Question

A dog’s tail can tell you a lot more than you might think. Is it wagging (搖) to the left or is it wagging to the right?

“The direction of tail wagging does in fact matter，”said Giorgio Vallortigara，a professor at the University of Trento in Italy. Professor Vallortigara finds that the way the tail is wagging can tell you a lot about a dog’s state of mind—whether you’re a human or another dog.

What’s the difference between a left wag and a right wag？Professor Vallortigara and his colleagues have studied 43 dogs of various breeds — German Shepherds，Beagles，Boxers，Border Collies and some mutts. They find that if a dog wags its tail to the left. it’s feeling anxious or nervous. The reason could be an unfamiliar or dangerous situation，an unfamiliar person，or an unfamiliar and possibly threatening dog. But if the tail is wagging to the right，it means the dog is feeling relaxed and approachable.

“The tail is a very important signal，”said Thomas Reimchen，a biologist at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. ”There is a lot of visual information that dogs use when communicating with each other. ”

How did the scientists figure all this information out? They had the dogs in their study watch videotapes of other dogs. When the dog on the tape wagged its tail to the right，they say the other dogs remained calm and cool. But when the dog on the tape wagged its tail to the left，the other dogs got anxious.

The researchers are still not exactly sure if the direction of tail wagging is something the dog does consciously. They suspect that it might be something the dog does without even thinking about it — kind of like when you get goose bumps if something scares or startles you. They plan to do more research to get more information about what dogs are thinking and feeling while they’re wagging. As Reimchen said，“I'm not going to be surprised if we find all sorts of really interesting processes that nobody has ever seen before. ”

1.Professor Vallortigara’s study focused on the relationship between_________.

A. a dog’s state of mind and its owner's feeling

B. a dog’s state of mind and the direction of its tail wagging

C. a dog’s sense of direction and its state of mind

D. a dog’s intention of tail wagging and its feeling

2.According to the study，dogs which wag their tails to the left may feel_________.

A. calm B. happy C. angry D. nervous

3.It is implied in Thomas Reimchen’s words in Paragraph 4 that___________.

A. dogs’ tails play all important role in their growth

B. dogs show their feelings only by wagging their tails

C. dogs get to know others by watching tail wagging

D. dogs can understand each other by repeating tail wagging

4.How does the passage mainly develop?

A. By asking and analyzing questions

B. By making comparisons

C. By following the order of time

D. By providing examples

 

Answer 1

1.B

2.D

3.C

4.A

【解析】

試題分析:狗的尾巴可以向你傳達比你能想到的更多信息。那么，關于狗的尾巴向左搖和向右搖都代表了什么呢？Vallortigara 教授和他的同事們做了研究調查顯示：狗的尾巴向左搖表示它感到焦急、緊張，向右搖代表它覺得放松和親切。生物學家Thomas Reimchen也對此發表了自己的觀點。但是，關于狗的尾巴搖的方向是否是其在有意識情況下做出的還有待調查研究。

1. 細節理解題。從第二段的最后一句話“Professor Vallortigara finds that the way the tail is wagging can tell you a lot about a dog’s state of mind—whether you’re a human or another dog.” Professor Vallortigara發現狗尾巴搖動的方向能告訴你很多狗的情感——不管你是人還是其它狗。可知選B。

2.細節理解題。從第三段“They find that if a dog wags its tail to the left. it’s feeling anxious or nervous.”知，他們發現如果狗的尾巴向左搖，它是覺得焦急和緊張。選D。

3.細節分析題。在“There is a lot of visual information that dogs use when communicating with each other. ”，由此可以看出，當狗之間相互交流時，它們會看尾巴的搖動情況，故選C。

4. 細節理解題。從全文來看，作者首先拋出一個問題，然后介紹了關于這個問題的科學研究來分析它。接著又提出科學家（第5段）是如何弄明白的呢，緊跟著就是對這個問題的分析。所以呢，選項A問問題和分析問題正確。

考點：考察科普說明文閱讀