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Passage One

    It's a dog's life─and the sooner you humans understand that the better.

    After years of dogged research, Stanley Coren, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, has come out with a book to help dog owners understand what their pets are telling them and to help dogs understand what their owners are saying. He wants you to talk dog.

    "When it comes to communication, dogs are often smarter than their owners," he told reporters in an interview. But the responsibility for communicating lies with the humans since, no matter how intelligent they are, dogs cannot read his book.

    Coren, who grew up playing with his family's three pooches and has been studying canine behavior and psychology for more than 30 years, said that while dogs are able to understand people, for the most part people do not understand dogs.

    "Dogs are much more intelligent than we give them credit for. They can understand up to 200 words, or commands, and they can read our body language to understand what we are trying to tell them," he said in New York, where he was promoting his book, "How to Speak Dog: Mastering the Art of Dog-Human Communications."

    Unlike humans, he added, dogs speak a universal language.

    One of the most common misinterpretations of dog talk involves tail-wagging. "When a dog wags its tail high and arched slightly over its back, people think it is happy. What the dog is really saying is ‘I'm top dog and I'll fight to prove it.'" Coren said.

    Another common misconception is when a dog's tail is down, wagging slightly. "People will say the dog's a little bit happy. What the dog is really saying is, "I'm feeling a bit poorly," he said.

    But a broad tail wag really does mean a dog likes a person or another dog.

    A dog with its teeth bared and its tail straight out behind is snarling and spoiling for a fight. But a dog with its teeth bared and wagging its tail broadly is smiling.

    Dogs have been called "animals who put horrible things in their mouths and then want to lick you." But is licking the human equivalent of kissing, as many people think? "Not really", said Coren. "The dog is trying to tell you something."

    "It can be saying‘I'm hungry," or ‘I'm dependent on you.' In either case petting the dog, or giving him a biscuit is in order. But as all licking is passive and submissive, I'm quite happy with joining the world and telling my granddaughter that her dog is ‘giving her a kiss.'"

 (440 words)

1. Stanley Coren has written a book __________. ( C )

(a) to help people know more about dogs

(b) to stress the importance of taking care of dogs' health

(c) to improve mutual understanding between dog owners and their dogs

(d) to illustrate the psychology of dogs

2. Coren said that the responsibility for dog-human communication lies with the humans because _________. ( D )

(a) dogs, with the intelligence of a 2-year-old child, can understand up to 200 words or commands

(b) dogs are able to understand people, but not vice versa for the most part

(c) dogs speak a universal language while humans speak different ones

(d) dogs cannot read books in spite of their high intelligence

3. Which of the following statements about Coren is NOT true? ( A )

(a) He did not like dogs when he was young.

(b) He has been studying canine behavior and psychology for more than 30 years.

(c) He is a psychology professor from Vancouver, Canada.

(d) He wrote a book to help people and dogs understand each other.

4. According to Coren, when a dog wags its tail high and arched slightly over its back, it is saying, "________." ( C )

(a) I'm happy

(b) I'm hungry

(c) I'm top dog

(d) I'm feeling unwell

5. A good title for the passage is :_____________.( C )

(a) Be careful, your dog gives out risky signals through body language

(b) Watch out, your dog is more intelligent than you give them credit for

(c) Listen up, your dog wants to tell you something

(d) Think over, who is smarter, you or your dog

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Passage Two

    In proportion to the size of its body, a dolphin's brain is smaller than the human brain but larger than that of the great apes. Because dolphins do have relatively large brains, researchers are particularly interested in how well they communicate.

    In the wild, dolphins use two kinds of sounds for communication: clicks, which they use to probe the sea and "see" their environment; and whistles, which they use in dolphin-to-dolphin communication, probably to express emotional states and identify the animal to the group. However, there is little evidence that dolphins in the wild use symbols or apply any rules of grammar in their normal communications.

    In testing the ability of dolphins to communicate, psychologist Louis Herman has been training dolphins to respond to hand signals or whistles. So far, he has taught two dolphins to respond to approximately 50 such signals.

    For example, in the top-right photo, Herman is raising his hands, which is part of a signal for "person over," which means "jump over the person in the pool."

    The bottom-right photo shows the dolphin carrying out the command by jumping over the person and not the surfboard.

    Herman found that dolphins can understand a variety of hand signals and perform behaviors in sequence. For example, the hand signal combination, "basket, right, Frisbee, fetch," means "Go to the Frisbee on the right and take it to the basket." Although Herman admits that the ability of dolphins to acquire the four rules of language is much inferior to that of humans, he insists that dolphins understand word order and can grasp concepts, such as the hoop (no matter if it is round, octagonal, or square). Thus, he argues that dolphins do have some understanding of grammar or syntax.

