【英语时差8，16】惹笑女士

 Don: [LAUGHING] And then, see, Moe pokes¹ Curly right in the eye with a pool cue! Hilarious²!

Yael: [NOT LAUGHING] Sure. I guess.

D: What? You don't like the Three Stooges?!?

Y: To be honest, Don, not really.

D: C'mon, Yael. What could be funnier than grown men hitting each other on the head with frying pans, and lighting³ each others' shoes on fire?

Y: I'm sure you think that's hilarious, but it's just not my cup of tea. That's probably because men and women respond to humor differently.

D: Get outta town!

Y: Really. Allan Reiss of Stanford University did a study with ten men and ten women who rated the funniness of cartoons while hooked up to MRI machines. Their brain activity showed that while men and women use the same basic brain areas when responding to humor, there are some differences. For example, the parts of the brain responsible for language, analytical⁴ thinking, and reward were more active in women than in men. This suggests that women are more analytical when it comes to finding something funny.

D: You mean that women are more discerning about whether something is funny or not?

Y: That's the idea. And when women do find something to be genuinely funny, they feel rewarded in a way that men don't.

D: So the implication is that women are humor connoisseurs⁵ while men are dolts⁶ that'll laugh at pretty much anything.

Y: Well, not all men, of course. Just men in general.

D: That doesn't seem fair. Just because I think slapstick humor is funny doesn't mean I'll laugh at anything.

Y: Maybe not. It's still true that men are more likely than women to laugh at someone slipping on a banana peel.

D: Well, that is hilarious.  

1 pokes   

v.伸出( poke的第三人称单数 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交

参考例句：

• He pokes his nose into everything. 他这人好管闲事。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Only the tip of an iceberg pokes up above water. 只有冰山的尖端突出于水面。 来自辞典例句

2 hilarious   

adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed

参考例句：

• The party got quite hilarious after they brought more wine.在他们又拿来更多的酒之后，派对变得更加热闹起来。
• We stop laughing because the show was so hilarious.我们笑个不停，因为那个节目太搞笑了。

3 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

4 analytical   

adj.分析的；用分析法的

参考例句：

• I have an analytical approach to every survey.对每项调查我都采用分析方法。
• As a result,analytical data obtained by analysts were often in disagreement.结果各个分析家所得的分析数据常常不一致。

5 connoisseurs   

n.鉴赏家，鉴定家，行家( connoisseur的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Let us go, before we offend the connoisseurs. 咱们走吧，免得我们惹恼了收藏家。 来自辞典例句
• The connoisseurs often associate it with a blackcurrant flavor. 葡萄酒鉴赏家们通常会将它跟黑醋栗口味联系起来。 来自互联网

6 dolts   

n.笨蛋，傻瓜( dolt的名词复数 )

参考例句：