Hello, Catherine here from BBC Learning English. Just so you know, this programme is from the BBC Learning English Archive（档案馆）. It was originally（ 最初） broadcast（广播） in July 2006 on our website. Enjoy! Hello, I'm Jacqui Dalton. You're listening to BBC Learning English dot（点） com.

  Today, what's the point of humour（幽默）? We all know having a laugh is a way of making（使） our lives better, but exactly how does it all work? This week we'll hear from Jennifer Coates, who's Professor of English Language and Linguistics at Roehampton University in England. She's done a lot of research into humour and how it's used. First, Jennifer will list three main reasons why she thinks humour is important. What are they?

  Humour is extraordinary（非凡的）. It's actually multifunctional（多功能的）. It has lots and lots of different functions（功能）, but I think the three main ones are, first of all, to achieve dominance（优势）. Secondly, for self（自己）-protection（保护）. You can use humour to deal with difficult situations and to make yourself feel better in an embarrassing（ 令人难堪的） position. Finally, to construct（建造） solidarity（团结）, and that's by far the most important function of humour.

  Did you get those three points? First, Jennifer said humour is used to achieve dominance or power. Secondly, we use it to protect ourselves. For example, to make a joke out of something you've done that's embarrassing. Thirdly, to construct solidarity, which means to bring people together in a nice way. But as we heard earlier, Jennifer also talked about something which is perhaps less positive, dominance, to get power over people.