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Real smiles and false smiles

When you smile a real smile, two things happen to your face: your lips move up towards your cheeks, and your cheeks themselves go up and gather in the skin around the eyes. And a real smile will usually only last for up to four seconds.

False smiles are seen on the faces of politicians or people who are pretending they are pleased to see you. False smiles usually appear a bit too early or too late, and they tend to last for too long.

But if you really want to know if a smile is real or false, look at the eyes. In a false smile they don’t change. Eyes are important in other ways, too. When you feel good, your pupils get larger; when you feel bad, they become small.

Laughter: the best medicine

In 1964 an American journalist called Norman Cousins developed a serious problem with his back. It turned out that he had a dangerous illness which was extremely painful and incurable. He was admitted to hospital, unable to move, and prescribed a course of strong pain-killing drugs. Cousins knew that negative emotions could make you ill, and began to wonder whether positive emotions – and particularly laughter – might make you better.

He stopped taking the drugs and moved out of the hospital into a hotel room, which was not only a more cheerful place to be but was also much cheaper. There he hired a lot of comedies and started to watch them. He found that every time he laughed, the laughter acted as an anaesthetic and gave him relief from pain. And the effect lasted some time: 10 minutes’ laughter could give him around two hours free from pain.

More important, he found that he was slowly getting better, and eventually recovered completely from the illness.

For many years, the medical profession refused to take Cousins’ claims seriously, but now things are changing and some American hospitals have “laughter rooms”, where patients can watch videos or read joke books, instead of sitting around feeling depressed.

Laughing for money

A Frenchwoman, Jullie Hette, works as a professional laugher. For a fee, she will come and laugh non-stop for you. Her record is 90 minutes. She guarantees that you will soon be laughing with her – even though you might not know what you are laughing about.

 


TOPICAL VOCABULARY (* optional words)

 

1. admire * 2. afraid (of) 3. ambitious 4. angry 5. appearance 6. appreciate * 7. argumentative * 8.ashamed 9. athletic 10. attractive 11. baby 12. bad-tempered * 13. bald 14. beautiful 15. bikini 16. blonde 17. blouse 18. (in a) bob * 19. boots 20. bored 21. bossy * 22. broad 23. broad-minded 24. bushy * 25. calm 26. carefree 27. changeable 28. cheek 29. cheekbones * 30. cheerful 31. chin 32. clean-shaven 33. clothes 34. complexion 35. conservative 36.contentment* 37. curly 38. dark 39. delicate * 40. depressed 41. disappointed 42. dress 43. emotion 44. embarrassed 45. encourage 46. enjoy 47. excited 48. eyebrows 49. eyes 50. face 51. facial features 52. fair 53. fashion 54. fat fear 55. feelings 56. figure 57. fit 58. flip-flops 59. forehead 60. freckles * 61. frightened 62. frown 63. full 64. garment * 65. generous 66. gentle 67. gloves 68. good-looking 69. grateful 70. grey hair 71. guilty 72. hard-working 73.hat 74.hate 75.happy 76. heart-shaped 77. heel * 78. (of medium) height 79. honest 80. hood 81. ideal * 82. (im)patient 83. jacket 84. jealous 85. jeans 86. joy 87. jumper 88. lazy 89. length * 90. lie 91. lips 92. long-sleeved * 93. loving 94. loyal 95. manners 96. match 97. mean * 98. miserable 99. (in good/bad) mood 100. mouth 101. narrow 102. narrow-minded * 103. nature 104. nervous 105. nose(snub) 106. obese 107. old age pensioner 108. optimistic 109. outfit 110. oval 111. overcoat 112. overweight 113. pale 114. personality 115. pessimistic 116. plain 117. plastic surgery * 118. pleasant 119. pleasure 120. pretty 121. proud 122. punctual 123. pullover 124. put on 125. puzzled * 126. pyjamas 127. raincoat 128. red-head 129. regular beauty * 130. reliable 131. relaxed 132. resemble 133. reserved 134. round 135. sad 136. sandals 137. satisfaction * 138. scared * 139. scarf 140. self-confident 141. selfish * 142. senior citizen 143. sense of humour 144. sensible 145. sensitive 146. serious 147. shape 148. shoes 149. short 150. shorts
151. shoulders 152. shy * 153. skin 154.skirt 155. skinny 156. slender 157. slim 158. smile 159. sneakers 160. sociable 161. square 162. stocky 163. suit 164. straight 165. swimsuit 166. sweater 167. sweatpants 168. sweatshirt 169. take after 170. talkative 171. tall 172. tan * 173. tank top 174. teenager 175.terrified* 176. teeth (even/regular/crooked) 177. tee-shirt 178. thin 179. thoughtful 180. tidy 181.tie 182. toddler 183. tolerant * 184. traits 185. turtleneck 186. ugly 187. underwear 188. upset 189. waist * 190. waistcoat 191. well-built 192. witty 193. young adult

 




Date: 2015-01-02; view: 1349


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