問題詳情：
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 (*縱杆). 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.推理判斷題.根據第一段中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! 可知你是希望這一次觀眾會笑,把整個節目都拍一遍嗎?還是有別的辦法讓一個笑話聽起來比收到的更有趣?通過添加笑料來增加聲音的親和力!由此可見,作者用第一段來引入本文話題"sweetening".故選A. 2.推理判斷題.根據第二段中"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",或者在電視節目的音頻軌上添加一些聲音效果,如笑聲、尖叫聲和其他觀眾產生的噪音,從20世紀40年代起就被用來製作一個對一個節目的喜劇有興趣和**的反應的外觀,或者更確切地説是聲音.由此可見,笑聲聲帶在一場表演中會帶來更有趣的聲音.故選B. 3.推理判斷題.根據最後一段最後一句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.可知儘管有些電視觀眾可能不同意笑軌的價值,但歡樂和重複的聲音在電視喜劇的歷史和未來中佔有永久的地位.由此可見,作者對笑聲聲帶的態度是肯定的.故選B. 4.主旨大意題.根據第二段中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.可知在電視節目中添加一個笑紋會讓家裏的觀眾感覺更不像是坐在沙發上盯着電視屏幕看,更像是坐在一個充滿歡笑的人的房間裏,取得了不同程度的成功.由此可見,本文談論的是使用笑聲聲帶的原因.故選A.
知識點：社會現象類閲讀
題型：閲讀理解
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