F2F Class Notes (Raph)[R]

Read the article below very carefully three or four times. Write down any words you don’t know and discuss them with your teacher next class.

Vocabulary

Obsession (n): 1-  something or someone that you think about all the time (v: Obsess / adj: Obsessed)
E.g.: He’s always wanted to find his birth mother but recently it’s become an obsession.
E.g.: He has an obsession with cleanliness.
E.g.: Stop obsessing about this guy!
E.g.: I’m obsessed with this song! I love it so much!

Sharp (adj): 1- having a thin edge or point that can cut something or make a hole in something.
E.g.: Cut it with a sharp knife.
E.g.: Sharks have very sharp teeth.
E.g.: The point of this pencil isn’t sharp enough.

Yawn (v): 1-  to open the mouth wide and take a lot of air into the lungs and slowly send it out, usually when tired or bored:
E.g.: I can’t stop yawning – I must be tired.
E.g.: He yawned loudly in the middle of her speech.
E.g.: I was so tired, I couldn’t help yawning.

Dimension (n): 1- 尺寸

Why do people yawn?
(Source: breakingnewsenglish.com/1709/170903-yawning.html)

Do you ever wonder why we yawn? Do you always yawn when you see other people yawn? A new study from Nottingham University in the UK has done research on this. Researchers found that yawning is contagious. It is a powerful and unstoppable reaction. People automatically want to yawn when they see other people yawning. The researchers said people actually yawn more when they try to stop yawning. The researchers also found that some people have a much stronger urge to yawn than other people. Lead researcher Professor Stephen Jackson said that even reading about yawning could be enough to make people yawn. You might even want to yawn right now.

The researchers studied the reactions and brain activity of 36 adult volunteers. The volunteers looked at video clips of other people yawning. They then had two choices – either to stop themselves yawning or to allow themselves to do it. The volunteers were videoed as they yawned or tried not to yawn. The researchers also monitored the brain activity of the volunteers and checked how strong their feeling to want to yawn was. Jackson said understanding more about yawning will help to treat conditions such as dementia, epilepsy and Tourettes. He said: “We are looking for potential non-drug, personalized treatments…that might be effective in [changing] imbalances in the brain.”

Grammar

I always can’t read this word properly. – I can never read this word properly.

Pronunciation

Station: /ˈsteɪ.ʃən/

Direction: /daɪˈrek.ʃən/ /dɪˈrek.ʃən/

Location: /loʊˈkeɪ.ʃən/

Dimension:  /ˌdaɪˈmen.ʃən/ /ˌdɪˈmen.ʃən/

Obsession: /əbˈseʃ.ən/

Pronunciation: /prəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/

Improve: /ɪmˈpruːv/

Sharp: /ʃɑːrp/

Yawn: /jɑːn/

Visual: /ˈvɪʒ.u.əl/

Merchandiser: /ˈmɜːtʃəndaɪzər/