2 . According to the traditional Chinese custom, 2018 is just the year of Dog. Ranking as the eleventh animal in the Chinese zodiac -- the Shengxiao, Dog is a symbol of loyalty (忠诚) and honesty.

● Self-mocker (自嘲)

Words and phrases including dogs (Gou in Chinese) are commonly used by young people when telling jokes about themselves. For example, you can say “Valentine’s Day has nothing to do with me since I am a single dog.” It is believed that dog-related words and phrases usually have good humour.

● Close relationship

Among some young people, adding “dog” to a friend’s name has the meaning of a close relationship. One of the most famous examples in China is that the actor Lin Gengxin is called Lin Gou by his close friends and beloved fans.

● Easy to raise

Kids with pleasant names are easy to bring up, according to an ancient Chinese saying. Parents in the countryside prefer to give nicknames including Gou Sheng and Gou Dan to their kids in the hope that they are as easy to be raised as dogs.

● Metaphor (隐喻)

Since dogs are considered to have many good qualities (品质), the word is included in more than 10 Chinese metaphors. For example, “serve like a dog or a horse,” is used to describe someone who is ready to work hard for the people who have powers.

	Symbol Dog is a loyal and     1     animal.
Self-mocker The dog-related words and phrases are commonly used by young people when telling     2     .		Easy to raise Parents hope that kids can grow up as     3     as dogs by giving nicknames to them.
Close relationship Adding “dog” to a person’s name     4     that you have a closer relationship with him or her than others.		Metaphor Please translate “Serve like a dog or a horse.” into Chinese.     5     (不超过5个汉字)

Jimmy Chipolata is a famous face at Nottingham Trent University. He is a therapy(治疗) dog there. He’s very friendly. When students feel stressed or upset, Jimmy helps cheer them up. His owner, Debra Easter, also works at NTU. Debra said, “Since Jimmy came here, I’ve seen people come forward, including some shyer students. Lots of our staff and students’ health can improve by stroking(抚摩) Jimmy.” She added that quite a lot of students missed their pets at home, and had a hard time with their studies and exams. After spending time with Jimmy, they felt more comfortable.

Jimmy was saved by Debra from a broken home two years ago. When she first saw him, he looked heavy and couldn’t walk. However, with hard work, Jimmy overcame(克服) the difficulties in his life. And now he's able to help stressed-out university students do the same! Jimmy really enjoys his work and loves all the attention he gets. In fact, he’ll get down if people don't take notice of him.

Although the staff and students love Jimmy, not everyone believes in his therapy ability. Chris McGovern said: “If students are getting to 18, 19 and 20 and need a dog to cheer them up, they’ve got a real problem.” But many people think Jimmy is really helpful.

5 . Police officer Dennis was recently patrolling (巡逻) the streets of Newark, New Jersey. Suddenly, he found four men fighting. As he approached, one of the men tried fleeing, but failed. The police horse tracked down the suspect and arrested him.

“He thought he was going to get away,” Dennis said. “But you can't outrun these horses.”

In Newark and cities across the country, retired racehorses are finding new careers fighting crime. The horses are helping departments with various types of police work. Horses have helped patrol parking lots and schools. They have patrolled city streets. They have chased down criminals.

Police officers say retired racehorses make perfect additions to their departments for several reasons.The 1,200-pound horses are effective crime-fighting forces. The mounted (骑马的) police officers used them to arrest thieves. The animals’ natural intelligence helps as well. Horses can be easily trained to perform duties connected with fighting crime. In addition to being intelligent, horses are generally calm animals.The horse must also be able to follow six commands—walk, stop, stand, back up, side left, and side right. If a horse does not meet his department’s needs, it is returned.

Most of the horses came from Jennifer Nagle’s rescue group. The group has found homes for more than 2,000 horses since it was started 20 years ago. However, today’s troubled economy has made the job of Nagle’s group more challenging. Caring for a horse can cost a great deal of money. According to Nagle, the number of horses in need of new homes has multiplied in recent months. Owners used to call her group and offer one horse for adoption. Now, some inquire about finding homes for five or six retired racehorses.

The adoption of horses by police departments is a win-win for all. The horses enjoy new homes and companions (同伴). Police departments feel closer to people in the community.

“The kids love the horses. A 3-year-old even walked up and petted his police horse.”

The animals also have the ability to ease possibly upsetting situations. Another child who had gotten lost during a shopping trip could not find his parents. The police let the child pet the animal until the boy's parents were located. The child wiped away his tears. He just thought the horse was the greatest thing in the world.

6 . Pop Princess Britney Spears would be very happy, (or upset, maybe) if she knew what her songs could do for some German farmers.

Recently, some farmers in Germany have been playing Britney's songs very often on their farms. Not that they like her songs a lot, but that her songs can drive away the troublesome wild boars(野猪)! As the boars are one of the endangered species in Germany, pople can't shoot or kill them. Farmers there tried their best to stop the boars from destroying the crops but failed.

