Which ideas in the three articles do you find most interesting or surprising? Why? Make notes. Compare your notes with a partner. Do you have the same? Read the sentences. Then answer the questions. A If our brains are too hot, we yawn. C If someone never smiled at me, I would not be attracted to him or her. B If this meeting goes on much longer, I will fall asleep. 1 Are they about: A the past? B the present or future? 2 Which sentence means: 1 the situation is possible in the future (real conditional)? 2 the situation is imaginary and might not happen (unreal conditional)? 3 the situation is a statement of fact, a logical consequence (real conditional)? Look at the sentences below and complete the rules. Why do people cry? Do you cry if you watch the bride walk down the aisle at a wedding? ( ) Do your eyes mist up when you see cute animals? ( ) Some people cry more easily than others, but often crying strikes at a time or place when you don’t want to weep. Crying is a natural emotional response to certain feelings – usually sadness or hurt – but on a more general level, crying is a release of energy that builds up with feelings. The human eye produces three kinds of tears. Basal tears are produced all the time to keep our eyes wet and help us to see. Reflex tears clean our eyes when we get dirt in them ( ) or, for example, chop onions. Emotional tears are produced when we’re very sad or happy, or in great pain. Interestingly, emotional tears contain a lot of chemicals and hormones which we don’t find in the other kinds of tears. Basal and reflex tears are certainly useful, but why do we produce emotional tears? Why do emotional tears have a different chemistry from other tears? There seem to be two answers to these questions. First, when we feel very strong emotions like extreme sadness or happiness, our bodies make a lot of extra chemicals and hormones. ( ) Then, when we cry, our emotional tears take these chemicals and hormones out of our bodies. This may be why people sometimes say that they ‘feel better’ after crying. One of the hormones in emotional tears is prolactin. Women usually have about twice as much prolactin in their bodies as men, and this may explain why women cry more often than men. The second reason for crying is to communicate with other people. If you were unable to speak, how would you show your needs? Babies can’t speak, so they use crying to tell people when they’re hungry, frightened, and so on. As adults, we cry less often, but probably for the same reasons: to show people that we’re in physical or emotional pain and need help. c d 4 Grammar Real and unreal conditionals a b A Real conditional 1 2 Many people think that we yawn if/when we are tired. Rule: Use the p tense in the main clause and the p tense in the if-clause. If or when can be used to talk about the logical consequences of something. Example: 3 4 If your headache gets worse, you will need to lie down. If you decide to watch this sad movie, you might cry. Rule: Use the p tense in the if-clause and w /shall/m /sh plus i in the main clause. Example: B Unreal conditional 5 6 If you had cats, you would laugh a lot about their tricks. If you were unable to speak, what would you do? Rule: Use the p tense in the if-clause and w plus i in the main clause. You can use were for all persons. Example: 1 Grammar reference and practice, p. 152 56 Language skills Extras Explore 5 How do you feel? Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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