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Brainy Fact


                       In New Zealand, people greet each other by pressing their noses (and sometimes forehead). This is referred
                       to as "sharing of breath" by New Zealand's indigenous Mori people. The greeting represents the sacred
                       reception of a visitor into Mori culture and is used during powhiri (Mori welcoming ceremonies), though the
                       honour is not offered to everyone.





                        Asking Questions
                 A question is a phrase or word that asks for information or is used to test someone's knowledge. We always use a
                 question mark (?) at the end of questions. In our daily interactions with other people, we often have to ask questions to
                 get information. Asking the right questions can help us get the information we want.
                 Questions that can be answered with ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ are called closed questions. This is because response options are
                 limited or closed. For example, when we asked, “Are you hungry?”, the answer can be ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.

                 Sometimes when we ask a question, we expect a more detailed answer. For example, when we ask, “What do you want
                 to eat?", the answer could be: "I want to eat a mango". These are called open questions because their answer options
                 are neither limited nor closed.

                           Closed Questions                             Open Questions


                                    ?                       ?                    ?                    ?




                                 Objective              Objective            Subjective           Speculative
                                 questions:             questions:           questions:            questions:
                              To confirm facts          To get facts           To get             For creative
                                                                            perspectives           potential

                 You can create a closed question by adding auxiliary verbs such as ‘be’, ‘do’, ‘have’, etc.. These give additional information
                 such as time and mood. There are also other auxiliary verbs (called modal verbs) such as ‘can’, ‘may’, ‘should’, etc. which
                 indicate the potential or need. One way to create a closed question is to take a sentence that does not contain the words
                 above and put those words before the subject. For example, "Do you like eating ice cream?"
                 Some examples of close-ended questions with helping verbs are:
                 •  She cooks lunch.                 Does she cook lunch?

                 •  He can draw a cartoon.           Can he draw a cartoon?
                 In some cases, the subject and verb positions in the sentence are swapped to create a closed question. You can use the
                 above given method for sentences that already have auxiliary verbs. Examples:
                 They were sweeping the floor.       Were they sweeping the floor?
                 You can work with me.               Can you work with me?
                 Similarly, some questions are said to be open because the answer options are not restricted or closed. They need to be
                 answered with more information than simply saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’. You can create an open question using interrogative
                 words, such as what, why, who, how, when, and where.





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