馬上要迎來(lái)8份的托?？荚嚵耍瑢W(xué)們都準(zhǔn)備好了嗎??出國(guó)留學(xué)網(wǎng)托福欄目為大家?guī)?lái)托福閱讀材料之The Mystery of Yawning，希望對(duì)大家有所幫助哦!
托福閱讀材料之The Mystery of Yawning
The Mystery of Yawning
哈欠謎團(tuán)
P1: According to conventional theory, yawning takes place when people are bored or sleepy and serves the function of increasing alertness by reversing, through deeper breathing, the drop in blood oxygen levels that are caused by the shallow breathing that accompanies lack of sleep or boredom. Unfortunately, the few scientific investigations of yawning have failed to find any connection between how often someone yawns and how much sleep they have had or how tired they are. About the closest any research has come to supporting the tiredness theory is to confirm that adults yawn more often on weekdays than at weekends, and that school children yawn more frequently in their first year at primary school than they do in kindergarten.
難詞解析：
conventional adj.傳統(tǒng)的
yawning n. 打哈欠
function n. 作用
boredom n. 厭倦
accompany v. 陪伴
難句解析：
According to conventional theory, yawning takes place [when people are bored or sleepy and serves the function of increasing alertness by reversing, through deeper breathing, the drop in blood oxygen levels that are caused by the shallow breathing that accompanies lack of sleep or boredom.]
根據(jù)傳統(tǒng)理論，當(dāng)人們無(wú)聊或者困倦時(shí)就會(huì)打哈欠。伴隨睡眠不足或無(wú)聊的是淺呼吸，而淺呼吸會(huì)降低血液中氧的含量。
題目演練：
Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.
A. It is the conventional theory that when people are bored or sleepy, they often experience a drop in blood oxygen levels due to their shallow breathing.
B. The conventional theory is that people yawn when bored or sleepy because yawning raises blood oxygen levels, which in turn raises alertness.
C. According to conventional theory, yawning is more likely to occur when people are bored or sleepy than when they are alert and breathing deeply.
D. Yawning, according to the conventional theory, is caused by boredom or lack of sleep and can be avoided through deeper breathing.
Answer: B
解題思路：
句子簡(jiǎn)化題
本句表述傳統(tǒng)理論下，打哈欠發(fā)生的情況及其功能。這是本句主體。下面逐個(gè)找出信息
打哈欠發(fā)生的情況：when people are bored or sleepy
打哈欠的功能：increasing alertness by reversing the drop in blood oxygen levels.
(through deeper breathing用于指明reversing the drop in blood oxygen的方式，與主體無(wú)關(guān);同理，用于修飾drop in blood oxygen的定語(yǔ)從句也是次要信息。)
下面用上述信息對(duì)應(yīng)選項(xiàng)。
A選項(xiàng)錯(cuò)誤明顯，未提及句子主體yawning
B選項(xiàng)所有信息均正確對(duì)應(yīng)，是正確選項(xiàng)。
C選項(xiàng)中的比較關(guān)系原文中并未提及。
D選項(xiàng)中的因果關(guān)系(is caused by)錯(cuò)誤。原文僅提及人在無(wú)聊或困倦時(shí)會(huì)打哈欠，但并未提及二者之間存在因果關(guān)系。另外，D選項(xiàng)中指出可通過(guò)深呼吸避免打哈欠，這一表述原文中也未出現(xiàn)。
P2: Another flaw of the tiredness theory is that yawning does not raise alertness or physiological activity, as the theory would predict. When researchers measured the heart rate, muscle tension and skin conductance of people before, during and after yawning, they did detect some changes in skin conductance following yawning, indicating a slight increase in physiological activity. However, similar changes occurred when the subjects were asked simply to open their mouths or to breathe deeply. Yawning did nothing special to their state of physiological activity. Experiments have also cast serious doubt on the belief that yawning is triggered by a drop in blood oxygen or a rise in blood carbon dioxide. Volunteers were told to think about yawning while they breathed either normal air, pure oxygen, or an air mixture with an above-normal level of carbon dioxide. If the theory was correct, breathing air with extra carbon dioxide should have triggered yawning, while breathing pure oxygen should have suppressed yawning. In fact, neither condition made any difference to the frequency of yawning, which remained constant at about 24 yawns per hour. Another experiment demonstrated that physical exercise, which was sufficiently vigorous to double the rate of breathing, had no effect on the frequency of yawning. Again the implication is that yawning has little or nothing to do with oxygen.
