disappeared without leaving a trace.

1. When does a piece of news become ‘old’?

__________________________________________________

2. What encourages sensationalism in reporting?

__________________________________________________

3. What news stories do not receive the attention they deserve?

__________________________________________________

4. Which environmental aspects of the oil spill have not been covered?

__________________________________________________

“Why is it that you in the Western world are so terrified of looking in the mirror and

spotting your first grey hair?” This shrewd question was posed by a university student

from Turkmenistan named Rashid, as I interviewed him for my new book, Growing

Old.

“My people never have that fear,” he went on. “It may be true that Western societies

provide a high level of medical and social care, but this alone does not eliminate the

problems faced by the elderly. It seems to me that in this part of the world the young

and able-bodied are so wrapped-up in their own lives that older people are often left

without any relatives who are prepared to care for them.”

By now Rashid was becoming quite animated. “In my culture, grandparents are not

considered a burden. Their contribution to the family unit is highly valued and, being

the most experienced family members, their advice is always taken into consideration.

It simply stands to reason that anyone who has lived that long can provide a unique

insight into life’s problems.”

It seems we have a lot to learn from the people of Turkmenistan.

5. What is readily available to the elderly in Western countries?

__________________________________________________

6. According to Rashid, what are younger people in the West reluctant to do?

__________________________________________________

7. What word describes how Rashid thinks Westerners view the elderly?

__________________________________________________

8. What enables elderly people to offer sound advice?

__________________________________________________

Activity 10

Choose the correct answer A, B, C or D.

1. If it doesn’t make a profit soon, this company is _______ having to declare

bankruptcy.

A. Danger of

B. At danger

C. With danger to

D. In danger of

2. Many nations urge their citizens _____ in elections.

A. Vote

B. To vote

C. On voting

D. Voting

3. “Have you submitted your application yet?” “No, I haven’t _____ had the chance

to start it.”

A. Even

B. Much

C. Often

D. Just

4. I remember _____ at the restaurant when I was a child.

A. Have eaten

B. Having eaten

C. To eat

D. To have eaten

5. The part _____ repair the car was ordered today.

A. Needing

B. Needing to

C. Needs to

D. Needed to

6. _____ odd as it sounds, I would rather not go out tonight.

A. Though

B. However

C. As

D. While

7. I know Jenny can win the race. She just has to believe _____.

A. In her

B. In herself

C. Herself

D. Her

8. “Professor Wilson, I’m surprised you still remember me.” “Well, even though

I’ve been teaching _____, there are some students that I will always remember.”

A. For a long period like mine

B. For as long as I have

C. During the long time for me

D. Since a long time that I have

9. Mark’s parents wouldn’t buy him the jeans he wanted, so he had to _____ them

himself.

A. Save it up for

B. Save up for

C. Be saving up to

D. Have saved up to

10. We ought to _____ about the change in schedule.

A. Notify

B. Get notified

C. Have notified

D. Have been notified

11. He got the job even though his skills were _____ to those of the other

applicants.

A. Insignificant

B. Inferior

C. Indifferent

D. Imperfect

12. When choosing the new chairperson, _____ that the past three have all come

from the accounting department.

A. See to it

B. Look out for

C. Keep in mind

D. Ask around

13. The government _____ the use of seat belts in all cars.

A. Prevails

B. Provokes

C. Mediates

D. Mandates

14. I think Kim would be great for the job. Her work record is _____.

A. Impeccable

B. Enriched

C. Rudimentary

D. Tarnished

15. John will likely _____ as head of the department when the semester ends.

A. Resign

B. Conclude

C. Install

D. Expire

16. The company that John works for is _____ with an automotive company, so he

can get a discount on a new car.

A. Correlated

B. Parallel

C. Affiliated

D. Accounted

17. Vacation policies continue to be a source of _____ between management and

the workers.

A. Disturbance

B. Resistance

C. Contraction

D. Friction

18. I can tolerate olive oil, but I just _____ olives.

A. Distort

B. Perjure

C. Abhor

D. Feign

19. The customer upset many of the restaurant’s staff.

A. Intuitive

B. Prodigious

C. Belligerent

D. Abundant

20. The lecturer restated his main point, _____ that the current approach has been

a failure.

