主题练习：科技引领生活-高考英语二轮复习备考.docxVIP

主题练习：科技引领生活 Task 1 Most dog owners are convinced that their four? Legged friends know exactly what they mean when they use certain words. However， researchers have always wondered whether they really understand human speech or if they rely on other ways to know the meaning. A new study by scientists at Atlanta’s Emory University seems to indicate that “man’s best friend” does know what the owner is saying. To get data from the dogs themselves—not just owner reports， the researchers asked the owners of twelve dogs to train their pets to identify two toys with different materials by name. Once the dogs had mastered the task， they took turns inside a MRI（磁共振成像仪）. The owners then tested their dog by first calling out the names of the toys they had been trained to recognize and then saying meaningless words such as “bobby” and “bodice” while holding up random objects the dogs hadn’t seen before. The MRI scans showed that a certain area of the dogs brains showed different brain patterns when they heard words they were familiar with， compared with the ones they had never heard before. While not enough to prove that the dogs were picturing their toys when they heard the word， it did indicate some sort of recognition. The researchers believe this is an important step forward in understanding how dogs process language. Even more interesting was that the dogs brains showed a higher level of neural（神经的） activity at the sound of unknown words. This is the exact opposite of what happens in human brains， which get more active at the sound of familiar words. The researchers assume the dogs may perk up at the sound of new words to try to understand them in the hope of delighting their masters. “When teaching their dog a trick， people often use words because that’s what we humans prefer，” Prichard， the writer of the study， says. “From the dogs view， however， a visual command might be more effective， helping the dog learn the trick faster.” 1.What should dog owners do in the experimen