Unit 9
Animal Emotions
Laura Tangley
Sheer joy. Romantic love. The pain of mourning.
Scientists say pets and wild creatures have feelings, too.
1. Swimming off the coast of Argentina, a female right whale singles out just one of the suitors that are hotly pursuing her. After mating, the two cetaceans linger side by side, stroking one another with their flippers and finally rolling together in what looks like an embrace. The whales then depart, flippers touching, and swim slowly side by side, diving and surfacing in perfect unison until they disappear from sight.
2. In Tanzania, primatologists studying chimpanzee behavior recorded the death of Flo, a troop’s 50-year-old matriarch. Throughout the following day, Flo’s son, Flint, sits beside his mother’s lifeless body, occasionally taking her hand and whimpering. Over the next few weeks, Flint grows increasingly listless, withdrawing from the troop — despite his siblings’ efforts to bring him back–and refusing food. Three weeks after Flo’s death, the formerly healthy young chimp is dead, too.
3.A grief-stricken chimpanzee? Leviathans in love? Most people, raised on Disney versions of sentient and passionate beasts, would say that these tales, both true, simply confirm their suspicions that animals can feel intense, humanlike emotions. For their part, the nation’s 61 million pet owners need no convincing at all that pet dogs and cats can feel angry, morose, elated — even jealous or embarrassed. Recent studies, in fields as distant as ethology and neurobiology, are supporting this popular belief. Other evidence is merely anecdotal, especially for pets — dogs that become depressed, or even die, after losing a beloved companion, for instance. But the anecdote — or case study in scientific parlance — has now achieved some respectability among researchers who study animal behavior. As University of Colorado biologist Marc Bekoff says, “The plural of anecdote is data.”
4.Still, the idea of animals feeling emotions remains controversial among many scientists. Researchers’ skepticism is fueled in part by their professional aversion to anthropomorphism, the very nonscientific tendency to attribute human qualities to non-humans. Many scientists also say that it is impossible to prove animals have emotions using standard scientific methods — repeatable observations that can be manipulated in controlled experiments — leading them to conclude that such feelings must not exist. Today, however, amid mounting evidence to the contrary, “the tide is turning radically and rapidly,” says Bekoff, who is at the forefront of this movement.
5.Even the most strident skeptics of animal passion agree that many creatures experience fear — which some scientists define as a “primary” emotion that contrasts with “secondary” emotions such as love and grief. Unlike these more complex feelings, fear is instinctive, they say, and requires no conscious thought. Essential to escape predators and other dangers, fear — and its predictable flight, fight, or freeze responses — seems to be hard-wired into many species. Young geese that have never before seen a predator, for example, will run for cover if a hawk-shaped silhouette passes overhead. The shape of a nonpredatory bird, on the other hand, elicits no such response.
6.But beyond such instinctual emotions and their predictable behavioral responses, the possibility of more complex animal feelings — those that entail mental processing — is difficult to demonstrate. “I can’t even prove that another human being is feeling happy or sad,” says Bekoff, “but I can deduce how they’re feeling through body language and facial expression.” As a scientist who has conducted field studies of coyotes, foxes, and other canines for the past three decades, Bekoff also believes he can accurately tell what these animals are feeling by observing their behavior. He adds that animal emotions may actually be more knowable than those of humans, because they don’t “filter” their feelings the way we do.
7. Yet because feelings are intangible, and so tough to study scientifically, “most researchers don’t even want to talk about animal emotions,” says Jaak Panksepp, a neuroscientist at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and author of Affective Neuroscience. Within his field, Panksepp is a rare exception, who believes that similarities between the brains of humans and other animals suggest that at least some creatures have true feelings. “Imagine where we’d be in physics if we hadn’t inferred what’s inside the atom,” says Panksepp. “Most of what goes on in nature is invisible, yet we don’t deny that it exists.”
8. The new case for animal emotions comes in part from the growing acceptability of field observations, particularly when they are taken in aggregate. The latest contribution to this body of knowledge is a new book, The Smile of a Dolphin, which presents personal reports from more than 50 researchers who have spent their careers studying animals — from cats, dogs, bears, and chimps to birds, iguanas, and fish. Edited by Bekoff, who says it will finally “legitimize” research on animal emotions, the volume has already
garnered scientific attention, including a Smithsonian Institution symposium on the subject.
9. One of the most obvious animal emotions is pleasure. Anyone who has ever held a purring cat or been greeted by a bounding, barking, tail-wagging dog knows that animals often appear to be happy. Beastly joy seems particularly apparent when the animals are playing with one another or sometimes, in the case of pets, with people.
