Sheep Smarter than Thought

London—Sheep, like turkeys and ostriches, are not considered the most clever animals. British scientists said last Wednesday humans may have underestimated the woolly creature. They could be much smarter than we think.

Researchers at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, southern England, have shown that the animals have a good memory system and are extremely good at recognizing faces—which they think is a sure sign of intelligence.

Behavioral scientist Keith Kendrick and his friends trained 20 sheep to recognize and distinguish 25 pairs of sheep faces and used electrodes (电极) to measure their brain activity , which showed they could remember 50 faces for up to two years .

“If they can do that with faces, they have to have reasonable intelligence; otherwise, what is the point of having a system for remembering faces and not remembering anything else?” Kendrick said in an interview.

So hours of seemingly mindless eating grass may not be so mindless after all.

Kendrick believes sheep got their reputation as dumb (unable to speak, unintelligent) animals because they live in large groups and do not appear to have much individuality and are frightened of just about everything.

“All animals, including humans, once they are frightened, don’t tend to show signs of intelligent action,” he explained.

In research reported in the science journal Nature, Kendrick and his team showed that sheep, like humans, have a specialized system in the brain which allows them to distinguish between many different faces which look extremely similar.

“The most important finding (of the study) is that they are able , both from a behavioral point of view and from looking at the way the brain is organized , to remember a large number of individuals for a very long time,” said Kendrick. “It is a very strange system. They are showing similar abilities in many ways to humans.”

1.From the first paragraph we can find that______.         .

    A．people used to think sheep are smarter than the other animals

    B．people used to raise sheep in a wrong  way

    C．people don’t consider sheep as clever animals

    D．people have done a lot of research on sheep

2.From what Kendrick said in the interview we learn that_____.         .

    A．scientists have learned everything about sheep’s intelligence

    B．scientists have learned a little about sheep’s intelligence

    C．scientists can’t do anything more about sheep’s memory

    D．scientists do not have to research animals’ memory

3.As is known in the passage,__________.

    A．sheep are among the week animals

    B．it is not right for people to raise sheep in groups

    C．when sheep eat grass in the field their minds may be active

    D．if people feel frightened, they may become braver

 

 

Sheep, like turkeys and ostriches, are not considered the cleverest animals. British scientists said last Wednesday human may have underestimated(低估) the woolly creatures. They could be much smarter than we think.

Researchers at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, southern. England, have shown that animals have a good memory system and are extremely good at recognizing faces--which they think is a sure sign of intelligence.

Behavioral scientist Keith Kendrick and his friends trained 20 sheep to recognize and distinguish(区别) 25 pairs of sheep faces and used electrodes(电极) to measure their brain activity, which showed they could remember 50 faces for up to two years.

"If they can do that with faces, the fact is that they have to have reasonable intelligence, otherwise, what is the point of having a system for remembering anything else," Kendrick said in an interview.

So hours of seemingly mindless eating grass may not be so mindless after all.

Kendrick believes sheep got their reputation as dumb animals because they live in large groups and do not appear to have much ind

ividuality and are frightened of just about everything.

All animals, including humans, once they are frightened don't tend to show signs of intelligent action," he explained.

In research reported in the science journal Nature, Kendrick and his team showed that sheep, like humans, have a specialized system in the brain, which allows them to distinguish between many different faces that look extremely similar.

"The most important findings of the study is that they are able, both from a behavioral point of view and from looking at the way the brain is organized, to remember a large number of faces of individuals for a very long time," said Kendrick. "It is a very strange system. They are showing similar abilities in many ways to humans. "

From the first paragraph we can find that ______.

   A. people used to think sheep are smarter than the other animals

   B. people used to raise sheep in a wrong way

   C. people don't consider sheep as clever animals

   D. people have done a lot of research on sheep

From what Kendrick said in the interview we learn that ________.

   A. scientists have learned a lot about sheep's intelligence

   B. scientists have learned little about sheep's intelligence

   C. scientists can't do anything more about sheep's memory

   D. scientists don't have to research animals' memory

As is shown in the passage _________.

   A. sheep are among the weak animals

   B. it is not right for people to raise sheep in groups

   C. when sheep eat grass in the fields their minds may be active

   D. if people feel frightened, they may become more brave

When scientists found that sheep show similar abilities in many ways to humans they may think it _____.

   A. worrying          B. moving           C. frightening           D. interesting

The number of accidents involving pedestrians (行人) wearing headphones is on the rise , a report suggests, causing fresh warning from road safety groups in Britain .

A US-based study found a total of 116 reports of death or injury to pedestrians wearing headphones between 2004 and 2011 , jumping from 16 in 2005 to 47 in 2011 .

