IELTS Research Reports

An empirical investigation of the process of writing Academic Readingtest items for the International English Language Testing Systemlaughter.’ One of the earliest games parents and children play is when the parent tickles the baby onthe stomach or under the arms until it laughs.Studies of tickling, although thin on the ground, should therefore be able to tell us a lot more aboutlaughter. For example, we all know that we cannot make ourselves laugh by tickling ourselves. Butcould a machine tickle us? One team of researchers at the University of California at San Diego built amechanical tickling machine to look at this very question. They discovered that their subjects laughedjust as much in response to the machine as to the experimenter. This tells us that a successful tickledoes not depend on another person, but merely on another entity, something that’s not you.Discovering that laughter can be used as a tool to explore other aspects of our behaviour has, forProvine, been one of the most rewarding aspects of his research. Perhaps his most important insightconcerns the evolution of speech..Provine believes that the evolution of speech and bipedal locomotion are causally related. He came tothis conclusion after analysing the difference between chimp and human laughter. ‘It occurred to methat basically the human ‘ha-ha’ came about as a result of the evolution of breath control that chimpslack,’ he explains. We hold our breath to lift heavy objects and quadrupedal animals must do the samewhen moving in order to support their body when their four limbs hit the ground. When our ancestorsstood up on two feet, the chest was freed of these mechanical demands making it possible for speechto evolve.By breaking away from traditional models of laughter and discovering its links to deep elements ofhuman nature such as speech and sociality, Provine has reinforced just how ancient laughter is. It hasbeen around for as long as rough play, an activity that you see in mammals, from rats and squirrels tochimpanzees and humans, and has most likely evolved from the laboured breathing that accompaniessuch play.Experienced Group: AnneItemsQuestions 1–8Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage X?In boxes 1–8 on your answer sheet, writeTRUEFALSEif the statement agrees with the informationif the statement contradicts the informationNOT GIVEN if there is no information on this1 Provine wrote down more than a thousand examples of what made some of hisstudents laugh.2 Provine classified his research material into male and female subjects.3 Provine considered dividing the laugh episodes into the kind of laughter generated.4 Provine observed that laughter is mostly stimulated by remarks that are without humour.IELTS Research Reports Volume 11361