Question

    Dog owners swear that their furry best mend is in tune with their emotions, Now it seems this sense of interspecies connection is real: dogs can smell your emotions, and adopt them as their own

We already know dogs can see and hear the signs of human emotions says Biagio D'Aniello at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy. But nobody had studied whether dogs could pick up on olfactory(嗅觉的) signals from humans.

“The role of the olfactory system has been largely undervalued, maybe because our own species is more focused on the visual system.” says D'Aniello. However, dogs 'sense of smelling is far superior to ours, D'Aniello and his colleagues tested whether dogs could really sniff out our emotions. First, human volunteers watched videos designed to induce fear, happiness or a neutral response and the team collected samples of their sweat. Next, the researchers presented these sweat samples to dogs ,and monitored their behavior and heart rates. Dogs exposed to fear smells showed more signs of stress than those sniffing happy or neutral smells. They also had higher heart rates, and made less social contact with strangers.

D'Aniello's study suggests humans can unconsciously, hijack their dogs' emotion by releasing smells .A second study suggests dogs can return the favour, using their expressive faces.

Juliane Kaminski at the University of Portsmouth, UK, and her colleagues have found that dogs' faces fare most expressive when they know people are looking at them.

The researchers introduced dogs to a human who was either looking at them or facing away and either offering food or nothing. The team analyzed how much the dogs' facial movements varied in the four situations. They found that the dogs' facial expressions varied most when the person was looking at them. Kaminski says there was no sign of a “dinner table effect”, which “would predict that dogs try and look super-cute when they want something from the humans”.

It's not clear precisely how dogs visually signal us and how we respond, says Monique Udell of Oregon State University in Corvallis. “This kind of research is needed to fully understand the nature of the human-dog relationship.”

1.How did D'Aniello's research team carry out their study on dog's ability of sniffing out humans' emotions?

A.By analyzing the sweat samples from the dogs.

B.By monitoring dogs' response Co the same videos

C.By letting the dogs watch the volunteers 'expressive faces.

D.By watching the dogs' reactions to the given sweat samples.

2.The underlined word "hijack" probably means?

A.Study. B.Control.

C.Find. D.Display,

3.What can we infer from the second study?

A.Dinner-table effect really exists.

B.Dogs are very sensitive to human attention.

C.Dogs showed no facial expression when offered nothing

D.Dogs' facial expressions vary most when they want attention.

4.What is still puzzling scientists according to the passage?

A.How dogs react to human smells.

B.How dogs respond to humans 'attention.

C.How dogs hear and see the signs of humans' emotions.

D.How dogs communicate with humans by the sense of slightly.

Answer

1.D

2.B

3.B

4.D

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。有研究证明了人和狗跨物种的联系是真实存在的：狗可以嗅到你的情感，并将其作为自己的情感。本文主要通过Biagio D'Aniello进行的两个实验，来证明了狗能识别人类的嗅觉信号。第一个研究发现人类的情绪反应会影响到狗的情绪，第二个研究则表明狗对人类的注意力非常敏感。

1.细节理解题。根据第三段中First, human volunteers watched videos designed to induce fear, happiness or a neutral response and the team collected samples of their sweat. Next, the researchers presented these sweat samples to dogs ,and monitored their behavior and heart rates. Dogs exposed to fear smells showed more signs of stress than those sniffing happy or neutral smells. They also had higher heart rates, and made less social contact with strangers.可知首先，研究人员让志愿者们观看一些旨在引起恐惧、快乐或中性反应的视频，然后收集他们的汗液样本。接下来，研究人员将这些汗液样本展示给狗狗，并监测它们的行为和心率。与闻着快乐或中性气味的狗相比，闻着恐惧气味的狗表现出更多的压力迹象，它们的心率也更高，与陌生人的社交接触也更少。由此可知，D' aniello的研究小组通过观察狗对给定的汗液样本的反应，来对狗嗅出人类情感的能力进行研究的。故选D。

2.词义猜测题。根据第三段中Dogs exposed to fear smells showed more signs of stress than those sniffing happy or neutral smells. They also had higher heart rates, and made less social contact with strangers.可知相比闻着快乐或中性气味的狗，闻着恐惧气味的狗表现出更多的压力迹象。他们的心率也更高，与陌生人的社交接触也更少。由此可知，人类的情绪反应会影响到狗的情绪。所以D'Aniello的研究表明人类可以无意识地，控制狗的情绪。故划线单词的意思为“控制”。故选B。

3.推理判断题。根据倒数第三段Juliane Kaminski at the University of Portsmouth, UK, and her colleagues have found that dogs' faces fare most expressive when they know people are looking at them.可知英国朴茨茅斯大学的Juliane Kaminski和她的同事们发现，当狗知道人们在看它们时，它们的面部表情会表现得最为丰富。以及倒数第二段中They found that the dogs' facial expressions varied most when the person was looking at them.可知他们发现，当人们看着狗的时候，狗的面部表情变化最大。由此可推知，第二项研究表明狗对人类的注意力非常敏感。故选B。

4.细节理解题。根据最后一段中It's not clear precisely how dogs visually signal us and how we respond, says Monique Udell of Oregon State University in Corvallis.可知位于科瓦利斯的俄勒冈州立大学的Monique Udell说，目前还不清楚狗是如何在视觉上向我们发出信号以及我们是如何反应的。由此可知，科学家目前不清楚狗如何通过轻微的感觉与人交流的。故选D。