2021年6月浙江卷
C
If you ever get the impression that your dog can "tell" whether you look content or annoyed, you may be onto something. Dogs may indeed be able to distinguish between happy and angry human faces, according to a new study
Researchers trained a group of 11 dogs to distinguish between images(图像)of the same person making either a happy or an angry face. During the training stage, each dog was shown only the upper half or the lower half of the person's face. The researchers then tested the dogs' ability to distinguish between human facial expressions by showing them the other half of the person's face on images totally different from the ones used in training. The researchers found that the dogs were able to pick the angry or happy face by touching a picture of it with their noses more often than one would expect by random chance.
The study showed the animals had figured out how to apply what they learned about human faces during training to new faces in the testing stage. "We can rule out that the doge simply distinguish between the pictures based on a simple cue, such as the sight of teeth," said study author Corsin Muller. "Instead, our results suggest that the successful dogs realized that a smiling mouth means the same thing as smiling eyes, and the same rule applies to an angry mouth having the same meaning as angry eyes.”
"With our study, we think we can now confidently conclude that at least some dogs can distinguish human facial expressions," Muller told Line Science.
At this point, it is not clear why dogs seem to be equipped with the ability to recognize different facial expressions in humans. "To us, the most likely explanation appears to be that the basis lies in their living with humans, which gives them a lot of exposure to human facial expressions," and this exposure has provided them with many chances to learn to distinguish between them, Muller said.
28. The new study focused on whether dogs can_________.
A. distinguish shapes
B. make sense of human faces
C. feel happy or angry
D. communicate with each other
29. What can we learn about the study from paragraph 2?
A. Researchers tested the dogs in random order.
B. Diverse methods were adopted during training.
C. Pictures used in the two stages were different
D. The dogs were photographed before the lest.
30. What is the last paragraph mainly about?
A. A suggestion for future studies.
B. A possible reason for the study findings.
C. A major limitation of the study
D. An explanation of the research method.
答案解析：
28. B。根据第一段最后一句“Dogs may indeed be able to distinguish between happy and angry human faces, according to a new study”可知，一项新的研究表明，狗可能确实能够区分快乐和愤怒的人类面孔。因此，这项新研究关注的是狗是否能够理解人类的面孔。
29. C。根据第二段第四句“The researchers then tested the dogs' ability to distinguish between human facial expressions by showing them the other half of the person's face on images totally different from the ones used in training.”可知，研究人员在测试阶段使用了与训练阶段完全不同的图像来展示人物脸部的另一半。因此，我们可以得知两个阶段使用的图片是不同的。
30. B。最后一段主要讲述了为什么狗似乎具备识别人类不同面部表情的能力。Muller认为最可能的解释是，这种能力的基础在于它们与人类生活在一起，这使它们有很多机会接触人类的面部表情，而这种接触为它们提供了很多机会来学习区分不同的表情。因此，最后一段主要是关于研究发现的可能原因。