10.Virtually all young mammals, as well as some birds, play, as do adults of many species such as our own. Young dolphins, for instance, routinely chase each other through the water like frolicsome puppies and have been observed riding the wakes of boats like surfers. Primatologist Jane Goodall, who has studied chimpanzees in Tanzania for four decades, says that chimps “chase, somersault, and pirouette around one another with the abandon of children.” In Colorado, Bekoff once watched an elk race back and forth across a patch of snow — even though there was plenty of bare grass nearby — leaping and twisting its body in midair on each pass. Though recent research suggests that play may help youngsters develop skills needed in adulthood, Bekoff says there’s no question that it’s also fun. “Animals at play are symbols of the unfettered joy of life,” he says
11. Grief also seems to be common in the wild, particularly following the death of a mate, parent, offspring, or even close companion. Female sea lions witnessing their pups being eaten by killer whales are known to actually wail. When a goose, which mates for life, loses its partner, the bird’s head and body droop dejectedly. Goodall, who saw the young chimp Flint starve after his mother died, maintains that the animal “died of grief.”
12. Elephants may be nature’s best-known mourners. Scientists studying these behemoths have reported countless cases of elephants trying to revive dead or dying family members, as well as standing quietly beside an animal’s remains for many days, periodically reaching out and touching the body with their trunks. Kenyan biologist Joyce Poole, who has studied African elephants since 1976, says these animals’ behavior toward their dead “leaves me with little doubt that they experience deep emotions and have some understanding about death.”
13.But there’s “hard” scientific evidence for animal feelings as well. Scientists who study the biology of emotions, a field still in its infancy, are discovering many similarities between the brains of humans and other animals. In animals studied so far, including humans, emotions seem to arise from ancient parts of the brain that are located below the cortex, regions that have been conserved across many species throughout evolution.
14.The most important emotional site identified so far is the amygdala, an almond-shape structure in the center of the brain. Working with rats, neuroscientists have discovered that stimulating a certain part of the amygdala induces a state of intense fear. Rats with damaged amygdalas, on the other hand, do not show normal behavioral responses to danger (such as freezing or running) or the physiological changes associated with fear — higher heart rate and blood pressure, for example.
15. In humans, brain-imaging studies show that when people experience fear, their amygdalas, too, are activated. And just like the rats, people whose amygdalas are damaged by accident or disease seem unable to be afraid when the situation warrants it. In humans and rats, at least, amygdalas are “basically wired the same way,” says New York University neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux, whose lab conducted much of the rat research. He adds that beyond fear, “the evidence is less clear, but the amygdala is implicated in other emotions as well.”
16.The case for animal emotions is also bolstered by recent studies of brain chemistry. Steven Siviy, a behavioral neuroscientist at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, has found that when rats play, their brains release copious amounts of dopamine, a neurochemical that is associated with pleasure and excitement in humans. In one experiment, Siviy placed pairs of rats in a distinctive plexiglass chamber and allowed them to play. After a week, he could put one animal alone in the chamber and, anticipating its upcoming play session, it would become “very active, vocalizing, and pacing back and forth with excitement.” But when Siviy gave the same animal a drug that blocks dopamine, all such activity came to a halt. Neuroscientist Panksepp has found evidence that rats at play also produce opiates–chemicals that, like dopamine, are thought to be involved with pleasure in people.
17.Another chemical, the hormone oxytocin, is associated with both sexual activity and maternal bonding in people. It is released, for example, when mothers are nursing their infants. Now it looks as though the same hormone affects attachment among animals, at least in the case of a mouselike rodent called the prairie vole. To investigate oxytocin’s role in social bonding, University of Maryland neuroscientist C. Sue Carter targeted the vole because it is one of the few mammal species known to be monogamous. She found that females, who normally spend about a day selecting a mate from a pool of eager males, will choose one within an hour — often the first male they see — if they have first received an injection of oxytocin. Voles given a drug that blocks oxytocin, however, will not select a mate, no matter how much time they have. Carter concludes that pair bonding in voles relies at least in part on oxytocin, which produces behavior that looks much like people who are “falling in love.”
18.But is it love, really? Bernd Welsig, the Texas A&M University biologist who observed amorous right whales off the coast of Argentina, believes that, as a scientist, “I should probably call this event a mere example of an ‘alternative mating strategy.’ “ But Welsig still entertains the possibility that the cetaceans behaved the way they did because “they were the ‘right’ right whales for each other.”