A. Namely

B. Largely

C. Incidentally

D. Exclusively

Activity 11

Read the following signs (1-5) and decide at which place (A-F) each one could be seen.

Each option (A-F) must be used only once. There is one option you do not need to use.

A. A park

B. A library

C. A hospital

D. An airport

E. A school

F. A bakery

1. Those wishing to board now may come to the check-in desk. ____

2. People are asked to remain silent here in order not to disturb the ailing. ____

3. You have the right to ask for a receipt. ____

4. Children of the lower classes are not allowed to enter the playground. ____

5. To borrow most of the items, bring them to the circulation desk and show your

card to an attendant. ____

Activity 12

Fill in the missing words in the text below. The first letter of each word is provided and

the dashes correspond to the missing letters.

What makes us laugh and why do we laugh? Scientists attempting to answer these

questions have found that people who are perceived us witty, clever and funny will be

more (1) s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ in work and relationships.

A sense of humour may be that missing ingredient to (2) t _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ a romantic

attraction into a flourishing long-term relationship. But whereas women say they want

someone who makes them laugh, men say they want someone (3) w _ _ _ they can

make laugh. In another recent survey, 91 percent of top executives surveyed

considered humour important to career advancement.

What’s more, scientists report that a strong sense of humour speeds healing and

reduces the risk of suicide, depression and heart disease. It is humanity’s ultimate

coping mechanism, smoothing the difficulties of (4) m _ _ _ _ _ life.

Laughter societies hold annual conventions (5) d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ to researching why we

laugh. To them, laughter is much more than a neutral-path action triggering the

involuntary expulsion of air and sound.

Activity 13

Read the text and choose the best answer A, B or C for items 1-2.

Humour is infectious. The sound of roaring laughter is far more contagious than any

cough, sniffle, or sneeze. When laughter is shared, it binds people together and

increases happiness and intimacy. Laughter also triggers healthy physical changes in

the body. Humour and laughter strengthen your immune system, boost your energy,

diminish pain, and protect you from the damaging effects of stress. Best of all, this

priceless medicine is fun, free, and easy to use.

“Your sense of humour is one of the most powerful tools you have to make certain

that your daily mood and emotional state support good health.”

˜ Paul E. McGhee, Ph.D.

Laughter is a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict. Nothing works faster to

bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh. Humour lightens your

burdens, inspires hopes, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused,

and alert.

With so much power to heal and renew, the ability to laugh easily and frequently is a

tremendous resource for surmounting problems, enhancing your relationships, and

supporting both physical and emotional health.

Laughter makes you feel good. And the good feeling that you get when you laugh

remains with you even after the laughter subsides. Humour helps you keep a positive,

optimistic outlook through difficult situations, disappointments, and loss.

More than just a respite from sadness and pain, laughter gives you the courage and

strength to find new sources of meaning and hope. Even in the most difficult of times,

a laugh—or even simply a smile—can go a long way toward making you feel better.

And laughter really is contagious—just hearing laughter primes your brain and readies

you to smile and join in the fun.

1. What is the main purpose of the article?

A. To give general information on laughter

B. To highlight the beneficial side of laughing

C. To inform an academic student on his medical research

2. Where this article could be found?

A. On a various-topics website

B. On a medical journal

C. On an entertainment magazine

Now read the text again and choose the best answer A, B or C for items 3-5

3. Laughter…

A. Strengthens your immune system

B. Makes you cough, sniffle or sneeze

C. Is the most powerful tool you have

4. Due to laughter’s power it can…

A. Heal and renew

B. Reduce stress, pain and conflict

C. Surmount problems

5. Laughter most importantly…

A. Gives people hope

B. Is contagious

C. Diminishes pain and sadness

Activity 14

Read the text and choose the best answer A, B or C for items 1-10.

On Jan. 30, 1962, three schoolgirls started

giggling in a boarding school classroom in

the north-eastern corner of what is now

Tanzania—and touched off a very strange

epidemic. The three couldn’t stop

laughing—and soon the uncontrollable

cackles spread to their classmates. The

laughing attacks lasted from a few minutes

up to a few hours; one poor girl reportedly

experienced symptoms for 16 straight days.

