Question

Breeders(词养者）have long found that puppies become their cutest selves at the eight-week mark; any older, and some breeders offer a discount to arouse would-be owners’ weakened desire. Such preferences might seem arbitrary, even cruel. But recent research indicates that peak puppy cuteness serves important purposes—and might play a fundamental role in binding dog and owner together.

In a study published this spring, Wynne, the head of Arizona State University’s canine-science laboratory, and his colleagues sought to pin down, scientifically, the timeline of puppy cuteness. Their finding largely matched that of breeders: People consistently rated dogs most attractive when they were six to eight weeks old. This age, Wynne says, coincides with a crucial developmental milestone: Mother dogs stop nursing their young around the eighth week, after which pups rely on humans for survival. (Puppies without human caretakers face death rates of up to 95 percent in their first year of life.) Peak cuteness, then, is no accident--at exactly the moment when our involvement matters most, puppies become irresistible to us.

It doesn’t hurt that humans seem to be especially defenseless to cute things. Oxytocin, the so-called love hormone, has been found to rise in dogs and their owners after they look in each other’s eyes—setting off the same feedback loop(反馈回路）that exists between human mothers and their babies. In other words, the more dogs get us to look at them, the more tightly bonded to them we grow.

Born blind and basically deaf, puppies aren’t interactive in their    first    weeks of life,    and Wynne notes that many people find animals in this stage alien and unappealing. A recent study focused on humans showed that, similar to six-week-old puppies, six-month-old babies are seen as significantly cuter than newborns. As the psychologists Gary Sherman and Jonathan Haidt have proposed, the delayed appearance of cuteness in human babies can also bring about a flood of social interactions, such as petting, playing, and baby-talking. These acts are developmentally crucial to puppies as well, but they can’t be carried out very effectively with the extremely young. And so “one is not born cute,” Sherman and Haidt conclude. “One becomes cute.”

1.What did Wynne find in his study?

A. Human care reduces puppies’ death rate compared with mother dogs’ nursing.

B. Mother dogs refuse to raise puppies as humans offer to help with the nursing.

C. Puppies1 attractiveness reaches its peak between six and eight weeks after birth.

D. Puppies present their cuteness to us because we participate in their survival.

2.The bond between dogs and humans builds up when    .

A. oxytocin increases in both dogs and their owners

B. dogs give us more looks than we do to them

C. humans are able to feel dogs’ cuteness at first sight

D. dogs and humans receive negative responses

3.The conclusion “One becomes cute.” implies that    .

A. newly born babies or puppies seldom show cuteness

B. cuteness serves for puppies’ survival and growth

C. even blind puppies can become cute through practice

D. it is a challenge for cuteness to be passed down

Answer

1. C

2. A

3. B

【解析】

本文是一篇科普说明文，主要介绍了小狗吸引人是因为他们之间产生了与喜爱有关的荷尔蒙oxytocin。

1.细节理解题。根据题目Wynne提示，根据第二段第三句“Their finding largely matched that of breeders: People consistently rated dogs most attractive when they were six to eight weeks old.”可知出生六到八个星期的小狗最吸引人。故选C。

2.判断推理题。定位第3段第二句“Oxytocin, the so-called love hormone, has been found to rise in dogs and their owners after they look in each other’s eyes—setting off the same feedback loop(反馈回路）that exists between human mothers and their babies.”可知在狗和主人之间产生了oxytocin的时候，可以增强他们之间的联系。文章并没有提到比较，排除B项；C中at first sight无中生有，D项内容也是无中生有。故A项正确。

3.判断推理题。根据文章最后一段…“bring about a flood of social interactions…these acts are develop mentally crucial to puppies as well”可见“可爱”对小狗的生存和成长的作用很大。A项中or puppies错误， C项中 blind puppies无中生有；D项中 pass down 没有提及。故B项正确。