19. Skeptics remain unconvinced. “A whale may behave as if it’s in love, but you can’t prove what it’s feeling, if anything,” says neuroscientist LeDoux, author of The Emotional Brain. He maintains that the question of feelings boils down to whether or not animals are conscious. And though animals “may have snapshots of self-awareness,” he says, “the movie we call consciousness is not there.” Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, agrees that higher primates, including apes and chimps, are the only animals that have demonstrated self-consciousness so far. Still, he believes that there are other creatures that “may at least have antecedents of feelings.”
20. Or probably more, say Bekoff and his colleagues. Their most convincing argument, perhaps, comes from the theory of evolution, widely accepted by biologists of all stripes. Citing similarities in the brain anatomy and chemistry of humans and other animals, neuroscientist Siviy asks: “If you believe in evolution by natural selection, how can you believe that feelings suddenly appeared, out of the blue, with human beings?” Goodall says scientists who use animals to study the human brain, then deny that animals have feelings, are “illogical.”
21. In the end, what difference does it really make? According to many scientists, resolving the debate over animal emotions could turn out to be much more than an intellectual exercise. If animals do indeed experience a wide range of feelings, it has profound implications for how humans and animals will interact in the future. Bekoff, for one, hopes that greater understanding of what animals are feeling will spur more stringent rules on how animals should be treated, everywhere from zoos and circuses to farms and backyards.
22. But if there is continuity between the emotional lives of humans and other animals, where should scientists draw the line? Michel Cabanac, a physiologist at Laval University in Quebec, believes that consciousness arose when animals began to experience physical pleasure and displeasure. In experiments with iguanas, he discovered that the animals show physiological changes that are associated with pleasure in mammals — a rise in body temperature and heart rate — whereas frogs and fish do not. He proposes that emotions evolved somewhere between the first amphibians and reptiles. Yet even enthusiasts don’t
