A
In the early 1990s，Madan Kataria，an Indian doctor who worked in Mumbai，became interested in the growing body of scientific evidence showing that laughter is extremely beneficial to human health. He made a decision that more laughter was needed to improve health and deal with the stress of modern living.
In 1995，while writing an article for a health journal，Dr.Kataria discovered many modern scientific studies describing the benefits of laughter on the human mind and body.In particular，he was impressed by Norman Cousins' book Anatomy of an Illness and the research work by Dr.Lee Berk.Then he began to fieldtest the effect of laughter on himself and others.
Starting with just five people，on March 13,1995，at a public park in his neighborhood，Dr.Kataria started the first laughter club.They laughed together in the park to the amusement of bystanders，and the small group quickly grew to more than 50 people within a few days. In the early meetings，they stood in a circle with one person in the center to tell a joke or a funny story.Everybody enjoyed themselves and felt good for the rest of the day.However，after two weeks，their jokes and stories ran out.Some complained that it would be better to discontinue the club than to continue without any jokes.Dr.Kataria asked the club members to give him one day to develop a_breakthrough that would solve the problem.
That night，Dr.Kataria reviewed his research and finally found the answer.Our body cannot differentiate between pretend and genuine laughter. In fact，both produced the same effect. The next morning，the results were amazing. For some，the makebelieve laughter quickly turned into real laughter. Soon the group was laughing like never before.The hearty laughter that followed lasted for almost ten minutes.This was the birth of Laughter Yoga.
【语篇解读】 本文是记叙文。文章主要讲述了大笑瑜伽的起源。
1．We can infer from Paragraph 2 that Madan Kataria________.
A．used to be serious
B．was a man of action
C．found his life stressful
D．was an expert in laughing
B [推理判断题。由第二段中的最后一句“Then he began to fieldtest the effect of laughter on himself and others.”可知，Madan Kataria是一位实干家，故选B项。]
2．After a short period of time，the club members ________.
A．didn't know what to talk about
B．doubted whether laughter would help
C．couldn't find any place to get together
D．showed less interest in Dr.Kataria's club
A [细节理解题。由第三段中的“after two weeks，their jokes and stories ran out...to continue without any jokes”可知，两周后他们的笑话和故事都讲完了，不知道该谈论些什么了，故选A项。]
3．The underlined part “a breakthrough”refers to the discovery that ________.
A．people may laugh a lot after taking a new type of medicine
B．genuine laughter works better than pretend laughter
C．laughing a lot is able to help us fight off illness
D．pretend laughter is also helpful to our health
D [词义猜测题。由最后一段中的“Our body cannot...produced the same effect.”可知，Dr.Kataria的突破性发现就是假笑和真笑一样有助于人体健康，故选D项。]
4．What would be the best title for the text?
A．Laughter clubs in India
B．Benefits of Laughter Yoga
C．The origin of Laughter Yoga
D．Laughter—the best medicine
C [标题归纳题。由文章最后的“This was the birth of Laughter Yoga.”以及文中相关的介绍可知，本文主要讲述了大笑瑜伽的起源，故选C项。]