Victims couldn’t focus on their schoolwork,

and would lash out if others tried to restrain

them.

When 95 of the school’s 159 pupils had

come down with what came to be known

as omuneepo, the Swahili word for laughing

disease, the school shut down. The students

returned to their villages, taking

omuneepo with them. The affliction spread

from person to person, school to school,

village to village. “The education of the

children is being seriously interfered with

and there is considerable fear among the

village communities,” noted local medical

officers in a 1963 report in the Central

African Journal of Medicine. They could find

no explanation for the matter. When the

epidemic finally died down months later,

roughly a thousand people had been struck

by the “laughing disease.”

As part of our effort to understand what

makes people laugh, we travelled to north-

eastern Tanzania, tracing omuneepo’s

spread across the region more than a half-

century ago. We tracked down teachers,

students, and medical experts who

experienced the phenomenon first-hand.

We learned there was nothing funny at all

about the situation at the time. The religious

boarding school where the laughter began

was marked by strict rules, windowless

dorms, and devilishly uncomfortably chairs

designed to promote correct posture.

Investigators found similar conditions at

other locations where the omuneepo later

erupted: Serious overcrowding, poor food

quality.

“It’s a form of complaint,” Kroeber

Rugliyama, a long-time local psychiatrist

said of the mysterious laughter. “They had

no alternative form of expression.”

Laughter is a vexing subject even when it’s

not spreading through the countryside like a

virulent disease. Take the work of Robert

Provine, a neuroscientist and psychology

professor at the University of Maryland,

Baltimore County. For his book, Laughter: A

Scientific Investigation, Provine engaged in

what he called “sidewalk neuroscience,”

tracking and observing real-world laughter.

He and his collaborators used tape

recorders to capture more than a thousand

“laugh episodes” in bars, shopping malls,

cocktail parties, and class reunions. And he

had dozens of student volunteers note in a

“laugh log” the circumstances around every

time they tittered, chuckled, or guffawed.

The results were surprising, even to Provine:

Less than 20 percent of the real-world

laughter incidents he catalogued were in

response to anything resembling something

funny. Far more often, people were giggling

or chuckling at innocuous statements such

as “I’ll see you guys later,” “I see your point,”

and “Look, it’s Andre!” What’s more, in all of

these cases, the person who produced the

laugh-provoking statement was 46 percent

more likely to be the one chuckling than the

person listening. And while laughter might

seem like something that can erupt at any

point in response to something funny, in

only eight of the 1,200 laugh episodes

Provine catalogued did the laughter

interrupt what somebody was saying.

Instead, 99.9 percent of the time, laughter

occurred in tidy, natural breaks in the

conversation, punctuating the speech like a

period or exclamation point.

Provine discovered that the laughter of our

everyday lives isn’t for the most part in

response to anything resembling jokes.

Instead, most of it occurs in conversations

that, out of context, don’t seem funny at all.

Provine’s discoveries suggest that laughter

is inherently social, that at its core it’s a form

of communication and not just a by-product

of finding something funny. Sure enough,

when Provine went through the laugh logs

he’d collected, he found his participants

were 30 times more likely to laugh in the

presence of others than when they were

alone. Among the few solitary instances of

laughter, nearly all occurred in response to

TV shows or other media—that is, electronic

proxies for other people. When people

noted in their journals that they were truly

alone, they hardly recorded any laughter at

all.

So why would we have evolved the odd and

powerful vocal mannerism of laughter? Why

do we have an innate need to share what we

find funny with others, and why can it can

resemble an out-of-control disease?

Evolutionary theory is rife with possible

explanations, but one of the most

compelling was put forward in a

2005 Quarterly Review of Biology article by

an undergrad named Matthew Gervais and

his adviser, evolutionary biologist David

Sloan Wilson. It’s based on the efforts of a

quirky 19th-century French physician named

Guillaume Duchenne, who went around

zapping people’s faces with electrodes.