ascribe emotions to the very bottom end of the food chain. Says Bekoff: “We’re not going to talk about jealous sponges and embarrassed mosquitoes.”
第九单元
动 物 的 情 感
劳拉·坦利
非常的开心。浪漫的爱情。悲恸的哀悼。科学家说宠物和野生动物也有情感。
1.一只在阿根廷海岸附近的水域中游动的露脊鲸，在众多热烈追求她的求偶者中只选出一名幸运儿。“完婚”之后，两头露脊鲸并排在水中徜徉，它们用鳍肢相互抚摩，最后又一起在水中滚动，看上去就像在互相拥抱。然后，两头露脊鲸开始游向远方，鳍肢相互触摸，慢慢并排游动，一会潜入水中，一会又浮出水面，它们动作完美和谐，直至最终在视线中消失。
2.在坦桑尼亚，致力于研究黑猩猩行为的灵长类动物学家记录了一个黑猩猩群落中享年50岁的“女族长”弗洛死后发生的一些事情。弗洛的儿子弗林特第二天一整天都坐在母亲的尸体旁边，有时还会抓住她的手发出几声呜咽。在此后的几个星期里，弗林特的情绪越来越低落，他离群索居并且不再进食，尽管他的兄弟姐妹设法想让他回到群体中来。终于，在弗洛死后的第3个星期，原本年轻健康的黑猩猩弗林特也死了。
3.悲伤过度的黑猩猩？坠入情网的海洋巨兽？很多人，由于深受迪斯尼卡通片中感性多情的动物形象的影响，会说这两个真实的故事更加证实了他们认为动物有人类般强烈情感的看法。从他们的角度来看，全国六千一百万拥有宠物的人完全不需要提供什么证据来证实宠物狗和宠物猫会生气、郁闷、得意洋洋——甚至会嫉妒或困窘。最近在动物行为学和神经生物学之类的边缘学科的研究证实了这种普遍看法。其他的证据只是些轶事趣闻，特别是一些有关宠物的事，例如狗会在失去心爱的同伴后，变得沮丧，甚至死去。但是轶事趣闻——或用科学的术语称之为案例研究——现在已经获得了研究动物行为的研究人员的重视。正如科罗拉多大学的生物学家马克·贝科夫所说：“大量的轶事趣闻就是数据。”
4.但是，许多科学家仍然对动物也有情感的观点持有异议。研究人员之所以会表示怀疑，部分原因是他们出于职业习惯讨厌拟人论，因为他们认为这是一种将人类的特性强加在非人类生物身上的毫无科学根据的主观倾向。许多科学家还认为用标准的科学方法（在受控实验环境下可进行重复观察）是无法证明动物是有情感的——这使他们得出结论，认为这些所谓的动物情感一定不存在。但是动物情感论的积极倡导者贝科夫指出，如今面对越来越多的相反证据，“这场运动的潮流正在根本性地迅速转向”。
5.甚至连那些对动物情感论持绝对怀疑态度的人也承认，许多动物有恐惧感——一些科学家认为，恐惧是与爱和悲伤等“中级”情感相对的“初级”情感。他们认为，与较为复杂的“中级”情感相比，恐惧是一种本能，它不需要任何有意识的思维。恐惧及其可以预见的逃跑、搏斗或者呆住不动的反应，是逃避食肉动物和其他危险所必需的，它看起来好像是许多动物与生俱来的本领。例如，以前从未见过食肉动物的小鹅如果看到形状像老鹰一样的黑影从头顶掠过就会马上跑去寻找藏身处。而另一方面，非食肉鸟的形状就不会引发这样的反应。
6.但是，除了这些具有本能性质的情感及其可以预见的行为反应之外，科学家很难证明动物可能拥有更为复杂的情感，即那些必需有心理活动过程的情感。贝科夫说：“我甚至不能证实另一个人是快乐还是悲伤，但我可以通过肢体语言和脸部表情推论出他（们）的情感。”作为对丛林狼、狐狸及其他犬科动物进行长达30年实地研究的科学家，贝科夫还认为自己可以通过观察这些动物的行为准确地说出他们的感受。他又指出，了解动物的感情事实上可能比了解人类的感情更容易，因为它们不会像人类那样对情感进行“过滤”。
7.但是《情感神经学》一书的作者、俄亥俄州立堡林·格林大学神经学学家雅克·潘克塞普指出，因为感情是一种无形的东西，而且很难用科学手段进行研究，“所以大多数研究人员甚至不愿意谈论动物情感问题”。 而潘克塞普在他的研究领域里是一个非常少见的例外，他认为，人类大脑和其他动物大脑之间的相似之处表明，至少某些动物拥有真正的感情。潘克塞普说：“想象一下，如果我们没有推测出原子中的物质，那我们的物理学会是什么样的。在自然中大部分事物的进展是看不见的，然而我们并不否认它的存在。”
8.对动物情感的接受之所以会出现新的局面，部分原因是有越来越多的人愿意接受研究人员取得的实地观察结果，特别是当从总体角度看待这些结果时。一本名为《海豚的微笑》的新书为增加动物情感方面的知识做出了新的贡献，该书收录了50多名研究人员撰写的个人报告。这些研究人员将自己的整个职业生涯都倾注在对猫、狗、熊、黑猩猩、鸟、鬣蜥和鱼等动物的研究。该书的编辑贝科夫认为，这本书最终会使动物情感的研究变得“合法”。而这本新书也的确引起了科学界的关注——其中，史密森氏学会就举行了一次以动物情感为主题的研讨会。
9.动物最显而易见的情感之一就是快乐。养过会发出咕噜声的小猫，或者受到过边跳边叫、摇着尾巴的小狗欢迎的人，就知道动物看起来常常十分快乐。动物相互嬉戏的时候，或有时跟人一起玩耍时（就宠物而言），它们的快乐好像会变得特别明显。
10.事实上，所有幼小的哺乳动物和某些鸟类都会嬉戏玩耍，正如很多种类的成年动物一样，包括人类也是如此。例如，小海豚就像爱闹着玩的小狗，常常在水中互相追逐。人们常常看到它们像冲浪运动员般追逐在船后的浪花上。灵长类动物学家简·古多尔曾经在坦桑尼亚对黑猩猩进行了40年的研究，他说黑猩猩会“孩子般尽情地追逐、翻跟头、踮着脚尖相互旋转”。有一次，贝科夫在科罗拉多观察到一只麋鹿来来回回地跑着穿越一小块雪地，尽管边上就有无雪的草地。它每次跨跃都要跳起来并在半空扭动着躯体。贝科夫说虽然近来的研究表明嬉戏玩耍会帮助小动物培养成年所需要的技巧，而毫无疑问的是，它也会带来快乐。他还说：“玩耍的动物是无拘无束生活快乐的象征。”
