Question

Ever get that feeling you’re being watched? Well, if you’re a dog-owner, you may have a point. Dogs are able to watch people’s interactions with one another to determine who holds yummier treats, according to a new study. This study joins others that show dogs are good observers of human behaviors and feelings. It offers evidence that dogs use information not only from people’s direct interactions with them, but also their interactions with one another.

In the study, dogs watched a man ask two women for some of their corns. Both women gave the man corns when he asked, but in response to one woman, the man showed his enthusiasm and said the corns were so delicious. In response to the other woman, he gave the corns back and called them gross（in Spanish；the study was conducted in Argentina）. After these interactions, the man left and an assistant holding the dog let the dog go. While many dogs didn’t approach either woman, the dogs that did have a preference tended to prefer the woman with the yummier(美味的) food.

Other studies of dogs’ people-watching ability have found dogs are able to tell the difference between happy and sad faces in their owners. They prefer people who give others food when asked over people who don’t give others food. And in one study, dogs turned toward crying people more often than toward talking people.

So how much do dogs really understand about the humans around them? That’s not totally settled yet. In a strange twist to the Argentine study above, when the researchers tried an experiment in which they put two plates of corns on a table and had a man react to each plate, dogs didn’t preferentially approach the tastier plate afterward. You could say dogs watch for the interaction between two persons, not just how a person reacts. Yet a previous study found dogs will choose boxes that people reacted to happily, but not boxes people reacted to with a disgusted face.

Well, either way, you can be sure Fluffs is keeping an eye on you, to the best of her ability. The study was published in the journal PLOS One.

1. What does the study mentioned in this passage show?

A. Dogs prefer yummier foods.

B. Dogs can read human actions and feelings.

C. Dogs can interact with humans easily.

D. Dogs like to copy human’s behavior.

2. What does the underlined word “gross” probably mean?

A. Healthy. B. Disgusting.

C. Yummy. D. Hot.

3. Which is one of the procedures of the Argentine study?

A. The man had different reactions to the food received.

B. One of the women didn’t give the food to the man.

C. The assistant accompanied the dogs to get the food.

D. Many dogs went to one of the women.

4.What can be concluded from Paragraph 4?

A. Interactions between two persons confuse dogs.

B. Dogs never understand the reaction of one person.

C. The findings of some studies are controversial.

D. Dogs have good interactions with one another.

Answer 1