题目内容
Dogs have an understanding of fair play and become angry if they feel that another dog is getting a better deal, a new study has found.
The study looked at how dogs react when a companion is rewarded for the same trick in an unequal way. Friederike Range, a researcher at the University of Vienna in Austria, and her colleagues did a series of experiments with dogs who knew how to respond to the command “give the paw “. The dogs were normally happy to repeatedly give the paw, whether they got a reward or not. But that changed if they saw that another dog was being rewarded with a piece of food, while they received nothing.
“We found that the dogs hesitated significantly longer when obeying the command to give the paw,” the researchers write. The unrewarded dogs eventually stopped cooperating.
Scientists have long known that humans pay close attention to inequity. But researchers always assumed that animals didn’t share the trait. “The argument was that this is a uniquely human phenomenon,” says Frans de Waal, a professor of psychology at Emory University in Atlanta.
That changed in 2003 when he and a colleague did a study on monkeys. The monkeys had to hand a small rock to researchers to get a piece of cucumber in return. They were happy to do this. But if they saw that another monkey was getting a more delicious reward, a grape, for doing the same job, they would throw away the food and rock, and at some point just stopped performing.
In that experiment, the monkeys considered the fairness of two different types of payment. But when Range and her colleagues did a similar study with their trained dogs, testing to see if dogs would become upset if they only got dark bread when other dogs received sausage, they found that as long as the dogs got some kind of food payment, even if it wasn’t the most delicious kind, the animals would play along.
- 1.
How did the dogs in Range’s study react to the order of “giving the paw”?
- A.They took the order even without being rewarded.
- B.They took the order only when rewarded.
- C.They turned a deaf ear to repeated orders.
- D.They hesitated longer when given repeated orders.
- A.
- 2.
The research by Frans De Waal in 2003 ___________.
- A.originated from Range’s research on dogs.
- B.showed that animals do pay attention to inequity.
- C.began the argument that only humans are aware of inequity.
- D.was conducted to find out how monkeys reacted to humans’ orders.
- A.
- 3.
Some monkeys in the research become angry because they found another monkey _______.
- A.was given less work.
- B.was given more food.
- C.was given the same type of food.
- D.was given more delicious food.
- A.
- 4.
Range found that, compared with monkeys, dogs ____________.
- A.care more about whether they are rewarded.
- B.care less about what they are rewarded with.
- C.care more about what they are ordered to do.
- D.care less about who gives them orders.
- A.
- 5.
What is the main idea of the passage?
- A.Animals have various ways to show their anger.
- B.Dogs are less intelligent than monkeys.
- C.Dogs have a sense of fairness.
- D.Most animals want to be rewarded equally.
- A.
Can dogs and cats live in perfect harmony in the same home? People who are thinking about adopting a dog as a friend for their cats are worried that they will fight. A recent research has found a new recipe of success. According to the study, if the cat is adopted before the dog, and if they are introduced when still young (less than 6 months for cats, a year for dogs), it is highly probable that the two pets will get along swimmingly. Two-thirds of the homes interviewed reported a positive relationship between their cat and dog.
However, it wasn’t all sweetness and light. There was a reported coldness between the cat and dog in 25% of the homes, while aggression and fighting were observed in 10% of the homes. One reason for this is probably that some of their body signals were just opposite. For example, when a cat turns its head away it signals aggression, while a dog doing the same signals submission.
In homes with cats and dogs living peacefully, researchers observed a surprising behavior. They are learning how to talk each other’s language. It is a surprise that cats can learn how to talk ‘dog’, and dogs can learn how to talk ‘cat’.
What’s interesting is that both cats and dogs have appeared to develop their intelligence. They can learn how to read each other’s body signals, suggesting that the two may have more in common than we previously suspected. Once familiar with each other’s presence and body language, cats and dogs can play together, greet each other nose to nose, and enjoy sleeping together on the sofa. They can easily share the same water bowl and in some cases groom (梳理) each other.
The significance of the research on cats and dogs may go beyond pets — to people who don’t get along, including neighbors, colleagues at work, and even world superpowers. If cats and dogs can learn to get along, surely people have a good chance.
【小题1】The underlined word “swimmingly” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to “without _________”.
A.a message | B.a problem | C.introduction | D.delay |
A.they are cold to each other |
B.they look away from each other |
C.they misunderstood each other’s signals |
D.they are introduced at an early age |
A.They eat and sleep each other. |
B.They observe each other’s behaviors. |
C.They learn to speak each other’s language. |
D.They know something from each other’s voices. |
A.have common interests |
B.are less different than was thought |
C.have a common body language |
D.are less intelligent than was expected |
A.We should learn to live in harmony. |
B.We should know more about animals. |
C.We should live in peace with animals. |
D.We should learn more body languages. |