難詞解析：
flaw n. 缺點(diǎn)
alertness n. 警戒
physiological adj. 生理的
cast v. 計(jì)算
trigger v. 引發(fā)，引起
suppress v. 抑制
frequency n. 頻率
vigorous adj. 精力充沛的
implication n. 含義
難句解析：
[When researchers measured the heart rate, muscle tension and skin conductance of people before, during and after yawning], they did detect some changes [in skin conductance following yawning], [indicating a slight increase in physiological activity].
研究人員在(志愿者)打哈欠的前、中、后三個(gè)階段均測(cè)量了心率、肌肉張力以及皮膚傳導(dǎo)性，而他們測(cè)得皮膚傳導(dǎo)性在打哈欠后的確存在一些變化，這一變化表明生理活動(dòng)有輕微的增強(qiáng)。
題目演練：
1. The word “flaw” in the passage is closest in meaning to
A. fault
B. aspect
C. confusion
D. mystery
2. Paragraph 2 answers all of the following questions about yawning EXCEPT
A. Does yawning increase alertness or physiological activity?
B. Does thinking about yawning increase yawning over not thinking about yawning?
C. Does the amount of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the air affect the rate at which people yawn?
D. Does the rate of breathing affect the rate at which people yawn?
Answer: A B
解題思路：
1.
詞匯題
Flaw
1. a defect in physical structure or form
2. an imperfection or weakness and especially one that detracts from the whole or hinders effectiveness
根據(jù)上述詞義，只有A選項(xiàng)(缺陷;瑕疵)與之相符，故為正確選項(xiàng)
B選項(xiàng)：方面;角度
C選項(xiàng)：混淆;迷惑
D選項(xiàng)：謎團(tuán)
2.
否定事實(shí)信息題
題目詢問(wèn)本段解答了關(guān)于打哈欠的哪些問(wèn)題。本段共包含三個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)，每一個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)分別試圖解答一個(gè)問(wèn)題。
實(shí)驗(yàn)1為原文2~4句，其中第四句為結(jié)論：打哈欠對(duì)于生理活動(dòng)的狀態(tài)并無(wú)特殊作用。該試驗(yàn)解答了選項(xiàng)A提出的問(wèn)題：打哈欠能夠提升生理活動(dòng)，但并非特殊或唯一的方式。
實(shí)驗(yàn)2為原文5~8句，其中第八句為結(jié)論：在這兩種條件(吸入純氧和吸入二氧化碳濃度較高的空氣)下，打哈欠的頻率并無(wú)任何差異，均維持在穩(wěn)定的約24個(gè)每小時(shí)。該實(shí)驗(yàn)解答了選項(xiàng)C提出的問(wèn)題：二氧化碳和氧氣的含量對(duì)打哈欠的頻率沒(méi)有影響。
實(shí)驗(yàn)3為原文第九句，其結(jié)論為：即使是可以讓呼吸頻率翻倍的劇烈運(yùn)動(dòng)對(duì)于打哈欠頻率也毫無(wú)影響。該實(shí)驗(yàn)解答了選項(xiàng)D提出的問(wèn)題。
因此，只有B選項(xiàng)提出的問(wèn)題在原文中沒(méi)有得到解答，故B選項(xiàng)為正確選項(xiàng)。
You Know What
In humans, yawning is often triggered by others yawning (e.g., seeing a person yawning, talking to someone on the phone who is yawning) and is a typical example of positive feedback. This "contagious" yawning has also been observed in chimpanzees, dogs, and can occur across species.
人們打哈欠還可能是因?yàn)楸粍e人傳染哦(例如看見(jiàn)別人打哈欠或者打電話時(shí)聽(tīng)見(jiàn)對(duì)方打哈欠)，這個(gè)一個(gè)典型的正面反饋。哈欠的“傳染性”在猩猩和狗狗身上都有體現(xiàn)，更神奇的是還可以跨物種哦。
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