Question

【题目】

Have you stroked (抚摸) a cute dog recently? If that dog touched you with its nose, you might find how wet and cold it was. If dogs are so warm and fluffy (毛茸茸 的), then why are their noses so cold?

Before, people thought that dogs had cold noses to help them control their body temperature. But, a new study in the journal Scientific Reports has shown some interesting findings about dogs’ noses. The study found that when the air temperature was 30 ℃, the tip of a dog’s nose is about five degrees cooler than the air. But why is this?

The researchers believed that the tip of a dog’s nose has a special sensory function (探测功 能). So, they did an experiment to test it. The study showed that dogs could find weak heat sources—like a small animal—with their noses from 1.5 meters away.

The research team studied three dogs named Charlie, Delfi and Kevin. For the experiment, the dogs had to tell the difference between two objects. The two objects were heated to different temperatures. Amazingly, all three dogs were able to sense the temperature difference between both objects.

The study also found that the heat from the objects in the experiment “was too weak to be felt by human hands, even at very short distances”. The dogs were able to sense these heated objects from a distance, but humans were only able to feel the warmth of the object if they touched it.

To know more about it, the research team also studied the brain activity of 13 dogs. When a warm object was put near their noses, there was an increase in brain activity.

“From the two complementary (互补的) experiments, we can know that dogs are indeed able to sense heat from warm-blooded animals, and a special region of the brain is made to be active by such heat.” said Anna Balint, the leader of the study.

【1】What did the new study published in the journal Scientific Reports find about dogs?

A.What makes dogs loyal.B.Why dogs have cold noses.

C.How dogs feel heat better.D.How a dog’s temperature influences its brain activity.

【2】Which of the following words has the closest meaning to “region”?

A.Way.B.Area.C.Type.D.Change.

【3】What happened to the dogs when a warm object was put near their noses?

A.They showed no change in their brain activity.B.They had different kinds of excitement.

C.Their brain activity slowed down.D.Their brains became more active.

【4】What can we infer from the passage?

A.Heat sensing ability can help dogs hunt for food.

B.The tip of a dog’s nose has a special sensory function.

C.Dogs are smarter than other animals.

D.The two experiments found different results.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】B

【2】B

【3】D

【4】A

【解析】

这篇短文主要介绍了一项发表在科学报告期刊上的关于解释狗的鼻子为何总是湿冷的研究。

【1】

细节理解题，定位到原文第二、三、四段，说明了当空气温度是30度时，狗的鼻尖温度会比气温低5度。而这是因为狗的鼻尖有一个特定的感官功能，可以在1.5米外感应出弱热感源，这也解释了为什么狗的鼻子比较凉。B选项“狗狗为什么鼻子是凉的”，符合题意，故选B。

【2】

词义猜测题，Way方式；Area区域；Type类型；Change变化。观察句子，这里是of的从属结构，表示的是“大脑的……因这种热量而变得活跃起来”，结合选项词义，应该是大脑的特殊区域，故选B。

【3】

细节理解题，文中写道“When a warm object was put near their noses, there was an increase in brain activity.”，可知当实验人员把暖和的物体放到狗鼻子前时，狗的大脑活动会有所增加。D项“它们的大脑会变得更活跃”，符合文意。故选D。

【4】

推理判断题，分析原文最后一段内容，是这个研究的第一作者的观点。他认为“狗狗的确能够感觉到温血动物的热量，它们用这个信息来捕猎，然后它们大脑中的特定部位就会被激活。”再观察各选项，A项“热感应能力可以帮助狗寻找食物。”，食物有温度，的确热感应能力可以帮助找食物； B项“狗的鼻尖有一种特殊的感官功能。”，最后一段发现的是我们可以知道狗确实能够感觉到温血动物发出的热量，大脑的一个特殊区域因这种热量而变得活跃起来。C项“狗比其他动物聪明”，文中并没有对比，故排除。D项“这两个实验得出了完全不同的结论”，这两个实验的结果是互补的，是有关联的，故排除此选项。本题问的是从最后一段能够推断出什么，故选A。