Luckily for Duchenne, he worked at an old

woman’s hospice, so he had access to a lot

of prone bodies. He must have been quite

the charmer. According to articles on

Duchenne, all the ladies wanted to be

electrocuted by the “little old man with his

mischief box.”

Applying the prongs of his box to people’s

faces, Duchenne evoked one kind of

smiling—the voluntary kind, the type of

expression we produce when we a grin to be

polite. This mannerism, he discovered,

involves the face’s zygomatic major muscles

raising the corners of the mouth. But

Duchenne discovered there was a second

variety of smiling and laughing, one that

occurs when we find something truly

entertaining or funny. This expression was

more complex, utilizing both the zygomatic

major muscles and the orbicularis oculi

muscles that form crow’s feet around your

eyes. It’s why people say a real smile is in the

eyes. Duchenne was never able to

reproduce with his electrodes this second

form of expression—now known as a

Duchenne smile or Duchenne laughter—and

he came to believe it was “only put at play

by the sweet emotion of the soul.”

More than a century later, Gervais and

Wilson saw Duchenne’s discovery as

evidence that laughter evolved at two

different points in human development.

First, they posited, at a point sometime

between 2 million and 4 million years ago,

came Duchenne laughter, the kind triggered

by something funny. An outgrowth of the

breathy panting emitted by primates during

play fighting, it likely appeared before the

emergence of language. This sort of laughter

was a signal that things at the moment were

OK, that danger was low and basic needs

were met, and now was as good a time as

any to explore, to play, to socialize. “What

the humour is indexing and the laughter is

signalling is, ‘this is an opportunity for

learning,’” Gervais told us. “It signals this is

a non-serious novelty, and recruits others to

play and explore cognitively, emotionally

and socially with the implications of this

novelty.”

But then, sometime in the hundreds of

thousands of years after that, theorized

Gervais and Wilson, the other sort of

laughter emerged—the non-Duchenne sort,

the kind that isn’t dependent on something

being funny. As people developed

cognitively and behaviourally, they learned

to mimic the spontaneous behaviour of

laughter to take advantage of its effects.

They couldn’t get it right—they couldn’t

simulate the eye-muscle movements of real

laughter and smiling—but it was close.

Mimicked laughter was a way to manipulate

others—sometimes for mutually beneficial

purposes, sometimes for more devious

reasons. As Gervais and Wilson put it in their

paper, “non-Duchenne laughter came to

occur in aggressive, nervous, or hierarchical

contexts, functioning to signal, to appease,

to manipulate, to deride, or to subvert.”

Laughter, in other words, is more than just a

response to humour. It’s a primal human

tool, one of the building blocks of society. It

taps into the core of what we are as social

creatures, expressing from one person to

another what often cannot be said in any

other way: either that everything is in good

fun—or, as in the case of omuneepo, that

something is very, very wrong.

1. For how long did the laughter epidemic last?

A. From some minutes up to a few hours

B. For 16 days

C. For several months

2. What was happening at the school at the time omuneepo erupted?

A. There were strict rules

B. There was something funny

C. There was overcrowding and poor food quality

3. How Provine studied the phenomenon?

A. He recorded people laughing

B. He wrote a book

C. He made a psychology experiment using students as volunteers

4. When people would laugh mainly?

A. When something was funny

B. At innocuous statements

C. When they made a statement

5. Which word can best replace ‘rife’ in bold?

A. Spread

B. Abundant

C. Confound

6. People can understand which smile is real because…

A. It is more complex

B. It involves the zygomatic muscles

C. It also uses a type of muscles near the eyes

7. Duchenne laughter…

A. Started because something was funny

B. Was technically a low panting

C. Indicated danger

8. What are the common intentions of non-Duchenne laughter?

A. Imitation

B. Mutuality

C. Manipulation

9. Laughter serves as…

A. Response to humour

B. Social foundation

C. A way of communication

10. What would be the best title for the article?

A. Omuneepo: A laughter tradegy in Tanzania.

B. Why do humans laugh? The evolutionary biology of laughter.

C. In search for our lost humour.

Activity 15

Write an article on laughter. Include information about why people laugh, in which

way laughter is beneficial to people and the reasons why humour in our time appears

to have been lost. You can take information from the texts and activities on laughter

appearing all over the exam, and also from the notes you made at the listening

activities. The text below will help you. Write more than 350 words.