11.在野生动物中，悲伤似乎也很常见，尤其是在失去了配偶、双亲、幼崽，甚至是亲密同伴的时候。比如，当母海狮目击了自己的小海狮被逆戟鲸吃掉时，会发出哀号。一生只有一个配偶的天鹅失去配偶时，会沮丧地垂着头和身体。古多尔亲眼看到小黑猩猩弗林特在母亲死后饿死，他坚持说小黑猩猩是“死于悲伤”。
12.大象可能是大自然最著名的哀悼者了。研究这些庞然大物的科学家的报告中有大量的事实陈述了大象试图使死去的或将要死去的家庭成员复活，还会很多天静静地站在尸体旁，不时地伸出长鼻触动一下尸体。肯尼亚生物学家乔伊斯·普尔从1976年以来就研究非洲大象，他说，这些动物对待死去的动物的行为“让我几乎毫不怀疑地认为，它们体验着深切的感情并对死亡有所理解。”
13.有一些“确凿的”科学证据也可以证明动物有感情。致力于情感生物学（一个新生的科学领域）研究的科学家发现，人脑与其它动物的大脑之间存在着许多相似之处。科学家在到目前为止对动物（包括人类）的研究发现，情感看起来好像是在大脑一些较为“古老”的区域中产生的，这些区域位于大脑皮层以下，它们在许多物种的进化过程中都得以保存下来。
14.目前已经被科学家识别出来的最重要的情感区域，是大脑中的扁桃体，这是一个位于大脑中央的杏仁状结构。神经科学家通过在老鼠身上进行的实验，发现刺激扁桃体某个特定的部分会导致实验鼠处于一种极度恐惧的状态。在另一方面，扁桃体遭到破坏的实验鼠在遇到危险时，既不会表现出正常的行为反应（比如呆住或者逃跑），也不会出现与恐惧联系在一起的生理变化——如心跳加快和血压升高。
15.利用成像技术对人脑进行的研究表明，当人类感到恐惧时，大脑中的扁桃核也会被激活。与实验鼠一样，由于意外事故或疾病而导致扁桃核受损的人似乎在面对危险时也无法感到恐惧。在实验室进行了大量鼠类研究的纽约大学神经学学家约瑟夫·勒杜指出，至少人类和老鼠的扁桃核“基本上采用了相同的‘布线方式’”。他又补充说，除恐惧外，“有证据表明，扁桃核与其他情感也有关系，但是这些证据不像证明扁桃核与恐惧有关的证据那样明确。”
16. 动物情感论还得到了最近进行的大脑化学研究的支持。宾夕法尼亚葛底斯堡学院行为神经科学家史蒂文·西维发现，老鼠在玩耍的时候，它的大脑会释放出大量的多巴胺——人类的快乐和兴奋等情感就与这种神经化学物质有关。在一项实验中，西维把一对对的实验鼠放在了特殊的树脂玻璃“房子”中，然后让它们尽情玩耍。一星期后，他又把一只实验鼠单独放在“房子”里，期待着马上就可以再好好地玩上一段时间的实验鼠变得“非常活跃，它不断地发出叫声并且兴奋地来回跑动”。但是当西维给这只实验鼠喂食了一种抑制多巴胺的药物以后，所有的此类活动都全部停止了。神经科学家潘克塞普已经找到证据证明，老鼠在玩耍的过程中体内还会产生多种鸦片剂——科学家认为这些化学物质与多巴胺一样，也与人类的快乐情绪有关。
17.另一种化学物质荷尔蒙催产素与人类的性活动和母性有关。例如，母亲培育婴儿时体内就会释放出催产素。现在看来这种激素好像对动物之间的相互依恋也有影响，至少在一种与老鼠十分相似的啮齿类动物草原田鼠身上是这样。为了研究催产素对社会依附关系的作用，马里兰大学神经科学家C·休·卡特选择了草原田鼠作为她的研究对象，因为草原田鼠是人们已知的实行“一夫一妻制”的为数不多的几种哺乳动物之一。她发现母鼠一般会花一天的时间从一群热切的公鼠中挑选出一只配偶，但是如果它们在选择配偶之前注射了催产素的话，母鼠的择偶时间就会缩短为一小时——而且常常会选择它们看见的第一只公鼠。然而，如果母鼠服食了催产素抑制药物，那么不论有多少时间它们也不会选择配偶。卡特由此得出结论认为，雌雄田鼠之间亲密关系的形成至少部分原因是催产素，这种激素可以导致田鼠做出与“坠入爱河”的人非常相似的举动。
18.但这真是爱情吗？曾经对生活在阿根廷附近海域的“多情”露脊鲸进行过观察的得克萨斯农业和机械大学生物学家贝恩德·伍尔西格指出，作为一名科学家，“我很可能应该将露脊鲸的行为仅仅称作是“选择性的交配策略” 的一个例子”。但是他仍然认为，露脊鲸之所以会有这种行为表现也有可能是因为“它们相互之间‘情投意合’”。
19．对动物情感论持怀疑态度的人仍然坚持自己的看法。《情感大脑》一书的作者，神经科学家勒杜指出：“鲸也许会做出好像他们正在恋爱的举动，但是你无法证明它的内心感受，即使鲸有这种感受的话。”他认为动物情感问题归根到底就是动物是否有意识的问题。他说，虽然动物“会有点滴的自我意识，但是我们所称的意识图像是没有的。” 威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的神经科学家理查德·戴维森认为，类人猿和黑猩猩等比较高级的灵长类动物是迄今为止唯一已经表明出自我意识的动物。但是，他仍然认为还有其他一些动物“也许至少拥有情感的前身”。
20．贝科夫和他的同事认为可能还不止如此。他们最令人信服的论点也许是从已经为各学派的生物学家所普遍接受的进化论中推导出来的。神经科学家西维根据人脑与其他动物大脑在解剖结构和化学构成方面存在的相似之处提出了这样一个问题：“如果你认为生物可以通过自然选择不断进化，那你怎么能够相信人类在进化的过程中其情感是突如其来的呢？”古多尔认为，那些先通过动物来研究人类的大脑，然后又否认动物有感情的科学家的想法是“不合逻辑的”。
21．最后，动物有没有情感到底有什么重要性呢？许多科学家认为解决动物情感争论的意义也许远比一种学术活动重要得多。如果动物确实有各种各样的情感，那么它将对人与动物今后会怎样互动产生意义深远的影响。举例来说，贝科夫就希望对动物的感情了解更多能促使人类在对待动物（不论是在动物园和马戏团还是在农场和后院）上有更严厉的规定。
