F2F Class Notes (Nemo) [R]

NemoJoanne

Vocabulary

landmark (n): 1-a building or place that is easily recognized, especially one that you can use to judge where you are:
E.g.: The Rock of Gibraltar is one of Europe’s most famous landmarks.

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.

contagious (adj): 1-A contagious disease can be caught by touching someone who has the disease or a piece of infected clothing:
E.g.: The infection is highly contagious, so don’t let anyone else use your towel.

monitor (v): 1-to watch and check a situation carefully for a period of time in order to discover something about it:
E.g.: The new findings suggest that women ought to monitor their cholesterol levels.

Cholesterol (n): 1- a substance containing a lot of fat that is found in the body tissue and blood of all animals, thought to be part of the cause of heart disease if there is too much of it: 2-胆固醇
E.g.: an oil that is high in polyunsaturates and low in cholesterol

Tourette’s syndrom (n): 1-a rare illness of the brain in which a person makes noises and movements that he or she cannot control, often saying offensive words without meaning to

dementia (n): 1-a medical condition that affects especially old people, causing the memory and other mental abilities to gradually become worse, and leading to confused behaviour:
E.g.: The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease.

epilepsy(n): 1-a condition of the brain that causes a person to become unconscious for short periods or to move in a violent and uncontrolled way:
E.g.: She can’t drive because she suffers from/has epilepsy.

seizure (n): 1-a very sudden attack of an illness in which someone becomes unconscious or develops violent movements:
E.g.: an epileptic seizure

Pronunciation

yawn-jɑːn

Reading

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.”