Passage 2
Any dog owner will tell you that dogs are compassionate and can sense human emotions. But a new study suggests that dogs’ emotions are closer to ours than once thought. According to the study, along with the most basic emotions—anger, fear—dogs also feel a simple form of envy. The study is the first to demonstrate that animals other than humans experience envy, which has
long been considered an emotion that requires self-consciousness. Maybe that behavior is not uniquely human.
To reveal this behaviour, scientists at the University of Vienna put together pairs of domestic dogs, each accompanied by an experimenter. Both dogs in each pair were given commands to place their paws in the experimenter’s hands, and when they obeyed, they were given a reward—a piece of bread or sausage. But when one dog wasn’t given a reward for obeying, and the other dog in the room was, the unrewarded dog would refuse to respond to the repeated commands. The scientists measured the dogs’ responses by how many times they had to prompt the unrewarded dog before it obeyed.
The dogs’ reaction to the unfair distribution of rewards is called “inequity aversion”—-when an animal acts to stop perceived inequalities within its social group—and it is a defining characteristic of social, or cooperative, species. “They wanted the same reward for the same work,” says Paul Morris, a scientist in psychology. Morris is quick to explain that the study’s results aren’t anthropomorphic: “I’m not saying that dog jealousy is precisely like human jealousy.” Instead, he says, the dogs likely experienced a primitive form of envy.
Emotions are a result of evolution: they cause organisms to act in ways that enable their survival. Jealousy, for instance, improves an animal’s chance of survival by promoting it to protect its mates and secure alliances for safety. Historically, science has separated emotions into two categories: primary and secondary. Primary emotions such as fear and anger are considered universal, while it is thought that secondary emotions such as envy, jealousy and guilt require more complex cognitive processes. That is, envy is not a very simple emotion.
Most dog lovers don’t need a study to tell them that their pets are capable of feeling more complex emotions. They are probably thinking, “Of course,” because they’ve already found that their dogs clearly have a sense of fair play and justice. Their dogs also demonstrate guilt when they found empty food wrappers on the kitchen counter and asked who did it. Immediately the dogs’ tails went between their legs, and they had this really sheepish expression on their faces. They knew they weren’t supposed to do that. They also behave jealously when their owners
pay attention to other dogs.
But while the study may be stating the obvious to dog owners, researchers say this particular breakthrough helps the research on animal cognition. “The argument has always been that the reason why chimps can do really sophisticated stuff is because they’re almost like people,” Morris says. But “when you have other organisms doing these sophisticated things, it challenges our models.”
The study also lends weight to the concerns of animal rights and welfare activists. “The more we understand about what animals actually experience, or what they feel, the better we can judge what we do to them,” Morals says. So it’s good news for animal lovers that Man’s Best Friend is the jealous type.
46. It has long been believed that animals like dogs ______.
A. do not have the sense of guilt
B. have a simple form of jealousy
C. do not have self-consciousness
D. have the feeling of compassion
47. The purpose of the experiment at the University of Vienna was to ______.
A. show dogs’ response to rewards
B. test dogs’ sense of cooperation
C. demonstrate dogs’ emotion of envy
D. measure dogs’ refusal of commands
48. The word “anthropomorphic” in Paragraph 3 most probably means ______.
A. like human B. like animal
C. intricate D. indefinite
49. According to the general understanding, secondary emotions ______.
A. lead to less difficult evolution process
B. result from more sophisticated social behaviour
C. are more necessary for survival than primary emotions
D. are less common among animals other than human beings
50. “Man’s Best Friend is the jealous type” is good news because ______.
A. it makes human beings feel less guilty
B. it indicates that animals also have fights
C. it helps improve people’s treatment of animals
D. it proves that dogs are superior to other animals