Είναι πολύ όμορφο να

βλέπεις έναν άνθρωπο να

γελάει. Είτε πρόκειται για

τον διπλανό σου στο

γραφείο είτε για έναν

άγνωστο στο μετρό. Και το

πολύ θετικό είναι ότι

ακόμα και σε μια τέτοια

χρονική συγκυρία που οι

περισσότεροι άνθρωποι

στη χώρα είναι στα

πρόθυρα της κατάθλιψης,

βλέπεις τον κόσμο

τριγύρω σου να γελάει.

Αυτό όμως που με

στενοχωρεί είναι ο τρόπος

με τον οποίο πλέον

γελάμε. Τα αστεία και οι

φιλοσοφία των

ανθρώπων που μας

κάνουν να γελάμε.

Το συνειδητοποίησα

παρακολουθώντας τον

Λαζόπουλο. Αν δεν έλεγε

τη λέξη «μαλάκας», αν δεν

έδειχνε τον Φικιώρη να

παράγει ηχητικές κλανιές,

αν δεν έλεγε κάποιο

πρόστυχο ανέκδοτο,

κανείς στο ακροατήριο

δεν έδειχνε να

συγκινείται. Το κοινό

περίμενε αδημονίως μια

βρισιά, ένα σαρδάμ με

υπονοούμενο, ένα

πικρόχολο σχόλιο για να

ξεκαρδιστεί. Κι αυτό για

μία χώρα που έχει βγάλει

τόσους κωμικούς

ηθοποιούς είναι πολύ

λυπηρό.

Ποτέ δεν καταλάβαινα

απόλυτα τους ανθρώπους

που ήταν φανατικοί των

ελληνικών ταινιών. Και

εγώ προσωπικά δεν είμαι

και πολύ μεγάλος φαν των

ελληνικών ταινιών. Έχω

δει τις περισσότερες αλλά

σίγουρα δεν ανήκω σε

εκείνη την κατηγορία των

ανθρώπων που έχουν

φτιάξει ταινιοθήκη με

ασπρόμαυρες κωμωδίες.

Αν όμως πετύχω κάποια

στιγμή τον Λάμπρο

Κωνσταντάρα, τον

Διονύση

Παπαγιαννόπουλο ή τον

Ντίνο Ηλιόπουλο, δεν θα

αλλάξω κανάλι. Κι αυτό

γιατί πάντα με έκαναν να

γελάω. Όχι να

ξεκαρδίζομαι, αλλά να

γελάω. Με μια γκριμάτσα,

μια ατάκα, ένα

«προχωρημένο» για την

εποχή σχόλιο, μια

αφέλεια σχεδόν παιδική.

Θυμάμαι τον Μίμη

Φωτόπουλο στην

«Κάλπικη Λίρα» να με

ιντριγκάρει, την Τζένη

Καρέζη στο «Δεσποινίς

Διευθυντής» να με κάνει

να χαμογελάω, τον

Διονύση

Παπαγιαννόπουλο στο

Τζένη-Τζένη να με κάνει

να σπαρταράω, τον

Θανάση Βέγγο σε όλες τις

ταινίες του να με κάνει (με

γελοία πολλές φορές)

αστεία να ξεκαρδίζομαι.

Κι έτσι ήταν οι κωμωδίες

και στον υπόλοιπο κόσμο.

