The Mystery of Yawning

What is the purpose of this article?

• To summarize research on contagious yawning

• To explain why yawning is healthful for people and animals

• To describe how human yawning differs from dog yawning

• To suggest that scientists will never fully understand why people yawn

In Paragraph 3, which word means "passed" or "slipped by"

• observed

• elapsed

• allotted

• subtly

Which line suggests that seeing someone else yawn is not the only way to experience continuous yawning?

• As I did the research for this column, I noticed that nearly every article about yawning pointed out that just reading the article itself could make you yawn

• Goldman points out that yawning has be observed in many species of vertebrates,including dogs, chimpanzees, and birds

• At extremely high temperatures, yawning again decreased, perhaps because yawns don't help when temperatures is too warm.

• Humans who are likely to be more empathetic also exhibit more contagious yawning, so maybe yawning is contagious between humans and dogs for similar reasons.

The author uses an aside in paragraph 3 to -

• supply additional information

• provide some humor

• criticize public speakers

• give an example

Why does the author say that yawning "isn't a very big problem"

• To explain why there has been little research done on yawning

• To suggest that studying yawning would be a waste of resources

• To argue the importance of studying the causes of yawning

• To demonstrate that all studies of yawning have reached the same conclusion

Which of the following statements best characterizes the objective of the boxed information about yawning?

• To provide possible explanations for why people yawn

• To amuse the reader with common myths about yawning

• To provide facts about yawning to supplement information given in the article

• To suggest that scientists are close to understanding the cause of yawning