Most victims were men (68%) and under the age of 30 (67%) , with around one in ten of all cases (9%) under the age of 18 .Some 89% of the cases occurred in urban areas and more than half (55%) of the victims were struck by trains .

Eighty-one of the 116 accidents (70%) resulted in the person’s death--- even though a warning was sounded in around a third of the cases .

The study concluded , “ The use of headphone may be a safety risk to pedestrians , especially in environments with moving vehicles（cars） . Further research is needed to determine if and how headphone use threatens pedestrian safety .” British road safety groups warned pedestrians to be careful.

Floor Lieshout , director of Youth For Road Safety , said, “ This study shows once more the importance of using all of our senses while we are near traffic . It is important that we find an attractive way to make youth learn about the risks of wearing headphones in traffic .”

Andrew Howard , who is the head of road safety at the Automobile Association , added that some pedestrians can be “so focused in their own little world they forget the world going on around them”.That can include headphone wearers , Howard said, but also people talking on phones.

However , Howard said that more researches needed to be done.

Earlier studies have shown that people wearing headphones or talking on phones can suffer “inattentional blindness” which makes them isolated (孤立) from the world around them .

Ian Harvey , at the charity Civic Voice , said that “ to defeat isolation and to help build a civic(文明的) society , people need to interact(交往) with each other .

He said , “ A basis for any civilized society is communication--- Surfing the web , listening to MP3s , reading blogs or sending e-mail is not interacting with a person; it’s interacting with a machine.

“If people feel socially isolated , they need to have more face-to-face interactions with other human beings and in time , will begin to feel happier and more connected to the world and place they live in .”

1.What does the text mainly discuss ?

A. Recent research on the risks to pedestrians

B. Safety problems caused by wearing headphones.

C. The advantages and disadvantages of headphones

D. Traffic accidents in the United States

2.We can learn from the Us-bases study that _________ .

A. most victims died in the accidents

B. most accidents were caused by cars

C. most accidents happened in the countryside

D. most victims are under eighteen

3.Howard will probably agree that ____________ .

A. it is safe if you wear headphones in a proper way

B. people wearing headphones are more likely to go blind

C. most people wear headphones because of loneliness

D. it is dangerous to talk on phones while walking

4.What Lan Harvey said shows the importance of ___________ .

A. beating isolation                 B. communication between people

C. building a civilized society         D. new technologies

 

4．If people feel hopeless, they don’t bother to _____the skills they need to succeed.

A．adopt                     B．associate       C．accumulate          D．acquire

Sheep, like turkeys and ostriches, are not considered the cleverest animals. British scientists said last Wednesday human may have underestimated(低估) the woolly creatures. They could be much smarter than we think.

Researchers at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, southern. England, have shown that animals have a good memory system and are extremely good at recognizing faces--which they think is a sure sign of intelligence.

Behavioral scientist Keith Kendrick and his friends trained 20 sheep to recognize and distinguish(区别) 25 pairs of sheep faces and used electrodes(电极) to measure their brain activity, which showed they could remember 50 faces for up to two years.

"If they can do that with faces, the fact is that they have to have reasonable intelligence, otherwise, what is the point of having a system for remembering anything else," Kendrick said in an interview.

So hours of seemingly mindless eating grass may not be so mindless after all.

Kendrick believes sheep got their reputation as dumb animals because they live in large groups and do not appear to have much individuality and are frightened of just about everything.

"All animals, including humans, once they are frightened don't tend to show signs of intelligent action," he explained.

In research reported in the science journal Nature, Kendrick and his team showed that sheep, like humans, have a specialized system in the brain, which allows them to distinguish between many different faces that look extremely similar.

"The most important findings of the study is that they are able, both from a behavioral point of view and from looking at the way the brain is organized, to remember a large number of faces of individuals for a very long time," said Kendrick. "It is a very strange system. They are showing similar abilities in many ways to humans. "

68. From the first paragraph we can find that ______.

   A. people used to think sheep are smarter than the other animals

   B. people used to raise sheep in a wrong way

   C. people don't consider sheep as clever animals

   D. people have done a lot of research on sheep

69. From what Kendrick said in the interview we learn that ________.

   A. scientists have learned a lot about sheep's intelligence

   B. scientists have learned little about sheep's intelligence

   C. scientists can't do anything more about sheep's memory

   D. scientists don't have to research animals' memory

70. As is shown in the passage _________.

   A. sheep are among the weak animals

   B. it is not right for people to raise sheep in groups

   C. when sheep eat grass in the fields their minds may be active

   D. if people feel frightened, they may become more brave

71. When scientists found that sheep show similar abilities in many ways to humans they may think it _____.

   A. worrying          B. moving           C. frightening           D. interesting