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题型:阅读理解-阅读单选 难度:0.65 引用次数:218 题号:7816231

Most dog owners are convinced that their four-legged friends know exactly what they mean when they use certain words like sit,stay or treat.However,researchers have always wondered whether dogs really understand human speech or if they rely on other information to get the meaning.For example,does the word“fetch”form a picture of a stick or ball in the dog’s mind,or does the dog bring back the object based on the owner’s voice or gesture? A new study by scientists at Atlanta’s Emory University seems to indicate that“man’s best friend”does indeed know what the owner is saying.

The researchers began by asking the owners of twelve dogs of various kinds to train their pets to identify two toys of different materials,such as a toy animal and a ball.Once the dogs had mastered the task,they took turns inside a special scanner.The owners then tested their dog’s language skill by first calling out the names of the toys they had been trained to recognize and then saying meaningless words such as“bobbu”and“bodmick”while holding up random objects the dogs hadn’t seen before.

The scans suggested that the parts of the dogs’ brains responsible for processing of sounds showed different brain patterns when they heard words they were familiar with,compared with the ones they had never heard before.While that was not enough to prove that the dogs were picturing their toys when they heard the word,it did indicate some sort of recognition.The researchers believe this is an important step forward in understanding how dogs process language.

Even more interesting was that the dog’s brains showed a higher level of neural(神经)activity at the sound of unknown words.This is the exact opposite of what happens in human brains,which get more active at the sound of familiar words.The researchers say the dogs may become cheerful at the sound of new words to try to understand them in the hope of delighting their masters.“Dogs want to please their owners,and perhaps also receive praise or food,”says Empty neuroscientist Gregory Burns,senior author of the study.

However,though your pet may understand human speech,the scientists recommend using visual signals and smell for training.“When people want to teach their dog a trick,they often use spoken command because that’s what humans prefer,”Prichard says.“From the dog’s view,however,a visual command might be more effective,helping the dog learn the trick faster.”

1. What’s the purpose of the new study?
A.To convince dog owners to understand their dogs.
B.To advise dog owners to treat their dogs kindly.
C.To prove dogs follow owners’order by listening.
D.To test out how dogs get information from owners.
2. What does the author intend to do in paragraph 2?
A.Inform the result of the research.B.State the process of the research.
C.Stress the importance of the research.D.Introduce the subjects of the research.
3. How do human brains and dog brains react to words ?
A.Human brains become active at unfamiliar words.
B.Dog brains become delighted at unfamiliar words.
C.Human brains are not sensitive to familiar words.
D.Dog brains show no response to familiar words.
4. What do scientists advise the owners to do in dog training?
A.Give dogs oral command.B.Teach dog new tricks.
C.Involve sight and smell.D.Encourage faster learning.
【知识点】 动物 科普知识

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【推荐1】Environmental stressors that push honeybees to begin searching food earlier in life can cause a domino effect on hives (蜂巢), quickening their sudden collapse, a new study suggests.

The study showed that too many young bees leaving the hive can cause a tipping point in the tight society of a hive, leading to colony (群体) collapse within weeks.

“There was a suggestion that there was some type of difference between precocious foragers (觅食者) and normal aged foragers,” said Perry, a molecular biologist Clint Perry of Queen Mary University.

So researchers set up experimental hives that would in effect force bees to begin foraging earlier. They also tracked bees in a normal hive, where social roles are regulated, keeping age groups in balance.

Colonies regularly protect against unexpected high loss of foragers by sending bees out earlier, but they rapidly return to stability. But if death rate roughly doubled, the model showed, the colony would be locked in a negative feedback circle of more young bees foraging at younger ages, leading to less stored food and fewer baby bees.

“Since the younger bees are not as good at it, they are going to die sooner, and they’re going to not be bringing back as much food, thereby causing more younger bees to go out, and more younger bees to not do as well, and that will cause continuous feedback that will destroy the colony in a short time,” said Perry.

The researchers are continuing their experiments and hope to come up with ways to identify a colony at risk of collapse. “The priority is finding ways that we can identify colonies at risk of failure as early as possible so you can intervene and do whatever you need to support them and to help heal themselves.” said Perry.

