The Expression of Emotions
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 universal 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 all 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.
【Paragraph 1】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 universal 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.
1. The word “despondent”in the passage is closest in meaning to
○curious
○unhappy
○thoughtful
○uncertain
2. The author mentions "Baring the teeth in a hostile way" in order to
○differentiate one possible meaning of a particular facial expression from other meanings of it
○support Darwin's theory of evolution
○provide an example of a facial expression whose meaning is widely understood
○contrast a facial expression that is easily understood with other facial expressions
【Paragraph 2】Most investigators concur that certain facial expressions suggest the same emotions in all 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.
3. The word “concur”in the passage is closest in meaning to
○estimate
○agree
○expect
○understand
4. The word “them”in the passage refers to
○emotions
○people
○photographs
○cultures
5. According to paragraph 2, which of the following was true of the Fore people of New Guinea?
○They did not want to be shown photographs.
○They were famous for their story-telling skills.
○They knew very little about Western culture.
○They did not encourage the expression of emotions.
6. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.
○The Fore's facial expressions indicated their unwillingness to pretend to be story characters.
○The Fore were asked to display familiar facial expressions when they told their stories.
○The Fore exhibited the same relationship of facial expressions and basic emotions that is seen in Western culture when they acted out stories.
○The Fore were familiar with the facial expressions and basic emotions of characters in stories.
【Paragraph 3】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?
7. According to the passage, what did Darwin believe would happen to human emotions that were not expressed?
○They would become less intense.
○They would last longer than usual.
○They would cause problems later.
○They would become more negative.
【Paragraph 4】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.
8. According to the passage, research involving which of the following supported the facial-feedback hypothesis?
○The reactions of people in experiments to cartoons
○The tendency of people in experiments to cooperate
○The release of neurotransmitters by people during experiments
○The long-term effects of repressing emotions
9. The word rate in the passage is closest in meaning to
○judge
○reject
○draw
○want
【Paragraph 6】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.
10. The word “relevant”in the passage is closest in meaning to
○contradictory
○confusing
○dependent
○applicable
11. According to the passage, stiffening the upper lip may have which of the following effects?
○It first suppresses stress, then intensifies it.
○It may cause fear and tension in those who see it.
○It can damage the lip muscles.
○It may either heighten or reduce emotional response.
【Paragraph 2】■Most investigators concur that certain facial expressions suggest the same emotions in all 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.
12. Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.
This universality in the recognition of emotions was demonstrated by using rather simple methods
Where would the sentence best fit?
13.【Directions】An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.
Psychological research seems to confirm that people associate particular facial expressions with the same emotions across cultures.
●
●
●
Answer Choices
○Artificially producing the Duchenne smile can cause a person to have pleasant feelings.
○Facial expressions and emotional states interact with each other through a variety of feedback mechanisms.
○People commonly believe that they can control their facial expressions so that their true emotions remain hidden.
○A person's facial expression may reflect the person's emotional state.
○Ekman argued that the ability to accurately recognize the emotional content of facial expressions was valuable for human beings.
○Facial expressions that occur as a result of an individual's emotional state may themselves feedback information that influences the person's emotions.
参考答案
1. ○ 2
This is a Vocabulary question. The word being tested is despondent. It is highlighted in the passage. The correct answer is choice 2, "unhappy." The sentence in which the highlighted word appears uses despondent as a contrast to happy. Since unhappy is the opposite of happy, it provides the fullest possible contrast and is equivalent to the contrast between Joy and sadness at the beginning of the sentence.
2. ○ 3
This is a Rhetorical Purpose question. It is asking you why the author mentions "baring the teeth in a hostile way" in the passage. This phrase is highlighted in the passage. The correct answer is choice 3; baring the teeth is an example of a facial expression whose meaning is widely understood. The central theme of paragraph 1 of the passage is facial expressions that are universal. The author provides various examples of such expressions, and baring the teeth is mentioned as a universal sign of anger. The other choices are all mentioned in the passage, but not in conjunction with baring the teeth, so they are all incorrect.
