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考点规范练19(选修7 Unit 19) .阅读理解 (2016浙江嘉兴能力测试) What is funny?The short answer is:Who knows?The joke that causes a burst of laughter from one listener might be met with a puzzled look from another. In general,you should avoid jokes at any business or social gathering where there are more than two people in your conversational group.If there are only two people—and they consist of you and your best friend—go ahead and tell it. Admittedly,a few people possess a perfect sense of timing,appropriateness,and joke delivery.You are probably not one of them.You might be quite funny and have many great jokes.But there’s a place for jokes — over dinner with family,hiking with friends,but business or social affairs with colleagues and acquaintances (熟人) are not it.It takes a whole other level of joke-telling ability to put a joke into the more formal conversations. The best jokes come into the conversation so that by the time listeners realise a joke is in progress,the punchline that produces humour is being delivered — to their surprise and delight. Jokes don’t translate well when you’re in a group with mixed backgrounds:those whose first language is not English,those who might not understand a special term or an “in” expression,young people who wouldn’t catch a reference to some bit of culture familiar to older people — and vice versa (反之亦然). | 
