馬上要迎來8份的托福考試了,同學們都準備好了嗎??出國留學網托福欄目為大家?guī)硗懈i喿x材料之The Mystery of Yawning,希望對大家有所幫助哦!
托福閱讀材料之The Mystery of Yawning
The Mystery of Yawning
哈欠謎團
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.]
根據傳統(tǒng)理論,當人們無聊或者困倦時就會打哈欠。伴隨睡眠不足或無聊的是淺呼吸,而淺呼吸會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,與主體無關;同理,用于修飾drop in blood oxygen的定語從句也是次要信息。)
下面用上述信息對應選項。
A選項錯誤明顯,未提及句子主體yawning
B選項所有信息均正確對應,是正確選項。
C選項中的比較關系原文中并未提及。
D選項中的因果關系(is caused by)錯誤。原文僅提及人在無聊或困倦時會打哈欠,但并未提及二者之間存在因果關系。另外,D選項中指出可通過深呼吸避免打哈欠,這一表述原文中也未出現。
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
alertness n. 警戒
physiological adj. 生理的
cast v. 計算
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、后三個階段均測量了心率、肌肉張力以及皮膚傳導性,而他們測得皮膚傳導性在打哈欠后的確存在一些變化,這一變化表明生理活動有輕微的增強。
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
根據上述詞義,只有A選項(缺陷;瑕疵)與之相符,故為正確選項
B選項:方面;角度
C選項:混淆;迷惑
D選項:謎團
2.
否定事實信息題
題目詢問本段解答了關于打哈欠的哪些問題。本段共包含三個實驗,每一個實驗分別試圖解答一個問題。
實驗1為原文2~4句,其中第四句為結論:打哈欠對于生理活動的狀態(tài)并無特殊作用。該試驗解答了選項A提出的問題:打哈欠能夠提升生理活動,但并非特殊或唯一的方式。
實驗2為原文5~8句,其中第八句為結論: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,打哈欠的頻率并無任何差異,均維持在穩(wěn)定的約24個每小時。該實驗解答了選項C提出的問題:二氧化碳和氧氣的含量對打哈欠的頻率沒有影響。
實驗3為原文第九句,其結論為:即使是可以讓呼吸頻率翻倍的劇烈運動對于打哈欠頻率也毫無影響。該實驗解答了選項D提出的問題。
因此,只有B選項提出的問題在原文中沒有得到解答,故B選項為正確選項。
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為被別人傳染哦(例如看見別人打哈欠或者打電話時聽見對方打哈欠),這個一個典型的正面反饋。哈欠的“傳染性”在猩猩和狗狗身上都有體現,更神奇的是還可以跨物種哦。
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