Question

i-ready
word meaning — quiz — level c

new experiments show that yawning cools off your brain. your brain can overheat after a busy day of thinking and telling your body what to do. yawning when you’re sleepy may really be a way of bringing down your brain’s temperature.

cooling off the brain may help to stop people from yawning. in one experiment, scientists put hot packs on the foreheads of one group of people, and cold packs on another group. the people with the cold packs yawned less. the scientists also compared breathing only through the nose (which also cools the brain) with breathing only through the mouth (which does not). the nose - breathers never yawned. (what happens when you try it?)

read the context clues in the chart. which word from the passage do the clues help you understand? drag the clue to the chart.

context clues:
\yawning cools off your brain\
\bringing down your brain’s temperature\

word:?

Explanation:

The context clues "yawning cools off your brain" and "bringing down your brain's temperature" are related to the word "overheat" (since overheating means the brain gets too warm, and yawning/cooling actions counter that). We analyze the context: the brain can overheat after a busy day, and yawning is a way to cool it, so these clues help understand "overheat".

Answer:

The word these clues help understand is "overheat". The context clues "yawning cools off your brain" and "bringing down your brain's temperature" show that the brain can get too warm (overheat) and yawning acts to reduce that warmth, so they clarify the meaning of "overheat".