Do dogs understand us? Be careful what you say around your dog. It might underst

Do dogs understand us?

Be careful what you say aroundyour dog. It might understand more than you think.

A border collie named Ricorecognizes the names of about 200 objects, say researchers in Germany. The dogalso appears to be able to learn new words as easily as a 3-year-old child. Itsword-learning skills are as good as those of a parrot or chimpanzee.

In one experiment, theresearchers took all 200 items that Rico is supposed to know and divided theminto 20 groups of 10 objects. Then the owner told the dog to go and fetch oneof the items and bring it back. In four tests, Rico got 37 out of 40 commandsright. As the dog couldn't see anyone to get clues, the scientists believe Ricomust understand the meanings of certain words.

In another experiment, thescientists took one toy that Rico had never seen before and put it in a roomwith seven toys whose names the dog already knew. The owner then told Rico tofetch the object, using a word the dog had never heard before.

The correct object was chosen inseven out of ten tests, suggesting that the dog had worked

out the answer by process ofelimination(排除法). A month later, Rico remembered half of the new names, which iseven more impressive.

Rico is thought to be smarterthan the average dog. For one thing, Rico is a border collie, a breed (品种)known for its mentalabilities. In addition, the 9-year-old dog has been trained to fetch toys bytheir names since the age of nine months.

It's hard to know if all dogsunderstand at least some of the words we say. Even if they do, they can't talkback. Still, it wouldn't hurt to sweet-talk your dog every now and then. Youmight just get a big, wet kiss in return!

1. From paragraph 2 we know that __       .

A. animals are as clever as humanbeings

B. chimpanzees have very goodword-learning skills

C. dogs are smarter than parrotsand chimpanzees

D. dogs have similar learningabilities as 3-year-old children

2.Both experiments show that            .

A. Rico is smart enough to getall commands right

B. Rico can recognize differentthings including toys

C. Rico has developed the abilityof learning mathematics

D. Rico won't forget the names ofobjects once recognizing them

3. Which of the following statements is true?

A. Rico has a better memorypartly because of its proper early training.

B. The purpose of the experimentsis to show the border collie's mental abilities.

C. The border collie isworld-famous for recognizing objects.

D. Rico is born to understand itsowner's commands.

4.What does the writer want to tell us?

A. To train yourdog.                 B. To talk to your dog.

C.To be careful with your dog.        D. To befriendly to your dog.

试题答案

【答案】

1.B

2.B

3.A

4.D

【解析】略