I’d be lying if I said a dog-like robot opening a door for another dog-like robot doesn’t creep me out. A full discussion of robot dogs is for another day, but for now, researchers studying the cognition（认知） and
welfare of real dogs have a less threatening view of dogs and technology, particularly when touchscreens are involved.
Like you, animals can learn to interact with the content displayed on touchscreens, and their touch reveals something about their choice, which in turn reveals something about their mind. Animals both on and off land can be trained to use touchscreens — from chimpanzees to dogs, cats, and even dolphins, among others. Touchscreen studies have explored how and what dogs categorize, their ability to learn by
exclusion（排除）, and how they discriminate between different images. An added bonus is that, once a dog
has mastered the touchscreen, humans can remove themselves from the study and can’t unconsciously give signals to the dog.
Researchers are now posing a new set of questions: are touchscreens beneficial to the user? Can touchscreens exercise the dog’s mind, in addition to serving as a window into it?
No better place to start than with older pet dogs, a group facing a unique set of challenges. Aging dogs can have reduced physical activity compared to their younger counterparts. Less attention is often given to their learning, training and other mental activities; after all, who hasn’t heard the wrong proverb, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” But dog minds are not meant to be inactive. Instead, “studies point to the fact that aging seems to be slowed by mental and physical stimulation, and thus stopping these activities might actually lead to faster aging in dogs.”
Lisa Wallis and colleagues at the Senior Family Dog Project at ELTE University in Budapest are exploring the effects of touchscreens on dog physiological, behavioral, and cognitive well-being.
Their recent conference paper gives us a look at how dogs learn to use the touchscreen and the direction of future research. Over the course of a number of sessions, dogs learned that when they nose-touch a particular image on the screen, a food treat pops out. At first, only a single image appears on the screen. Once the dogs reliably learn to nose-touch the image, they move on to discrimination training where two images appear together and only one image is “correct.” Only two out of one hundred thirty dogs were unable to grasp the task, and three displayed frustration suggesting touchscreens are within the capacity of the majority of senior dogs.
Wallis and colleagues will continue investigating long-term effects of touchscreen use, but it seems promising. “The positive association to the touchscreen is so strong that on several occasions when the dog was alone (the trainer had stepped out to answer the phone), and the feeder failed, dogs continued to work on the touchscreen with no reward until the end of the session.” Owners, even those initially skeptical, were impressed by the strategies their dogs used. They also observed that dogs slept soundly upon returning home from touchscreen sessions, highlighting that mental activity can have some of the same effects as physical exercise.
Further studies will explore the effects of long-term touchscreen use on dog personality, activity levels, measures of well-being, and influence on the dog-human bond. Stay tuned.
1.What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?
A. Animals can decide the content shown on touchscreens.
B. Animals naturally have the ability to use touchscreens.
C. People can discriminate between dogs’ abilities by exclusion.
D. People can tell dogs’ needs through their touch on the screen.
2.By using the proverb in paragraph 4, the author intends to stress .
A. aging dogs are too old to learn new skill
B. aging dogs experience a decline in energy
C. training younger dogs is more productive
D. training aging dogs is possible and beneficial
3.What is revealed by the research conducted by Lisa Wallis?
A. The dogs master the touchscreen use step by step.
B. Rewards are a must for dogs to finish the session
C. The dogs regard nose-touch as a form of physical exercise.
D. It remains to be seen whether it has a positive effect on dogs.
4.What does the passage mainly talk about?
A. How robot dogs have threatened the world.
B. How people establish better dog-human bonds.
C. How touchscreens can be employed to train dogs.
D. How long-held myths about dogs mislead people.
So called “sin taxes” on sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco not only work, but will help rather than improperly punish the poor, according to a major new international analysis.
Just a day before the UK brings in a levy on sugary drinks, experts are urging every country in the world to use taxes to keep people from the eating, drinking and smoking habits that will damage their health.The experts analyzed the effects of taxes on sugary drinks, tabacco and alcohol in countries that have introduced them and found that the criticism that they are punishing the poorest in unfounded.
Experts did a survey. They looked at 13 countries: Chile, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, Albania, Poland, Turkey, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Niger, Nigeria, India and Timor-Leste. They found that wealthier families generally spend more on alcohol, soft drinks and snacks. In India, for instance, wealthier households spent seven times more on alcohol and three times more on soft drinks and snacks compared to poorer households. So those households end up paying a larger proportion of any tax.
On the other hand, taxes have a greater impact on the smaller household budgets of poorer families. They respond by buying less, with greater benefits for their health. In the UK, say the authors, the response to the possible introduction of a minimum price for alcohol was estimated to be 7.6 times larger in the poorest households, compared with the wealthiest.
In Mexico, the introduction of a sugary drinks tax resulted in an average of 4.2 litres less of soft drinks purchased per person, with a 17% decrease in purchases among lower income groups and almost no change in higher income groups. In Lebanon, they say, a 50% increase in the price of cigarettes would lead to twice as many people quitting smoking in poorer households as wealthy families.
