Sleepiness and boredom lead to yawning (打哈欠), so it has long been believed that the action makes us feel more awake by stretching the muscles surrounding the lungs, or by bringing more oxygen to the blood and the brain. Yet in tests, breathing air with high levels of carbon dioxide or even pure oxygen made no difference to the frequency of yawns.
Another theory, proposed by the French physician Olivier, is that yawning improves the circulation of the fluid (液体) that surrounds the brain. As a result, we can focus better on a task. This might explain why athletes often yawn naturally before they compete.
Recently, though, a new explanation has appeared: Yawning is a way to cool the brain. Experiments led by Gordon Gallup at the University at Albany showed that people yawned far less when their head was cooled by a cold pack compared with holding a heated pack to their forehead The temperature of the brain rises when we are tired, so it is possible that yawning is a way to protect the brain from overheating due to tiredness.
But a strange thing is that when we see another person yawn, we catch it too. In other words, yawning is contagious.
How can we make sense of these different types of yawning? It’s possible that contagious yawning is something different, and might have a social purpose. Steven Palek and his colleagues at the University at Albany say that contagious yawning may be linked to our ability to understand what others want to do. If you are good at reading others’ facial expressions you are more likely to “catch” a yawn. Therefore, lonely people tend to be less affected by yawing, according to research by Atsushi Senju, now at Birkbeck, University of London.
So the simple act of yawning tursout to be surprisingly complex Has this research made you yawn yet?
1.Based on the theory of Olivier, yawning ________.
A.is caused by lack of sleep
B.contributes to concentration
C.is a way to bring more oxygen to the blood
D.increases the circulation of the fluid in lungs
2.The underlined word “contagious” in Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to _________.
A.Infectious B.Influential
C. Attractive D.Comfortable
3.How is the passage mainly developed?
A.By making comparisons.
B.By listing different figures.
C.By providing explanations.
D.By telling personal experiences.
Deciding to get her money’s worth out of the wedding dress on which she spent over $1,000, an Australian woman has been wearing her wedding dress, a year after her wedding.
43-year-old Tammy Hall adopted a new lifestyle—anti-consumerism (反消费主义) lifestyle in 2016, after a trip to India opened her eyes to how much we as a society consumed. She decided not to buy any new clothes or footwear for a whole year after she returned home to Adelaide, in Southern Australia, and she managed to make it.
But last year, as her wedding day approached, she faced a dilemma. She wanted to look good on the most important day of her life, but how could she spend a small fortune on the wedding dress she would only wear on that day?
“In the end I decided that if I was going to get a wedding dress, I’d make sure I could get my money’s worth,” Hall tells PA Real Life.
“The first time I wore it after the wedding was to vote in the Australian election in early 2019,” the 43-year-old adds. “Since then, it’s been to all sorts of places. Wearing it on a crowded train was especially funny, but I’ve worn it to do housework, to football games and to the gym.”
Hall says that she has got some strange looks from people, but no irritating comments. It may have something to do with the fact that the dress is not the fanciest, but she believes people are just too reserved to say anything. Anyway, she doesn’t really care, because she knows she has to hit the goal she has set and wearing the dress multiple times is the most reasonable way she could think of to make the most of her wedding dress.
Hall now plans to wear her wedding dress on a trip to Iceland that she and her partner will take nest summer.
1.Why did Tammy Hall adopt a new lifestyle?
A.To adapt herself to Indian life. B.To save money for her next trip.
C.To cut down her consumption. D.To get prepared for her wedding.
2.What did Tammy Hall do to get her money’s worth out of her wedding dress?
A.She brought fun to people with it B.She wore it repeatedly in daily life.
C.She tried to wear it to earn money. D.She got it exchanged again and again
3.What can we infer about Tammy Hall?
A.She has been struggling to make ends meet.
B.She has influenced people’s lifestyle widely.
C.She values her wedding dress less than her trips.
D.She is determined to turn her ideas into practice.
The little boy with big brown eyes was waiting for us on the other side of the world. Ever since our adoption agency had _________ us, I’d been hurriedly _________ all the necessary paperwork. I made it a personal goal to never _________ the process. On one late afternoon in June. I rushed toward the closest FedEx office. I had some _________ to send overnight, and I wanted them to go out that day.
I thought I knew _________ the FedEx office was. I drove there as the minutes slipped away, only to find that the office was no longer _________ where I remembered it. Tears came to my eyes. This was _________ we all had a smartphone in our pockets. I had no way of _________ the correct location. _________ , I started driving toward home. I felt like a failure, as though I’d just __________ my new son to more days in an orphanage waiting for us.
Suddenly, I was __________ at a stoplight by an oversized box truck My anger turned to __________ when I saw the sign. It was a FedEx truck I __________ closely behind the truck. What were the __________ the truck would lead me straight to the FedEx office I was seeking?
It __________ the chances were good. Less than five minutes later, I saw a FedEx sign, and the truck made a turn into the parking lot. I had __________ in my eyes again.
Our documents went out that night. The truck driver __________ knew he was an angel for me that day. Three months later, we flew halfway around the world to __________ our son for the first time. We have been with him every day since.
Miracles are always around us __________ we are open to them. Sometimes, it’s a smile at the right time or a kind word. And every now and then, it’s even a big __________ that cuts us off in traffic.
1.A.debated B.challenged C.matched D.scanned
2.A.hiding B.completing C.evaluating D.underlining
3.A.delay B.start C.repeat D.simplify
4.A.gifts B.letters C.documents D.postcards
5.A.how B.what C.which D.where
6.A.locked B.located C.ranked D.repaired
7.A.before B.after C.since D.when
8.A.finding B.choosing C.describing D.showing
9.A.Bored B.Delighted C.Disappointed D.Surprised
10.A.compared B.sentenced C.appointed D.accompanied
11.A.kept up B.put down C.taken in D.cut off
12.A.guilt B.panic C.shock D.terror
13.A.ran B.arose C.walked D.followed
14.A.chances B.wonders C.doubts D.promises
15.A.turned off B.turned out C.broke off D.broke out
16.A.dust B.dirt C.tears D.sands
17.A.just B.never C.exactly D.immediately
18.A.free B.meet C.beat D.spoil
19.A.if B.although C.unless D.until
20.A.tree B.lie C.smile D.truck
His story of what happened that night didn’t ________ the witness’s version.
A.try out B.put off C.speed up D.correspond with
I think it is important for children to have brothers and sisters they can ________.
A.relate to B.split up C.drop off D.decide on
Our blood depends on us moving around to be able to _______ properly.
A.bleed B.bond C.crash D.circulate