One day, one of the German farmers noticed that all the boars were scared away when he started to play one of Britney's songs. The farmer was delighted and then he tried some other singers on the boars.

Madonna's and Robbie William's songs didn't work at all. Only Britney's songs seemed to have the magical power. Every time her songs were played on his farm, the boars would go running away in a rush.

It's reported quite a number of German farmers are using Britney's magic songs to protect their vegetables and fruits.

7 . Tom the cat and Jerry the mouse are two of the most popular cartoon characters in the world. In the short cartoons, Tom is always trying to catch Jerry, but he never has any success. Almost every cartoon ends (A) ________ Tom in trouble and Jerry laughing at him. (B)这些故事充满乐趣 and have a long history.

William Hanna and Joseph Barbera both worked for MGM in the late 1930s. Their boss told them to make (C) funny cartoons. Together they thought of the idea of a cat and a mouse. They thought it would be funny (D) ________ the mouse was clever and always got the cat into trouble.

The first Tom and Jerry cartoon was shown in cinemas in 1940. It was a great success. Over the next 17 years, they made (E) a number of Tom and Jerry cartoons. Most of them are around seven minutes long.

In total, Hanna and Barbera made 114 Tom and Jerry cartoons. (F) They were such good cartoons that they won many awards. The famous cat and mouse remain popular today, as the cartoons are still shown on television around the world.

8 . Why are some animals popular while others are so unpopular? In the natural world, every animal has its place and purpose. However, people do not always realize it. For example, it’s a common misunderstanding that snakes are dangerous and will attack (攻击) humans for no reason. In fact, almost all snakes prefer to run away or hide A they’re attacked first.

Snakes aren’t the only animals that are misunderstood. People think that cockroaches (蟑螂) are dirty and like to hide in dark places. In fact, cockroaches usually clean themselves as much as cats do. They prefer to live in clean places. They have to hide wherever they can make sure to live. Luckily, they are very hard to die out. They were here on the planet B humans appeared, and they’ll probably be here after we’re gone!

Wasps (黄蜂) also have a bad fame. Many people hate wasps because they believe that wasps sting (叮) humans at a moment’s notice. Actually, most wasps don’t sting at all. Those that do sting are generally protecting their young, or reacting to humans who shout or wave their hands at the wasps.

Should we care about these misunderstood animals? Yes, we should! Every animal species plays an important role in the ecosystem (生态系统). Some help control other pest populations. Some are useful for medical research. Even misunderstood animals are necessary, because in many ways they’re good to humans.

______________________________________________________

（1）___________________________

（2）__________________________

9 . Cats are great hunters. Mice are often on their top five kill list. But sometimes, a cat will not kill the animal it catches. ① __________, the catch becomes kind of a toy or plaything.

The first expression is “play cat and mice with someone”.The cat seizes a mouse. Then lets it go. Catches it. Lets it go. Over and over again! It is good fun for the cat but frightening for the poor mouse. So, if you play cat and mouse with someone, you play a power game with them. You, the person with the power, are the cat. Maybe you pretend to give the other person something they want but then take it away. You toy with them.

Now, let's leave the game of cat and mouse and talk about playing in a different way. Let's imagine a classroom filled with young children. The teacher must leave the room for a couple of minutes. At first, everybody is well-behaved. ②But the longer the teacher is gone, the naughtier the class will be. It starts out slowly. Someone throws a piece of paper. A couple of students get up and walk around. Others start laughing loudly. Someone yells! Suddenly, all of the students are doing things they would never do with the teacher in the room.

But you know what we say: When the cat's away, the mice will play!

③_____________ So, the teacher is the cat and the students are the mice. We often use this expression when talking about children and parents, employees and office supervisors and even people in committed relationships.

10 . Which animals are smart? Your answer may be dogs, monkeys or elephants. Now we can put one more animal into the list: sheep.

Scientists from Cambridge University said that they can teach sheep to tell familiar (熟悉的)human faces from other unfamiliar ones.

Before testing, scientists let the sheep take a look at pictures of four famous people, such as Barack Obama and British actress Emma Watson. Then the sheep went into a room with two computer screens. Each screen showed a human face. One screen showed a famous person and the other screen showed a common person。The sheep would always walk to the screen with the face of famous persons.

Then, the scientists wanted to know the sheep's ability to recognize(认出) them from a photo. They put their own photos on screens along with some pictures of unfamiliar(不熟悉的) faces. Not surprisingly, the sheep could tell the scientists from others.

After noticing the animals' ability to recognize people, scientists gave them a new job. They wanted to see the farm animals' ability to recognize the same person if the picture only showed half of the person's face or just one side of a person. The animals were still able to recognize them, though they were a little slower to recognize the pictures than before.

The results show that the animals' face-recognition( 面部识别) abilities are similar to those of monkeys and humans. Face recognition is a difficult job. But sheep have big brains(大脑). When they see other sheep, they can also recognize one another.

The scientists said it might be interesting in the future 10 find out whether sheep can recognize different human facial expressions(表情)