“The evidence suggests that concerns about higher taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and soft drinks harming the poor are overstated,” said Dr Rachel Nugent from RTI International in Seattle, USA, and chair of the Lancet Taskforce on NCDs and economics.
“Some degree of taxation on tobacco is common in many countries, and while we are starting to see progress on alcohol taxes, there is much more governments should be doing – in both high and low income countries – to consider the careful introduction of taxes on other unhealthy products like soft drinks and snacks. Price policies such as taxes will be a key part of the response to rising rates of non-communicable
diseases(慢性非传染病).”
The UK sugar tax is a levy on the manufacturers of 18p per litre for drinks containing 5g of sugar per 100ml and 24p on those with 8g per 100ml.Many companies have reformulated their products, often swapping artificial sweeteners for sugar. Some – like Coca-Cola – have decided to stick to the original recipe and the price will rise, although the bottles and cans will shrink to reduce the impact.
1.What do we know about the “sin taxes”?
A. They receive warm welcome in developing countries.
B. They help people get rid of unhealthy lifestyles.
C. They have the same effects on the poor and rich.
D. They have a deeper influence on groups with high income.
2.Which of the following is TRUE about the responses to “sin taxes”?
A. The public have turned a deaf ear to it.
B. The government has introduced taxes on snacks.
C. Many companies have raised the price of their products.
D. Coca-Cola will use smaller packages to counter the impacts.
3.The author support his ideas in the passage by .
A. giving examples
B. telling stories
C. analyzing causes and effects
D. reasoning and concluding
1.According to the passage, which of the following is TERE?
A. Those Americans who live above the poverty line won’t go hungry.
B. 13 million American children are food insecure for lack of transportation.
C. Among all the states in the USA, food insecurity in Mississippi is severest.
D. Neighborhood banks have no additional requirements for food packaging.
2.What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
A. To warn readers against dangers of insecure food.
B. To urge readers to help the poor out of poverty.
C. To inform readers of the severe food shortage in America.
D. To advocate readers contributing to food relief in America.
Wildflowers in a mountain meadow are a gift of nature. But what about those wildflowers blooming along busy__________? Well, nature had a__________.
Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Johnson, the wife of our thirty-sixth President, Lyndon B. Johnson wanted
______to be a national priority.
As a little girl growing up in “deep east Texas,” wildflowers helped her get through__________times. Her mother had died when she was five, and her father__________most of his time at the general store he
owned. Her older brothers were away at school,______ Lady Bird turned to nature for
______. “Nature was my friend and my teacher,” she says. “It was a joy to me, and it’s never___________ me.”
After high school, Lady Bird left home for the University of Texas in Austin. _________ she found joy in nature—in the vast quantities of Texas bluebonnets（德克萨斯州羽扇豆）. It was there that Lady Bird met and fell in love with Lyndon B. Johnson. He proposed to her on their first ____________.
“The whole country __ the President,” Lady Bird said, “but only one man selects the First Lady—and it is highly___________ that he was thinking of her as First Lady when he proposed!”
When she got to know the __ disappearance of “America the Beautiful” due to land development and pollution, Lady Bird __ the President to propose a Highway Beautification Act that allocated money to ___________roadsides. The act was passed in 1965.
Lady Bird __________ that many wildflowers, like people, were immigrants. “They __________ the nation on the wheels of covered wagons, perhaps ___________ in the pockets of children.”
Lady Bird is certainly our First Lady of__________. She has made us see that highways can be beautiful.
She is the reason why wildflowers now__________our travels through almost every state.
1.A. streets B. highways C. roads D. lanes
2.A. helper B. discoverer C. creator D. protector
3.A. liberty B. traffic C. justice D. beauty
4.A. lonely B. exciting C. happy D. disappointed
5.A. wasted B. spent C. found D. killed
6.A. so B. but C. or D. for
7.A. aid B. company C. rescue D. happiness
8.A. ignored B. scared C. troubled D. failed
9.A. Absolutely B. Naturally C. Again D. Often
10.A. date B. try C. vote D. appearance
11.A. shapes B. serves C. selects D. supports
12.A. unlikely B. unnecessary C. unusual D. uncertain
13.A. sudden B. complete C. gradual D. final
14.A. warned B. persuade C. forced D. ordered
15.A. lengthen B. widen C. monitor D. landscape
16.A. let out B. found out C. pointed out D. figured out
17.A. visited B. left C. passed D. crossed
18.A. then B. even C. yet D. still
19.A. wildflowers B. wagons C. roadsides D. travels
20.A. decide B. guide C. brighten D. shorten
---What a waste of time to watch such a boring match！
--- . Why not switch the channel?
A. It’s no big deal B. With your permission
C. My feelings exactly D. You’ve got to be kidding
The founding of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which widely recognized and praised, aims to build friendly international relations.
A. .was B. were
C. has been D. had been