3. ○ 2
This is a Vocabulary question. The word being tested is concur. It is highlighted in the passage. The correct answer is choice 2, "agree." Concur means to agree, so if investigators concur about the meaning of certain facial expressions, they agree on their meaning.
4. ○ 3
This is a Reference question. The word being tested is them, and it is highlighted in the passage. This is a simple pronoun-referent item. The word them refers to the photographs that Paul Eckman showed to people from diverse cultures, so the correct answer is choice 3, "photographs."
5. ○ 3
This is a Factual Information question asking for specific information that can be found in paragraph 2. The correct answer is choice 3, which states that the Fore people of New Zealand knew very little about Western culture. The paragraph explicitly says that the Fore had almost no contact with Western culture. None of the other three choices is mentioned in connection with the Fore, so none of them is correct.
6. ○ 3
This is a Sentence Simplification question. As with all of these items, a single sentence in the passage is highlighted:
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.
The correct answer is choice 3. It contains all of the essential ideas in the highlighted sentence without changing the meaning. This choice says that the Fore "exhibited the same relationship of facial and basic emotions that is seen in Western culture when they acted out stories." The sentence that precedes the highlighted sentence states that in a survey, the Fore agreed with Westerners on how various emotions are portrayed. Then the highlighted sentence says that in a different situation (story-telling) the Fores' expressions were also familiar; that is, these expressions were the same as those exhibited by Westerners in this situation. Choices 1 and 2 are incorrect because each one changes the highlighted sentence into a statement that is not true. Choice 4 is incorrect because it says
that the Fore were familiar with the facial expressions of characters in stories. The highlighted sentence says that it was the investigators who were familiar with the Fores' expressions. This is a change in meaning, so it is incorrect.
7. ○ 1
This is a Factual Information question asking for specific information that can be found in the passage. The correct answer is choice 1, emotions that are not expressed become less intense. This is correct based on the direct quotation of Darwin in paragraph 3. In that quotation, Darwin says that emotions that are freely expressed become more intense, while "on the other hand those that are not freely expressed are "softened," meaning that they become less intense. Choices 2, 3, and 4 are all incorrect because there is nothing in the passage that indicates Darwin ever believed these things about expressing emotions. Some or all of them may actually be true, but there is nothing in this passage that supports them.
8. ○ 1
This is a Factual Information question asking for specific information that can be found in the passage. You can see that the phrase "The facial-feedback hypothesis" is highlighted where it first appears in the passage in paragraph 3. The correct answer is choice 1, research supporting this hypothesis came from studying experiments of the reactions of people to cartoons. This idea is found in paragraph 4, which uses these experiments as an example of how facial feedback works. Choice 3, the release of neurotransmitters, is mentioned in paragraph 5 but, not in connection with the facial-feedback hypothesis, so it is incorrect. Choices 2 and 4 are not explicitly mentioned at all in the passage.
9. ○ 1
This is a Vocabulary question. The word being tested is rate, and it is highlighted in the passage. The correct answer is choice 1, "judge." Rate in this context means "to judge."
10. ○ 4
This is a Vocabulary question. The word being tested is relevant, and it is highlighted in the passage. The correct answer is choice 4, "applicable. "Relevant means that Ekman's observation applies ("is applicable") to an expression.
11. ○ 4
This is a Factual Information question asking for specific information that can be found in the passage. The correct answer is choice 4; stiffening the upper lip may either heighten or reduce emotional response. This is stated explicitly in paragraph 6 of the passage as a possible paradox in the relationship between facial expressions and emotions.
Choice 1 is incorrect because paragraph 6 contradicts it.
Choice 2 is incorrect because the passage mentions only the fear and tension of a person trying to keep a stiff upper lip, not any fear or tension that expression may cause in others.
Choice 3 is incorrect because there is no suggestion anywhere in the passage that stiffening the upper lip may damage lip muscles.
12. ○3
This is an Insert Text question. You can see the four black squares in paragraph 2 that represent the possible answer choices here.
■Most investigators concur that certain facial expressions suggest the same emotions in all 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.
