高考真题2024年天津市阅读C-“狗眼看人”

中等

说明文

动物

本文是一篇说明文。主要介绍的是一些新的研究发现，狗可能会判断他人的意图，可以读懂人类的行为，并且更喜欢那些更友好或对食物更慷慨的人。

Getting the “side-eye” look from your dog can make it seem like they are making a judgement about you, and some new studies suggest they really could be.

从你的狗身上看到“侧目”会让人觉得它们在对你做出判断，一些新的研究表明，它们真的可能是这样。

The ability to judge others’ intentions is an indicator of possessing “theory of mind” which was once thought to be unique to humans. However, new studies have shown that dogs can read human behaviour and have a preference to people who are more friendly or generous with food.

判断他人意图的能力是拥有“心理理论”的指标，这种理论曾被认为是人类独有的。然而，新的研究表明，狗可以读懂人类的行为，并且更喜欢更友好或对食物更慷慨的人。

One such study published in 2023 aimed to see if dogs can tell the difference between humans who are “unwilling” or “unable” to give them a treat. 96 dogs were involved in both “unwilling” and “unable” scenarios (情境) designed for the study. Both scenarios involved a dog being placed on one side of a glass screen with small holes in it at nose-height, and an experimenter standing on the other. In the ‘unwilling’ scenario, the experimenter would hang a piece of sausage in front of the screen in a ‘teasing’ (戏耍的) manner, and approach one of the holes. But instead of passing it through the hole to the dog, they would then pull it out of its reach. For the “unable” scenario, the experimenter would again move the treat towards the hole while the dog watched, but “accidentally” drop it before they could pass it through.

2023年发表的一项这样的研究旨在看看狗是否能区分“不愿意”或“不能够”给它们东西吃的人类。96只狗参与了为这项研究设计的“不愿意”和“不能够”情景。这两种情况都涉及一只狗被放在玻璃屏幕的一侧，屏幕上有鼻子高度的小孔，另一侧是一名实验者站着。在“不愿意”的情况下，实验者会以“挑逗”的方式将一根香肠挂在屏幕前，然后靠近其中一个洞。但他们不会把它穿过洞递给狗，而是把它拉到狗够不着的地方。对于“不能够”的情况，实验者会在狗观察的同时再次将食物移向洞，但在狗通过之前“意外”将其掉落。

The researchers observed that the dogs were much more patient, making more eye contact and staying closer to the screen after the “unable” scenario played out. In the “unwilling” scenario, however, the dogs looked at the experimenter less often, sat, lay down and wandered around more frequently.

研究人员观察到，在“不能够”的情况发生后，狗表现出了更大的耐心，进行了更多的眼神交流，并更靠近屏幕。然而，在“不愿意”的情况下，狗更少地看实验者，更频繁地坐下、躺下和四处走动。

Another study from 2021 tested for “theory of mind” in dogs in a similar way, but the dogs were able to walk round the screen to obtain the treat after witnessing the experimenter’s “unwilling” or “unable” behaviour. The main finding was that the dogs approached the experimenter significantly sooner in the unable scenario than in the unwilling scenario.

2021年的另一项研究以类似的方式在狗身上测试了“心理理论”，但狗在目睹实验者的“不愿意”或“不能够”行为后，能够绕着屏幕行走以获得食物。主要发现是，在不能够的情况下，狗比在不愿意的情况下更快地接近实验者。

However, the researchers of the 2023 study challenged that the food dropped on the floor in the clumsy (笨拙的) manner might have motivated the dogs to approach the experimenter considering that they probably often obtain food dropped on the floor in their daily lives.

然而，2023年研究的研究人员质疑，以笨拙的方式掉在地板上的食物可能会促使狗接近实验者，因为它们在日常生活中可能经常得到掉在地上的食物。