22．但是，如果人类和其他动物的感情生活之间存在着延续性，那么科学家应该把人与动物的分界线划在什么地方呢？魁北克拉瓦尔大学生理学家米歇尔·卡巴纳克认为，当动物开始体验身上的快乐和不快时，意识就产生了。在以鬣蜥为研究对象的实验中，他发现这种动物表现出哺乳动物快乐时的生理变化——体温升高和心跳加快——但是青蛙和鱼却没有类似的变化。他提出，情感的进化发生在第一批两栖动物与爬行动物出现之间的某个时期。但即使是非常热衷于动物情感的人，也不会把情感与处于食物链最末端的生物联系起来。贝科夫指出：“我们不会谈论嫉妒的海绵和尴尬的蚊子。”
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I. Group Discussion
Work in a group of four. Make out a list of animal names as long as you can.
Herbivorous animals: horse, cattle, ox, donkey, rabbit, sheep, goat,…
Carnivorous animals: wolf, lion, tiger, fox, …
Fowl: chicken, duck, goose, peacock, bird, …
Reptiles: snake, crocodile, …
Aquatic animals: fish, whale, crab, …
Others: pig, monkey, …
II. Pair Work
Discuss with your partner the following questions.
Viewpoints can be used in the pair discussion:
1. People keep pets mainly to ease loneliness.
2. Little creatures also have feelings. If you treat them well, they will be loyal to you.
3. As the pace of life in the city speeds up, human communication becomes superficial and tenuous. This is another reason for keeping pets. People feel it is much more relaxing and easier to communicate with animals.
4. Zhang Jiantao, a worker from the Beijing Aifen Pet Food Company chatting on a radio talk show, said: “If you feel wronged, you can pour out your grievances to your pet, cuddle them, and even cry with them.” Scientists explained that people need to pour out their innermost feelings, which gives them relief from the pressures of life.
5. When talking about keeping pets in China, we should pay attention to the special social problem created by the increase in the number of old people and the fact that most contemporary Chinese families have only one child. Pets play an important role in such families. Lonely old people get spiritual sustenance from caring for small pets. The only child may learn to care for others and have sympathy through having a pet to look after.
6. Pets benefit people in many ways, but they may also create problems. Pet owners should look after their animals’ health, feed them, clean up after them and even groom them. Some owners lose interest and ignore their pets, leaving them to fend for themselves.
7. Pet owners’ lack of concern for the environment brings a lot of troubles for the municipal government. In fact, the trouble could be easily avoided if owners would pay attention to such things as taking a scoop and a plastic bag with them when they go out to pick up their pet’s droppings and put them in garbage receptacles.
