Dogs can be worried and pessimistic just like people, researchers report in a new study in Current Biology. And they aren’t talking about basset hounds (短脚猎狗): those dogs just look as if they expect the worst.
What the scientists say is that dogs that exhibit anxiety when left home alone by their owners may have bigger problems — they may be in a permanent bad mood.
This pessimistic outlook may not otherwise be easily apparent in a dog’s other characteristics, like running speed or learning ability, the study reports.
Dogs are similar to humans in the role that emotional state plays in decision making, said Michael Mendel, a veterinary scientist at the University of Bristol and the study’s lead author. The study’s researchers looked at 24 dogs in shelters in Britain.
They placed the dogs in isolated settings and observed their reactions — many barked, jumped on furniture and scratched at the door.
Then they placed bowls in two rooms. One bowl contained food, while another was empty. After training the dogs to understand that bowls can sometimes be empty, and sometimes full, they began to place bowls in ambiguous locations.
Dogs that quickly raced to the locations were more optimistic, and in search of food. Those that did not were deemed pessimistic.
The more separation anxiety a dog expressed while in isolation, the more likely the dog was to have a pessimistic reaction, the researchers found.
The study carries an important message for dog owners, Dr. Mendel said.
Dogs that express serious anxiety when alone may need treatment, as it could be a sign of unhappiness and instability.
【小题1】This passage can be classified as _________.

FRIDAY, Aug. 3 (Health Day News) -- Middle school students who are physically fit are likely to score higher on standardized tests measuring reading and math abilities, a new study has found. And, the average scores went up in connection with levels of fitness, the findings showed.
“The more physically fit kids were, the higher their scores,” said the study’s lead author, Trent Petrie, director of the Center for Sport Psychology at the University of North Texas in Denton. “Parents should encourage their kids to be physically active. There are some real cognitive (认知的) and academic benefits that come from physical fitness”, Petrie said.
Results of the study are scheduled to be presented Friday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Orlando, Fla. The study included more than 1,200 middle school students from five schools in a suburban area of Texas, with 561 boys and 650 girls. About 57 percent of the children were white, and nearly one-quarter were Mexican American. Nine percent were black and about 2 percent were of Asian descent.
The school district provided the researchers with information on the children’s race, age, grade level and whether they qualified for the free school lunch program, which was an indicator of the family’s socioeconomic status. The schools also provided scores to the tests, which were given between one and four months after the researchers had assessed the children’s levels of fitness. Fitness tests were administered during physical education classes to determine the youngsters’ heart and lung health (cardiorespiratory fitness), as well as their body mass index (BMI), an indicator of how much body fat a person has. The children also filled out questionnaires that helped the researchers determine factors such as self-esteem and social support.
After accounting for factors such as age, sex, family income and self-esteem, the researchers found that for both boys and girls, higher levels of heart and lung health predicted better scores on both the math and reading tests.
For boys, perceived (感观的) social support also seemed to increase their reading scores, the investigators found. In girls, while being physically fit predicted higher reading scores, so too did a higher BMI-- which indicates more body fat. “We were a little surprised by this finding,” Petrie said.
“It was not as strong an association as the one with physical fitness,” he added. The authors suspect it may have something to do with girls this age entering adolescence, which may be related to a higher BMI and slightly higher brain development. He said he plans to make great effort to look for this relationship again in larger studies to see if it was a chance finding, or if the association holds up.
“While we can’t say 100 percent that physical fitness causes better academic performance, we can say that there is a strong and predictive relationship between physical fitness and academic performance,” Petrie said.
“It’s hard to tease apart (梳理) the exact reason for this association,” said Becky Hashim, an attending clinical psychologist and assistant professor in the departments of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Montefiore, in New York City.
“It may be that the children are getting more oxygen. When the heart and lungs are working at a higher capacity, it may allow the brain to work at peak performance. Children who are less fit may be sleepier during school,” she noted. “I personally feel that there’s probably a strong relationship between the confidence you get from being able to do something physical well and academic performance.”
Whatever the reason behind this association may be, “there’s certainly no harm in pushing physical fitness,” Hashim added. “Physical fitness may make you feel better, give you more confidence and improve your performance across the board,” she said.
Petrie agreed. “Physically fit kids are happier, have higher self-esteem and, tend to have better relationships, and now we’re beginning to see that there also seem to be benefits cognitively and academically. Our study sends a strong warning to policymakers to reconsider the service program of physical education classes for kids,” he said.
【小题1】How did the school district help the researchers carry out the study?

Kuss Middle School serves students in Fall River, Mass. , a former mill town that has struggled economically for decades. Students at Kuss have struggled, too, usually falling short of making the academic progress required under the No Child Left Behind law.

Then, last year, the school experimented with extending the school day. Teachers got paid at a higher hourly rate.

Students weren't thrilled at first with leaving school at 4:15 p.m. instead of at 2:20 p.m. But the added hours gave them more time for physical education and let them select special interest classes. By the end of the year, student scores had risen by enough to enable Kuss to make the progress required under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

The only surprise is that more districts haven't lengthened school schedules set decades ago to accommodate (适应) a farm economy rather the information economy of today.

