Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be. We weep at what exceeds our expectations in serious matters; we laugh at what disappoints our expectations in trifles. We shed tears from sympathy with real and necessary distress, as we burst into laughter from want of sympathy with that which is unreasonable and unnecessary.
Tears are the natural and involuntary response of the mind overcome by some sudden and violent emotion. Laughter is the same sort of convulsive and involuntary movement, occasioned by mere surprise or contrast.
The serious is the stress which the mind lays upon the expectation of a given order of events and the weight attached to them. When this stress is increased beyond its usual intensity and strains the feelings by the violent opposition of good and bad, it becomes the tragic. The ludicrous is the unexpected relaxing of this stress below its usual intensity, by an abrupt transposition of ideas that takes the mind by surprise and startles it into a lively sense of pleasure.
According to the passage, which of the following is not true in the case of tears and laughter?
It is not true that both result from violent emotions, so the answer is that they are both the result of violent emotions.
The passage says tears arise from sudden and violent emotion.
But it says laughter arises merely from surprise or contrast, not from violent emotion.
So the claim that both spring from violent emotions misreads the passage.
The passage does describe both tears and laughter as involuntary responses.
It presents both as natural responses of the mind to the world.
So only the statement about violent emotions for both is false against the passage.
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