1.Author: Laura Tangley is a science journalist with a long-standing interest in the conservation of forests and other ecosystems, particularly in the tropics. She has written many articles on these subjects, mostly for BioScience magazine, where she was features editor until 1988. Ms. Tangley was also associate editor of Earthwatch magazine and co-authored Trees of Life: Saving Tropical Forests and Their Biological Wealth (the WRI book) and The Last Frontier Forests. Laura Tangley often writes articles for US News & Report.
2. Marc Bekoff: professor in the Department of Environmental, Population and Organismic Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His book The Smile of A Dolphin: Remarkable Accounts of Animal Emotions was published by Random House/Discovery Books.
3. Jaak Panksepp: (Ph.D.) distinguished professor of psychobiology, Bowling Green State University, one of the leading theorists and researchers in the areas of biochemistry and autism. Much of his work has focused on studying the brain mechanisms of emotionality and developing animal models of autism and other childhood disorders. His research on beta-endorphins and naltrexone is a major contribution to both understanding and treating individuals with autism. His past work in hypothalamic mechanisms of energy balance control was supported by a NIMH Research Scientist Development Award. He is author of over 200 scientific articles which deal with basic physiological mechanisms of motivated behavior. He is co-editor of the multivolume Handbook of the Hypothalamus and of Emotions and Psychopathology. He is current editor of the series Advances in Biological Psychiatry, and his text on Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions, appeared from Oxford University Press. His general research orientation is that a detailed understanding of basic emotional systems at the neural level will highlight the basic sources of human values and the nature and genesis of emotional disorders in humans. He has helped develop the controversial opioid-antagonist therapy for autistic children based on his pre-clinical investigations into brain circuits which control social behaviors and is pursuing new therapies for the treatment of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD).
His present research is devoted to the analysis of the neuroanatomical and neurochemical mechanisms of emotional behaviors (in the emerging field of affective neuroscience), with a focus on understanding how separation responses, social bonding, social play, fear, anticipatory processes, and drug craving are organized in the brain, especially with reference to psychiatric disorders.
4. Affective Neuroscience — The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions: (1998, New York: Oxford University Press) This book explains how we can move toward an understanding of emotions by examining how the neurobiology and neurochemistry of the mammalian brain shape the psychological experience of emotion. It includes chapters on sleep and arousal, pleasure and pain systems in the brain, the sources of rage and anger, and the neural control of sexuality.
5. The Smile of a Dolphin: Remarkable Accounts of Animal Emotions, edited by Marc Bekoff, published by Discovery Books, New York, October 2000. Marc Bekoff, a professor of organismic biology at the University of Colorado, is a prolific author and editor. In Smile of a Dolphin, he has struck a groundbreaking collaboration with Discovery Books, which has provided his book with the most magnificent illustrations of an enormous variety of animal emotions — actually 120 in number. He has categorized these under the headings of Love, followed by Fear, Aggression and Anger, then Joy and Grief and, finally, Fellow Feelings — a strikingly similar series of categories to that of Charles Darwin's 1871 bestseller, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.
6. Jane Goodall: (Ph.D.) In 1957, Jane Goodall first met the famed anthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey, who later played a pivotal role in her life. With the idea of gaining insight into humans' evolutionary past, Dr. Leakey proposed a pioneering long-term field study on wild chimpanzees. Even though Jane had no formal training, her patience and persistent desire to understand animals led him to choose her for the study. Although it was unheard of for a woman to venture into the wilds of Africa, going there meant the fulfillment of her childhood dream. In the summer of 1960 she arrived in Tanzania on Lake Tanganyika's eastern shore. This marked the beginning of the longest continuous field study of animals in their natural habitat. Five years later, she earned a Ph.D. in Ethology at Cambridge University and returned to Tanzania to establish the Gombe Stream Research Centre.
After more than thirty-five consecutive years of research, Dr. Goodall and her team continue to contribute significant findings on chimpanzee behavior and ecology. Her methodology and profound scientific discoveries revolutionized the field of primatology. For instance, Dr. Goodall distinguished between individual chimpanzee personalities, giving them names instead of numbers. She also chronicled chimpanzees making and using tools, a skill once believed exclusive to humans. To provide ongoing support for chimpanzee research, Dr. Goodall founded The Jane Goodall Institute in 1977.
