You have waited 45 minutes for the valuable 10 minutes’ break between classes. But when the bell for the next class rings, you can’t __________ how quickly time has passed.

If you are familiar with this scene, you’ll know how time flies when you are having fun and drags when you are bored. Now scientists have come up with a reason why this is the case.

Scans have shown that patterns of activity in the brain change according to how we focus on a task. When we are bored, we concentrate more on how time is passing. And this makes our brains  _________ the clock is ticking more slowly.

In an experiment _________ by a French laboratory, 12 volunteers watched an image while researchers monitored their brain activity.

The volunteers were told to _________ concentrate on how long an image appeared for, then _________ the color of the image, and thirdly, study both duration and color. The results showed that the brain was more active when the volunteers paid attention to more subjects.

It is thought that if the brain is busy focusing on many aspects of a task, it has to spread its resources, and pays less attention to the clock. _________, time passes without us really noticing  it, and seems to go quickly. If the brain is not so active, it concentrates its full energies on monitoring the passing of time. As a result, time seems to drag.

Next time you feel bored in class, perhaps you should pay more attention to what the teacher is saying!