The sentence provided, "This universality in the recognition of emotions was demonstrated by using rather simple methods," is best inserted at square 3. Square 3 is correct because the inserted sentence begins with the phrase "This universality." The universality being referred to is the fact, stated in the second sentence, that "people in diverse cultures recognize the emotions manifested by the facial expressions."
None of the other answer choices follows a sentence that contains a universal statement. Sentence 1 mentions that "Most investigators concur," which means that some do not. Therefore this is not a universal statement. Squares 2 and 4 are incorrect because there is nothing in either sentence to which "This universality" could refer.
13. ○2, 4, 6
This is a Prose Summary question. It is completed correctly below. The correct choices are 2, 4, and 6. Choices 1, 3, and 5 are therefore incorrect.
参考译文：情感的表达
在世界范围内各种不同的文化里，人们都是要经历欢乐和悲伤的，但我们怎么区分其他人是高兴还是沮丧呢？事实上，很多情感的表达可能是通用的。比如，微笑显然表示友好和赞同。查尔斯达尔文是进化论的创始人，他在19世纪曾指出，怀有敌意地露出牙齿表现的是愤怒的情绪，人类对面部表情的认知具有一定的生存值。例如，面部表情可以以非语言的方式帮你判断迎面而来的是敌还是友。
很多调查得出了同样的结论，即人类的某些面部表情表达的含义是通用的。此外，不同文化背景的人可以通过面部表情的识别来判断对方的情绪。在一个经典的研究项目中，保罗埃克曼拍下了一组人的照片，分别表示愤怒、厌恶、恐惧、幸福、悲伤。然后，他安排来自世界各地的人们识别照片中所表达的情感。这些人包括欧洲大学生，居住在新几内亚高地的部落等。包括几乎从未接触过西方文化的人在内的所有人得出了一致的答案。此外，问卷中还给出了一些人们熟悉的基本表情，要求答卷者回答如果你是故事中的人物你会作出哪种基本表情？埃克曼和他的同事们从近期的一项统计中得出了相同的结论，他们对来自10个不同文化背景的参与者们进行了调查，参与者可以通过多种面部表情传达复杂的情绪。画面表达了哪两种情感？其中那张更严肃？答案基本一致。
研究心理学的学者们通常认为，面部表情可以反映人们内心的情绪状态。事实上，各种情绪状态的波动都会使得面部肌肉和大脑的电波活动增加。然而，脸部回馈假说论者们却坚持，面部表情和情绪之间的因果关系也可能是反的。他们认为，脸部肌肉承载的信号会被传至大脑的控制情绪的部位中，因此人类面部表情会影响他们的情绪。试想达尔文的话：“自由的情绪表达方式会增强心中的情感。相反，如果抑制这种表达则会削弱心中的情感。”比如，微笑可以让你心情大好吗？皱眉会让你变得愤怒吗？
关于脸部回馈假说，心理学研究提供了一些有趣的发现。比如，让参与实验的人们微笑，他们会表现的更加积极，他们评价图片相对而言更加风趣幽默。当他们皱眉头时，则变得加咄咄逼人。
面部表情和内心情感之间存在什么样可能的联系呢？首先，是刺激。这是一个有机体活动的准备阶段。面部肌肉的紧张收缩会加剧这种刺激，如那些表现得极度的恐惧肌肉收缩。加强刺激的自我感知会加剧内心各种情绪。其次，他们的联系可能会涉及到大脑温度变化和神经递质的释放（传递神经冲动的物质）。面部肌肉的收缩反映并影响内心情绪状态。埃克曼发现，所谓的杜式微笑，就是指眼睛周围的鱼尾纹和眼皮的微微下垂，引发眼睛表面的皮肤轻微朝着眼球方向下降，从而引起愉快的感觉。
埃克曼的看法可能与英国习语“保持咬紧牙关”有关，人们可以用过紧咬牙关缓解自身压力。很有可能是因为紧咬牙关抑制了消极情绪，只要嘴唇没紧张或者恐惧得发抖。但是，当内心情绪导致僵硬的嘴唇更加紧张时，面部表情强有力的收缩很有可能会加剧内心的情绪反应。
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