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READING PASSAGE 1
The natural of Yawning
A. While fatigue, drowsiness or boredom easily bring on yawns, scientists are discovering
there is more to yawning than most people think. Not much is known about why we yawn or
if it serves any useful function. People have already learned that yawning can be infectious.
“Contagious yawning” is the increase in likelihood that you will yawn after watching or
hearing someone else yawn, but not much is known about the under-lying causes, and very
little research has been done on the subject. However, scientists at the University of Albany,
as well as the University of Leeds and the University of London have done some exploration.
B. It is commonly believed that people yawn as a result of being sleepy or tired because they
need oxygen. However, the latest research shows that a yawn can help cool the brain and help
it work more effectively, which is quite different from the popular belief that yawning
promotes sleep and is a sign of tiredness. Dr. Andrew Gallup and his colleagues at the
University of Albany in New York State said their experiments on 44 students showed that
raising or lowering oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the blood did not produce that
reaction. In the study participants were shown videos of people laughing and yawning, and
researchers counted how many times the volunteers responded to the “contagious yawns”.
The researchers found that those who breathed through the nose rather than the mouth were
less likely to yawn when watching a video of other people yawning. The same effect was
found among those who held a cool pack to their forehead, whereas those who held a warm
pack yawned while watching the video. Since yawning occurs when brain temperature rises,
sending cool blood to the brain serves to maintain the best levels of mental efficiency.
C. Yawning is universal to humans and many animals. Cats, dogs and fish yawn just like
humans do, but they yawn spontaneously. Only humans and chimpanzees, our closest
relatives in the animal kingdom, have shown definite contagious yawning. Though much of
yawning is due to suggestibility, sometimes people do not need to actually see a person yawn
to involuntarily yawn themselves: hearing someone yawning or even reading about yawning
can cause the same reaction.
D. However, contagious yawning goes beyond mere suggestibility. Recent studies show that
contagious yawning is also related to our predisposition toward empathy— the ability to
understand and connect with others’ emotional states. So empathy is important, sure, but how
could it possibly be related to contagious yawning? Leave it up to psychologists at Leeds
University in England to answer that. In their study, researchers selected 40 psychology
students and 40 engineering students. Generally, psychology students are more likely to feel
empathy for others, while engineering students are thought to be concerned with objects and
science. Each student was made to wait individually in a waiting room, along with an
undercover assistant who yawned 10 times in as many minutes. The students were then
administered an emotional quotient test: students were shown 40 images of eyes and asked
what emotion each one displayed. The results of the test support the idea that contagious
yawning is linked to empathy. The psychology students—whose future profession requires
them to focus on others—yawned contagiously an average of 5.5 times in the waiting room
and scored 28 out of 40 on the emotional test. The engineering students—who tend to focus
on things like numbers and systems—yawned an average of 1.5 times and scored 25.5 out of
40 on the subsequent test. The difference doesn’t sound like much, but researchers consider it
significant. Strangely enough, women, who are generally considered more emotionally
attuned, didn’t score any higher than men.
E. Another study, led by Atsushi Senju, a cognitive researcher at the University of London,
also sought to answer that question. People with autism disorder are considered to be
developmentally impaired emotionally. Autistics have trouble connecting with others and
find it difficult to feel empathy. Since autistics have difficulty feeling empathy, then they
shouldn’t be susceptible to contagious yawning. To find out, Senju and his colleagues placed
49 kids aged 7 to 15 in a room with a television. 24 of the test subjects had been diagnosed
with autism spectrum disorder, the other 25 were non-autistic kids. The test subjects were
shown short clips of people yawning as well as clips of people opening their mouths but not
yawning. While the kids with autism had the same lack of reaction to both kinds of clips, the
non-autistic kids yawned more after the clips of people yawning.
F. There also have been studies that suggest yawning, especially psychological “contagious”
yawning, may have developed as a way of keeping a group of animals alert and bonding
members of a group into a more unit one. If an animal is drowsy or bored, it may not be as
alert as it should to be prepared to spring into action and its yawning is practically saying,
“Hey, I need some rest, you stay awake”. Therefore, a contagious yawn could be an
instinctual reaction to a signal from one member of the herd reminding the others to stay alert
when danger comes. So the theory suggests evidence that yawning comes from the evolution
of early humans to be ready to physically exert themselves at any given moment.
Question 1 - 5
Read paragraphs A—F. Which paragraph contains the following information?
You may use any letter more than once.
1. Humans’ imaginations can cause yawning.
2. Research shows that yawning is closely related to occupations.
3. An overview of the latest research in yawning.
4. Yawning is used to regulate brain temperature.
5. Scientists discovered some evidence disproving the early understanding of yawning.
Questions 6 - 9
Match each of the following research results with the university which it comes from
You may use any letter more than once.
A. University of Albany
B. University of Leeds
C. University of London
6. There is no gender difference in the cause of yawning.
7. People with certain disorders are less likely to be affected by other people yawning.
8. Yawning is associated with the way people breathe.
9. People who are trained to feel empathy for others are more likely to yawn than those who
are untrained.
Questions 10 - 13
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.
Another theory shows that yawning is used for 10 ____________ individuals into a tighter
social unit. Alternatively, yawning can help increase the alertness of group members in case
11____________ is close. For example, yawning signals that a member of the group needs
some 12 ____________and requires the others to stay aware of the surrounding situation.
This theory proves that yawning is only a spontaneous behaviour resulting from some part of
a simple 13 ____________system in early humans.
WRITING - TASK 1 PRACTICE
DESCRIBE CHANGES OVER TIME
The graph below shows the average amount of money women earned as a percentage of
men’s earnings in the USA from 1975 to 2005.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make
comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
