I Just Know How You Feel
Do you feel sad? Happy? Frustrated? Insouciant? Exonerated? Infuriated? Do you think that the way you display these emotions is unique? Well, think again. Even the expression of the most personal feelings can be divided into groups, classified, and perhaps, taught. This week sees the publication of Mind Reading, an interactive DVD-rom displaying every possible human emotion. It demonstrates 412 distinct ways in which we feel: the first visual dictionary of the human heart.
The attempt to classify the human heart began with Darwin. His The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, published in 1872, divided the emotions into six types--anger, fear,sadness, disgust, surprise and enjoyment.46
Every other feeling, of which there may be thousands, was thought to derive from this six-strong group. More complex expressions of emotion were likely to be learned and therefore more specific to each culture. An incredulous or indignant Pacific islander might not be able to show an Essex girl exactly how she felt.
But now it is believed that, whereas gestures do not cross cultural boundaries well, many more facial expressions than Darwin's half-dozen are shared worldwide. 47 The Mind Reading is a systematic record of each of these expressions being acted out.
The project was conceived by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen of the autism research centre in Cambridge as an aid for people with autism, who have difficulty both reading and expressing emotion. But it quickly became apparent that it had broader uses. Novelists, actors and portrait painters all need to draw upon a wide range of emotional expression, and teachers could use it for classes in personal and social development.
Baron-Cohen's team first had to decide what counted as an emotion. 48 Using this definition, 1,512 emotion terms were identified and put to a panel who had to decide if each repre sented a separate emotion, or if they were synonyms. That list was whittled down to 412, arranged in 24 groups from "afraid" to "wanting".
Once the emotions were classified, a DVD seemed the most efficient way to display them. In Mind Reading, each expressions is acted out--six times, by six different actors--in three seconds.
49 The explanation for this is simple: we may find it difficult to describe emotions using words, but we instantly recognize one when we see it on someone's face. "It was really clear when the actors had got it right," says Cathy Collis, who directed the DVD.
But though we find it difficult to describe many emotions, we instantly recognize one when we see one. "Even when the actors were struggling to get an emotion, there was a split second when it was absolutely there. It was really clear when they'd got it, "Cathy Collis, who directed the DVD. "Although the actors were given some direction, they were not told which facial muscle they should move." She added. 50 For example, when someone feels contempt, you can't say for certain that their eyebrows always go down.
Someone who has tried to establish such rules is the American Professor Paul Ekman, who has built a database of how the face moves for every emotion. The face can make 43 distinct muscle movements called "action units". These can be combined into more than 10,000 visible facial shapes. Ekman has written out a paper of facial muscular movements to represent each emotion.
A. We thought of trying to describe each emotion but it would have been almost impossible to make clear rules for this.
B. These particular muscles are difficult to control, and few people can do it.
C. Research has also been done to find out which areas of the brain read the emotional expressions.
D. They decided that it was a mental state that could be preceded by "I feel"or "he looks"or"she sounds".
E. He said that the expression of these feelings are universal and recognizable by anyone, from any culture.
F. Any other method of showing all the 412 emotions, such as words, would have been far less effective.
答案及解析
46.E。他说这种感情的表达普遍存在，可以在任何人和任何文化中找到。上一句列举了六种表情，而this正是指以上的感情的表达。
47.C。人们作了研究，为了发现大脑的哪个区域读取表情。该题考查上下文之间的意义关系，这与后文关于头脑阅读的内容从意义上讲是一脉相承的。
48.D。他们认定情感是一种心理状态，常以“我觉得”、“他认为”、“她听起来”开头，这与前文要定义“情感”和后文“按照这种界定方式”相吻合。
49.F。要展示412种表情，其他任何的方法都远没有它有效。文章接下来给出了理由。
50.B。这些特殊的肌肉很难控制，少数人才能做到这一点。该旬前面讲到面部肌肉的控制，因此选B。