    Some researchers reply that what may look like language in dolphins may simply be imitation, mimicry, or rote learning, which is observed in many pets. Thus, although dolphins understand a variety of signals, perform behaviors in sequence, and form concepts, they show minimal evidence of using abstract symbols to communicate or applying rules of grammar to generate meaningful sentences. It is these two criteria that distinguish the ability to use language from the simple ability to communicate with signs, sounds, or gestures.

 (370 words)

6.Researchers are especially interested in dolphins' ability of communication because ________. ( C )

(a) a dolphin's brain is smaller than the human brain

(b) a dolphin's brain is larger than that of the great apes

(c) a dolphin's brain is relatively large

(d) two dolphins have been taught to respond to 50 hand signals

7. In the wild, dolphins use whistles to ________________. ( A )

(a) show their identity to the group

(b) probe their environment

(c) explore the sea

(d) express their physical needs

8. How many hand signals has Herman been able to teach two dolphins? ( C )

(a) Five.

(b) Ten.

(c) Fifty.

(d) A hundred.

9. The hand signal combination "basket, right, Frisbee, fetch" means ______. ( C )

(a) "go to the right and take the basket to Frisbee"

(b) "go to the basket on the right and take it to the Frisbee"

(c) "go to the Frisbee on the right and take it to the basket"

(d) "put the Frisbee into the basket on the right"

10. The above passage discusses the ability of the dolphins to _________. ( D )

(a) understand

(b) perform

(c) observe

(d) communicate

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Passage Three

    The best evidence for language in animals comes from the work of psychologist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh. She reported that Kanzi, a bonobo (commonly called a pygmy chimp), has remarkable language skills that surpass previous accomplishments of common chimps.

    Instead of using sign language, Kanzi "speaks" by touching one of 256 symbols on a board, each of which stands for a word. For example, Kanzi might signal "Want a drink" by touching the symbol for "drink" or signal "Want to play" by touching in sequence two symbols for "hiding" and "play biting."

    By the time Kanzi was 6 years old, he had a vocabulary of 90 symbols; at age 12 he knew about 190 symbols but used about 128 regularly. Even more surprising, Kanzi understands about 200 spoken English words, something that common chimps have failed to master.

    Perhaps Kanzi's greatest accomplishment is his knowledge of word order. Psychologists tested the ability of Kanzi to respond to 600 spoken English commands that he had not previously encountered, such as "Put the melon in the potty." Savage-Rumbaugh suggests that Kanzi, now 17 years old, is capable of using abstract symbols (keyboard) and a kind of primitive grammar (word order) for combining symbols that equals the language ability of a 2-year-old child.

    One reason the findings on Kanzi's language abilities are receiving new attention is that Savage-Rumbaugh used strict control procedures. Savage-Rumbaugh used one-way mirrors to eliminate the possibility that Kanzi was simply imitating or responding to human cues, which had been the major criticism of previous research with chimps.

    Doubts about the chimpanzees' ability to learn and use language were partly based on the belief that they lacked a brain area similar to the ones that humans used for language. The considerable language ability of humans comes from a specific brain area (Wernicke's area) that is larger in the left than right hemisphere. However, researchers recently reported that chimpanzees do have a similar brain area and that, as in humans, this area is larger in the left hemisphere. Researchers suggest that human language originated from this brain structure in the left hemisphere and that language began more than 8 million years ago in the common ancestors of chimpanzees and humans.

    Researchers who study evolution speculate that as early humans began to form social groups, the great pressure to keep track of their physical needs and enormously complex personal and social interactions led to the development of language abilities.

 (405 words)

11. Unlike common chimps, Kanzi communicates by ________. ( B )

(a) using sign language

(b) touching symbols on a board

(c) responding to hand signals

(d) imitating human cues

12. Kanzi's remarkable language skills that surpass previous accomplishments of common chimps can be seen from the fact that __________.  ( D )

(a) he had a vocabulary of 90 symbols by the time he was 6 years old

(b) he knew about 190 symbols at the age of 12

(c) he used about 128 symbols regularly

(d) he understands about 200 spoken English words

13. Kanzi's greatest accomplishment is _____________. ( B )

(a) his ability of using abstract symbols

(b) his knowledge of word order

(c) his way of communication by touching symbols

(d) his good knowledge of grammar

14. The findings on Kanzi's language abilities attract new attention partly because Savage-Rumbaugh ___________ .( D )

(a) prevented Kanzi from imitating or responding to human cues

(b) encouraged Kanzi to apply grammar rules and initiate meaningful sentences

(c) eliminated the major criticism of previous research with chimps

(d) used strict control procedures

15. According to the recent research, chimpanzees __________. ( B )

(a) don't have a brain area similar to that of humans'

(b) have a similar brain area which is larger in the left hemisphere

(c) lack a specific brain area from which language ability of humans comes

(d) have a brain structure from which human language originated over 8 million years ago

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