What is the first thing you want to do when you see someone yawn（打哈欠）？You want to yawn, too! Yawning is
contagious. Scientists have found that all people yawn. Babies start to yawn even before they are born. The earliest yawn takes place when a baby is still inside its mother. When young children are about one year old, they start to yawn when they see others yawning. That’s why scientists seem to think yawning is contagious.
It’s no secret that yawning is contagious, but why do we yawn? Well, scientists are not really sure.
Some think we yawn because we feel bored. Recently scientists studied two groups of students between the ages of 17 and 19. One group watched music videos, and the other watched a boring color test. Scientists compared the numbers of their yawns and found that the color test group yawned more times than the video group.
Another reason for yawning has to do with breathing. Some scientists believe that when we are bored or tired, we breathe more slowly. As our breathing slows down, we cannot get rid of （去除）enough carbon dioxide, our bodies will tell the brains（大脑）to breathe deeply. The result is a big yawn.
In 2007, scientists suggested a new reason. They said that the reason why people yawned was to cool down their brains. These scientists found that people who were warmer than others yawned more often.
Scientists are still trying to find out why yawning happens and why it is so contagious. But they are only sure that when one person yawns, almost everyone else nearby wants to yawn, too.
小题1:The underlined word “contagious” in Paragraph 1 means _________.
| A．helpful to our health |
| B．passing from one person to another |
| C．hard to understand |
| D．getting into one trouble after another |
小题2:According to the scientists, people start to yawn when they are _______.
| A．born | B．one year old | C．17 or 19 years old | D．inside their mothers |
小题3:Which of the following are the possible reasons for yawning according to the passage?
①People yawn because they are bored
②People yawn to catch others’ attention
③People yawn to cool down their brains
④People yawn to get rid of carbon dioxide.
小题4:We can probably read this passage in a ____________
| A．storybook | B．travel guidebook | C．movie poster | D．science magazine |
