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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: some length.
I replied in our good old English tongue merely to
convince him that neither of us could understand the other;
but I noticed that when I smiled slightly on concluding, he did
likewise. This fact, and the similar occurrence during my first
talk with Tars Tarkas, convinced me that we had at least
something in common; the ability to smile, therefore to laugh;
denoting a sense of humor. But I was to learn that the
Martian smile is merely perfunctory, and that the Martian
laugh is a thing to cause strong men to blanch in horror.
The ideas of humor among the green men of Mars are
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