Απλές. Αστείες. Δεν

χρειαζόταν η υπερβολή,

δεν χρειαζόταν κανένα

εφέ. Χρειαζόταν μόνο ένα

καλογραμμένο σενάριο

και χαρισματικοί

ηθοποιοί. Ποιος δεν

γελάει ακόμα με το

«Εντιμότατοι Φίλοι μου»

του Μονιτσέλι; Με το

«What did you do in the

war, daddy?»; Με τα

sprint του Jerry Lee Lewis

και τις πρώιμες ταινίες

του Walter Matthau;

Μπαίνοντας στην νέα

χιλιετία τα πράγματα δεν

ήταν τόσο άσχημα στην

ελληνική τηλεόραση όσο

είναι σήμερα. Και

ειλικρινά, από το Είσαι το

Ταίρι μου και την

χαρισματική φιγούρα του

Βασίλη

Χαραλαμπόπουλου, άντε

και μετά το Παρά Πέντε

και την Σμαράγδα

Καρύδη, δεν θυμάμαι

κάποια εκπομπή, σειρά ή

παράσταση να καταφέρει

να με κάνει να γελάσω,

χωρίς να ξεφτιλίσει τα

όρια της σάτιρας και του

χιούμορ. Έχουμε μάθει να

γελάμε με το

στιλιζαρισμένο χιούμορ

του Κανάκη, με τον Λάκη

να δείχνει τα γεννητικά

του όργανα, με το editing

στα βίντεο του Θέμου. Και

δεν λέμε ότι είναι κακό

αυτό. Όλοι γελάμε και

σίγουρα πρέπει να

υπάρχουν και αυτά. Αλλά

όχι να αποτελούν τον

κανόνα. Γιατί ακόμα κι αν

υπάρχουν κάποιες

αναλαμπές απλού

καθημερινού χιούμορ

στην ελληνική τηλεόραση

και το θέατρο, χάνονται

και αυτές μέσα στην

παρούσα χυδαιότητα, η

οποία βρίσκει άλλοθι στην

αρχαία κωμωδία. Μόνο

που η αρχαία κωμωδία,

βλάσφημοι,

χρησιμοποιούσε τη

γλώσσα ως υο υπέρτατο

όπλο πολιτισμού και όχι

σαν φτηνό τέχνασμα

τηλεθέασης και

εμπορικών εσόδων.

Το γέλιο στην Ελλάδα

ακολουθεί σίγουρα τη

λογική του εξωτερικού.

Δεν είναι τυχαίο ότι τα

stand-up comedies του

μεγάλου George Carlin της

δεκαετίας του 70 δεν

έχουν καμία σχέση με τον

τωρινό διαγωνισμό

υβρεολογίας του Joe

Rogan. Και δεν λέω, έχω

κατεβάσει και βλέπω

πολύ συχνά τη σειρά

βρετανικών stand-up

«Live at the Apollo», αλλά

ακόμα και εκεί χαίρομαι

όταν βλέπω απλούς

Άγγλους κωμικούς να

σηκώνουν τον κόσμο στο

πόδι χωρίς να

αποκαλέσουν κάποιον

wanker ή fagget. Δεν τα

χρειάζεται η κωμωδία.

Δαιμονολογούμε για το

φθηνό αμερικάνικο

χιούμορ αλλά και ακόμα

και αυτή τη δεκαετία

έχουν παραχθεί στην

Αμερική σειρές όπως το

Big Bang Theory, το Two

and a Half Men, το How I

met your Mother, το Curb

your Enthusiasm και άλλα

πολλά που κάνουν τον

Έλληνα τηλεθεατή να

ρίχνει μαύρη πέτρα στα

ελεύθερα κανάλια και να

πληρώνει αδρά τα

συνδρομητικά.

Αυτή είναι η εξέλιξη και

δυστυχώς κανείς δεν

μπορεί να την αλλάξει. Και

όσο κι αν σιχαίνομαι να

μιλάω σαν εκείνους τους

50άρηδες που κάθονται

σε ένα καφενείο και λένε

ότι «ο Πελέ, ο Κρόιφ και ο

Μπεστ έπαιζαν άλλη

μπάλα στην εποχή μου»,

στην περίπτωση του

γέλιου δεν με πειράζει να

γίνω κι εγώ λίγο γραφικός.

Γιατί δεν χρειάζομαι

κανέναν νουμερολάγνο

παρουσιαστή-κωμικό να

μου εκβιάζει ένα

κακιασμένο χαμόγελο.

Χρειάζομαι μερικούς

σεναριογράφους και

stand-up comedians να με

κάνουν να χάσω την

αναπνοή μου από το

νευρικό γέλιο. Αμήν.