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Welcome to BBC Xtra English.

Today Doug and Liliane talk about yawning and dogs.






Yawning is known to be contagious between humans, but scientists have now found that pets can catch human yawns too.

Researchers from the University of London have shown that dogs are highly sensitive to humans yawns, and when they see a human yawning they will often yawn back.

In their tests 21 out of 29 dogs yawned in response to a human yawn.

This was surprising because although many different kinds of animals yawn, contagious yawning had previously only observed in humans and chimpanzees.

Dogs have long been known to be skilled at reading human social cues and commands, but scientists now think this research suggests dogs might have a rudimentary capacity for empathy with humans.

Dogs are also thought to yawn at one another as a way of calming down a dangerous or tense situation.

But whatever this research says about communication between humans and dogs, scientists still don't agree on why yawning is contagious amongst humans.

Why do you think people yawn?

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yawning

التثاؤب

contagious

معدي

catch

التقاط العدوى

highly sensitive

شديدة الحساسية

chimpanzees

الشمبانزي

social cues

إشارات التواصل الاجتماعي

commands

أوامر

rudimentary capacity

قدرة طبيعية

empathy

تعاطف

calming down

تهدئة

tense

متوتر

شروط وبنود الاستخدام