A
A good joke can be the hardest thing to understand when studying a foreign language. As a recent article in The Guardian newspaper noted, “There's more to understanding a joke in a foreign language than understanding vocabulary and grammar.”
Being able to understand local jokes is often seen as an incredible (难以置信的) icebreaker for a language learner who is eager to form friendships with native speakers. “I always felt that humor was a ceiling (上限) that I could never break through，” Hannah Ashley, a public relations account manager in London, who once studied Spanish in Madrid told The Guardian, “I could never speak to people on the same level as I would speak to a native English speaker. I almost came across as quite a boring person because all I could talk about was facts.”
In fact, most of the time, jokes are only funny for people who share a cultural background or understand humor in the same way. ChineseAmerican comedian Joe Wong found this out firsthand. He had achieved huge success in the US, but when he returned to China in 2008 for his first live show in Beijing, he discovered that people didn't think his Chinese jokes were as funny as his English ones.
In Australia, meanwhile many foreigners find understanding jokes about sports to be the biggest headache. “The hardest jokes are related to rugby because I know nothing about rugby，” said Melody Cao, who was once a student in Australia. “When I heard jokes I didn't get, I just laughed along.”
In the other two major Englishspeaking countries, the sense of humor is also different. British comedian Simon Pegg believes that while Britons use irony—basically, saying something they don't mean to make a joke—every day, people in the US don't see the point of using it so often. “British jokes tend to be more subtle and dark, while American jokes are more obvious with their meanings, a bit like Americans themselves，” he wrote in The Guardian.
本文为夹叙夹议文。本文主要介绍了人们在理解外语笑话方面存在的问题。作者认为要想很好地理解一则外语笑话，人们必须了解笑话中蕴含的文化背景以及讲笑话的人的幽默方式。
21．The writer quoted the sentence, “There's more to understanding a joke in a foreign language than understanding vocabulary and grammar.” to show that ________.
A．making jokes can help you make friends with native speakers
B．local jokes can help you to understand the local culture better
C．understanding jokes requires a good knowledge of vocabulary and grammar
D．to understand its jokes, you'd better learn the culture
答案：D
解析：推理判断题。本文主要说明了学习文化对于理解外语笑话的重要性，故文章一开始引用这句话就是为了说明学习文化对理解外语笑话的重要性。故选D项。
22．What can we guess about Hannah Ashley?
A．She feels confident in using Spanish.
B．She believes that one had better rely on facts when speaking a foreign language.
C．She thinks that Spanish people do not have much of a sense of humor.
D．She feels that not being able to share their humor makes her seem boring to Spanish people.
答案：D
解析：细节理解题。结合文章第二段Hannah Ashley说的话“I could never speak to people on the same level as I would speak to a native English speaker. I almost came across as quite a boring person because all I could talk about was facts.”可知，Hannah Ashley在西班牙时，她从来不能像跟一个以英语为母语的人交流一样与西班牙人进行交流，她认为对于西班牙人来说，她几乎是一个相当无趣的人，因为她所能讲的都是事实。故选D项。
23．Joe Wong is used as an example to ________.
A．show that there are cultural differences in humor
B．prove that it can be difficult to translate jokes
C．suggest that bilingual people (双语者) have no problems in making people laugh
D．show that the expressing ability affects the sense of humor
答案：A
解析：细节理解题。文章第三段首句提到“事实上大部分时间，笑话只对那些共享文化背景或有同样幽默方式的人来说才好笑”，接着就举了Joe Wong(黄西)的例子，故作者举黄西的例子是为了说明文化的差异会影响人们对笑话的理解。故选A项。