New research suggests the time is ready for a change:

Matched against 39 other developed countries, the United States is near the bottom in the rankings of average weekly instructional time in school.  Measured over 12 years, students in the top-scoring countries spend the equivalent of a full extra year in school.

US students perform poorly on math and science tests compared to their international peers, according to a US Education Department comparison released earlier this month. In math, American 15-year-old scored near the bottom among the study's 30 developed countries.

Most countries that boost the number of minutes spent on math instruction find pay offs in improved math scores, according to a study released this month by the Brookings Institution. Small in creases in the school day are more effective than a longer school year, the report concluded.

The most encouraging news about the benefits of extending the school day comes from Massachusetts, where an experiment with 10 schools, including Kuss, appears to be working. Those 10 schools lengthened their instructional days by 25% and boosted their state scores in math, English and science at all grades.

Perhaps the concept won't work everywhere. Certainly, it won't instantly be popular. But it's obvious that a problem exists or that adding class time seems to help.

1.What is the main idea of the above passage?

2.A longer school day is suggested for the following reasons except that _________.

3.Which statement is true of Kuss Middle School?

4.The writer has expressed ____________.

Everyone may all have the experience of feeling anxious and stressed when having a rough day or having some troubles. Different people may choose different ways to deal with it, and for most people a break for a 10-minute walk may be quite useful.www.zxxk.com

Anyway, here is another way around: to get a piece of chewing gum, and chew it. According to a Swinburne University of Technology study, gum-chewing has been found to “relieve anxiety, improve alertness(机敏性) and reduce stress among individuals in a laboratory setting.”

Some may argue that a laboratory is not the same as an office. But check out the conditions of the study: individuals were monitored while performing “a group of ‘multi-tasking’ activities.” Doesn’t it sound like the situation in the office?www.zxxk.com

Here’s a summary of some of the study’s findings:

Gum chewers showed a reduction in anxiety as compared to non-gum chewers by nearly 17 percent during mild stress and nearly 10 percent in appropriate stress.

Gum chewers showed improvement in alertness over non-gum chewers by nearly 19 percent during mild stress and 8 percent in moderate stress.

Improved Performance: Chewing gum resulted in a big improvement in overall performance on multi-tasking activities.

Although these aren’t major improvements, every little bit works and chewing a piece of gum is a lot quicker and easier than slipping outside for a 10-minute walk. So, how does gum work this magic? In part it does so by lowering the level of cortisol(皮质醇)—a steroid(类固醇) hormone that is released in response to stress in your system.

A few words of advice before you reach for the gum: don’t crack your gum, and be sure to chew it with your mouth closed. In fact, I’d say keep the gum out of meetings, because it really looks impolite to others around you.

1.From the study in the text we know that_________________.

A. gum chewers may lack alertness

B. gum chewers tend to be less stressed

C. gum chewers can finish many jobs perfectly

D. gum chewers can reduce their anxiety and anger easily

2.How does gum work to reduce stress according to the text?

A. It works by improving alertness.

B. It works by allowing a 10-minute walk.

C. It works by reducing one’s level of cortisol.

D. It works by being chewed in a laboratory setting.

3.Which one may the author probably agree with?

A. People should chew gum with their mouths closed in a meeting.

B. It is impolite to chew gum in a meeting with people around you.

C. People can crack gum freely when meeting friends.

D. People should be careful when chewing gum at home.

4.What does the text mainly talk about?

A. How to chew gum.                                              B. How to relieve stress.

C. Why people love chewing gum.                       D. Chewing gum can relieve stress.

A study by St.. Louis University has found that a lovable dog named Sparky and a robotic dog, AIBO, were about equally effective at reducing the loneliness of nursing home residents. The study confirmed previous findings that dogs have a good effect on nursing home residents.
Dr. Andrew Smith led the Stanford University team that built a home-assistance robot. “If humans can feel an emotional tie with robots, some day they could be not just our assistants, but also our companions,” he said.
To test whether residents responded better to Sparky, a trained dog, or the Sony-made robotic dog, researchers divided 38 nursing home residents into three groups at three long-term care centers in St. Louis.
One group had weekly 30-minute one-on-one visits with Sparky; another group had similar visits with AIBO; a control group had no contact with either dog. The groups’ respective levels of loneliness were tested by having them answer a number of questions at the beginning and near the end of the visits.
After two months, both groups that had contact with the dogs were less lonely and more attached. Most of the elderly regarded Sparky, a 9-year-old dog, as an audience for their life stories, said investigator Marian Banks.
“He listened attentively, wagged his tail, and allowed them to pet him,” said Banks, who adopted and trained Sparky after finding him in a street behind her home seven years ago.
Those who were together with AIBO took a little longer to warm to the robotic creature. Over time, however, they grew comfortable with him, and petted and talked to him. He would respond by wagging his tail, vocalizing, and blinking his lights..
“AIBO is charming once you start to interact with him,” said the study’s author, Dr. William Banks, “He’s an attractive sort of guy. He gives a feeling of being personal, not just a robot.”
【小题1】Before the new study, it was known that ____.