IMAGINE this: you come home from school and find that your dog has messed up your bed and eaten the pizza on the table while you were away. You get so angry and start blaming it for what it did.
While you are doing this, the little “criminal” just sits there quietly, head down, ears back, eyes droopy (下垂的), looking guilty(内疚的). This makes you think that it understands you and you are teaching it a lesson.
But don’t be fooled by this look – animal behaviorists say that dogs actually lack the ability to feel shame, reported the Associated Press. Instead, they just put on that look so their owners will calm down.
“My guess is that their thinking is: ‘Oh man, my owner is crazy about something, but I don’t know what, but he seems to calm down when I give him the sad face, so let’s try that again,’” said Pascale Lemire, Canadian author of the book Dog Shaming.
One of the first scientific studies on the “guilty look” of dogs was conducted in 2009 by Alexandra Horowitz, a professor at Barnard College in the US. In the study, she videotaped how 14 dogs reacted when their owners left the room. When the owners returned, they were asked to scold the dog no matter if they had misbehaved.
Horowitz found that the guilty look would appear as long as the owner was angry, not when the dog had actually done something wrong, which means the look has nothing to do with guilt.
So the best way to deal with a dog that has misbehaved is probably to “just get it over and remind yourself not to put some attractions on the table next time”, suggested Beaver. In other words, don’t leave your bedroom door open or the pizza on the table in the first place.
25. The example given at the beginning of the article is meant to _________.
A. show the disadvantages of keeping pets
B. introduce the subject of this text
C. prove that pets have strong senses of guilt
D. show how owners should teach lessons to their dogs
26. The most important finding in Alexandra Horowitz’s research is that _________.
A. dogs learn quickly from previous punishments
B. dogs with the guilty look don’t actually feel shame at all
C. dogs try hard to calm down when their owners get mad
D. dogs are more likely to misbehave when their owners are absent
27. Acco
rding to the last paragraph, the best way to keep dogs from misbehaving is to _________.
A. make strict house rules for them.
B. offer better rewards and more serious punishments.
C. avoid leaving them possibilities to misbehave.
D. turn a blind eye to their misbehavior.
答案
BBC
