Read the following passage carefully :
Researchers around the world are studying the human brain to find out what makes it tick. If nothing else, their findings are the great conversation starters and this alone could make you smarter.
It’s smart to socialise. Experiments have revealed that talking with others, exercises your mind. “Short-term social interactions lasting just ten minutes boosted participants’ intellectual performance as much as engaging in “intellectual activities”, says Oscar Ybarra, a psychologist at the University of Michigan. Ybarra’s research shows that talking can improve our memory and thinking skills which might mean that having a conversation is as helpful as doing a crossword puzzle.
Yawning is cool. Researchers Andrew C. Gallup and Gardon G. Gallup Jr. say our brain burns upto 33 percent of the calories we consume and generates heat. Yawning cools the brain cells, thus making them more efficient. The researchers also found that yawning increases blood flow and helps maintain optimum levels of functioning and they suggest that we are biologically hard-wired to yawn to stay alert and protect ourselves from danger. Use it or lose it. Scientists at the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) in Australia have discovered that brain cells that aren’t stimulated destroy themselves. Neuroscientist Elizabeth Coulson suggests this self-destruction mechanism is a factor in brain conditions such as strokes and Alzheimer’s disease. Professor Perry Bartlett, director of the QBI, says understanding this process allows us to devise “new mechanisms for the treatment of diseases from depression to dementia.”
On the basis of your reading of the above passage complete the following sentences :
(a) A great topic to start a conversation is ……….
(b) Experiments reveal that talking with others ………
(c) Talking can also ………….
(d) Having a conversation is …………
(e) Yawning cools the brain thereby ………..
(f) Yawning also helps ........ and increases blood flow.
(g) We’re hard wired to yawn to …………
(h) ‘To open mouth wide’ means …………