1. What cause a hive to collapse more quickly?
A.Too tight a society of it.B.Too many bees in it.
C.High pressure from other bees.D.High loss of young foragers.
2. What does the underlined word “precocious” in the 3rd paragraph mean?
A.abnormalB.uncommonly earlyC.easily damagedD.awkward
3. What would happen to the colony if twice the foragers died?
A.The colony would heal itself.B.The colony would get expanded.
C.More young bees would be sent to seek food.D.More young bees would be free of risk.
4. What’s the author’s main purpose in writing the article?
A.To introduce a phenomenon.B.To ask for joint efforts.
C.To express his emotions.D.To comment on a study.
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【推荐2】How do the world’s only flying mammals(哺乳动物) communicate? Researchers have observed young bats adopting new “dialects” simply by hearing them repeatedly, making them one of the few animals known to be capable of voice learning. “These bats may help us clarify the development of speech learning skills,” says Yosef Prat, a PhD at Tel AvivUniversity.

For one year, researchers raised 14 Egyptian fruit baby bats with their mothers in controlled area, surrounding each young bat with two different voices: the natural call of its mother and a distinct recording that varied in loudness or tone. They found that the baby bats in each group developed a dialect like the recording. “The general assumption in this field is that most animals develop their born voices in despite of what they hear, and that human voice learning abilities have developed as time goes by,” says Mr. Prat. “The finding that bats learn the common dialect in their rest place was unusual. ”

Scientists know little about the origin of spoken language, which is believed to have appeared in humans within the past 500,000 years. A diversity of theories attempts to give a detailed clarification of this skill, but none have done so conclusively.

“Studying voice communication and voice learning in animal models is a very useful way to approach the problem,” says Olga Feher, an assistant professor at the University of Warwick in England.

But animal voice s and human speech are very different things, says Jamin Pelkey, a professor at Ryerson University. “All species communicate. Unlike other animals, though, human beings are able to use sound patterns for functions that are far stranger—functions that are imaginative, theoretical, and critical. When speech is involved in these stranger functions, that is what we mean by spoken ‘language’. ‘‘

1. How do young bats pick up their “language” according to the research?
A.By hearing it constantly.B.By interacting with partners.
C.By learning from researchers.D.By repeating it with their mothers.
2. Why does Mr. Prat think the findings unusual?
A.It is distinct from the general assumption.
B.It helps people understand human voice leaning.
C.It proves animals only develop their inborn voices.
D.It makes the previous assumption more convincing.
3. What does the underlined word “problem” in Paragraph 4 refer to?
A.Illustrating the origin of animal voices.
B.Giving a full account of spoken language.
C.Helping animals develop their born voices.
D.Telling the differences between animal voices and human speech.
4. What does professor Pelkey think of researching young bats?
A.It is not so relevant to understanding human speech.
B.It promotes people to use imaginative sound patterns.
C.It is essential for analyzing animal voice learning skills.
D.It helps people explore more functions of spoken language.
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【推荐3】New research shows that removing black rhinos’ horns (犀牛角) to make them less attractive to illegal hunters is reducing their territory (领地) sizes and making them less sociable with each other.

The study, published in the journal PNAS, found that de­horned South African rhinos have home ranges that are 45 per cent smaller than those of complete animals, and that they were 37 percent less likely to engage in social interactions.

“The big, dominant bulls that used to have very large territories that overlapped with a lot of females may now have much less territory and much less reproductive (繁殖的) success,” says Vanessa Duthé, who led the work at Switzerland’s University of Neuchâtel.

“It’s really hard to predict the effects of this,” she says. “It doesn’t mean that population success will necessarily decline, because it might open up gaps for younger males that would not have had the space or the means before.” Indeed, a University of Bristol study published last year showed that de­horning (去角) does not negatively affect populations overall.

But such unintended behavioral consequences necessarily feed into judgments about whether this highly invasive procedure is worthwhile. Remarkably, perhaps, there is little hard evidence either way. “No one’s put all the data together to say whether it’s a really effective measure,” says Duthé.

“What is clear is that the introduction of de­horning and a decline in illegal hunting has occurred at the same time,” she adds. “But de­horning has been accompanied by other conservation measures that may be more effective.”

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