7. Joyce Poole: (Ph.D.) animal behaviorist who has devoted her life to the study of the African elephant for more than 20 years in spite of adversity and tragedy. An American raised in Kenya, Poole is versed in several cultures: American, Masai, and elephant. Her Americanism is obvious in her independence and ambition; the Masai taught her how to live in the bush; and the elephants convinced her of their great intelligence. Her intensive involvement with these majestic creatures revealed that they are self-aware, startlingly empathic beings. Poole describes her pioneering work in establishing that, like their Asian cousins, African male elephants experience musth, and that elephants communicate in low-level vibrations that humans cannot hear. Those discoveries are fascinating, and Poole's accounts of her adventures with the elephants are spellbinding; but there's a dark side to this story--the hard truth about the barbarity of poaching, the cruel, sexist politics of science, and the very real danger of being a woman alone in this land of hunters. Poole's profound commitment to the endangered elephants of Kenya has cost her dearly in personal terms, but her contributions to science are legion. Her memoir is called "Coming of Age with Elephants." Which shows that elephants are sensitive, intelligent, social animals and that killing them for sport is an outrage.
8. Joseph LeDoux: neuroscientist and professor at the Center for Neural Science, New York University. He seeks a biological rather than psychological understanding of our emotions. It is his view that “we have to put emotion back into the brain and integrate it with cognitive systems. We shouldn't study emotion or cognition in isolation, but should study both as aspects of the mind in its brain”. In his research, LeDoux has focused on understanding the biological underpinnings of fear in particular. His laboratory explores conceptual issues such as comparing the systems involved in reflexive and voluntary behavioral responses, how the brain regulates fear, whether other emotions are mediated by similar or different circuits, and the mechanisms through which conscious emotional feelings, as opposed to behavioural or autonomic responses, come about. LeDoux has written the most comprehensive examination to date of how systems in the brain work in response to emotions, particularly fear. Among his fascinating findings is the work of the amygdala structure within the brain. He is author of The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life, coauthor of The Integrated Mind , and editor of Mind and Brain: Dialogues in Cognitive Neuroscience.
9. C. Sue Carter: (Ph.D.) professor of neuroscientist of Department of Biology, University of Maryland. Dr. Carter's research program is a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the physiological factors mediating mammalian behavior. Emphasis is on the hormonal determinants of male and female reproductive behaviors, including sexual behavior, parental behavior, and social bonding. The behavioral effects of reproductive and adrenal hormones such as testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, and oxytocin are under investigation. Physiological and behavioral processes are studied in the context of constraints, such as social organization, stress, and the animal's natural history. Species under investigation include highly social or monogamous mammals such as prairie voles and new world primates. Studies of the effects of hormones on human behavior are also underway. These studies emphasize the analysis of mechanisms of the behavioral effects of steroid and peptide hormones. Many of these studies are collaborative and take advantage of the resources of the NIH, the National Zoo, the Patuxent Wildlife Center, and other area research facilities. Among the methodologies in use are those originating in ethology, reproductive biology, and the neurosciences. She has reported her findings at over 75 seminars and special presentations since 1980. She is the author of four books, The Biology of Monogamy her most recent, as well as 30 book chapters and 116 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals.
10. The Emotional Brain: by Joseph LeDoux. The Emotional Brain is the second book on neural science of emotions in recent years. The first was Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain (Papermac, 1996) by Antonio Damasio, with its idea of "somatic markers" of emotion (gut feelings) and their relation to the frontal lobes. LeDoux explains these somatic markers are usually conditioned fear responses mediated by the amygdala. Damasio's book was good. It rightly produced a stir. But LeDoux's book is better. It is in tune with what psychologists know about emotions and learning, is vivid and convincing in its description of a central mechanism of emotion, and is directly applicable to understanding anxiety, the most common ingredient of emotional disorders. It's a terrifically good book.
11. Michel Cabanac: physiologist at Laval University in Quebec. Michel Cabanac’s research activity ranges from comparative physiology of temperature regulation (especially invertebrates) to human temperature regulation and to the regulation of body weight. The common objective of this research is the integrative approach in favor of behavior as an integrated physiological response. He may therefore be considered as a precursor on this issue. Michel Cabanac still works on two of Cannon’s fields of interest: emotion and the perception of hunger/satiety. However, his most original contribution is in the exact direction of The Wisdom of the Body. He showed that sensory pleasure has a physiological function: to induce behaviors that improve homeostasis. By conducting experimental studies in that direction he proposed a new theory on the nature of consciousness.
Anyone who has spent much time with animals needs no convincing that we humans are not the only creatures on earth with rich emotional lives. To experience the caperings of a ferret or receive the caresses of a cat, to observe the grief of an orphaned chimpanzee or watch the bounding joy of a puppy at play is to know—with an instinctive certainty—that our animal kin have feelings. But the certainty of the layperson is not necessarily the certainty of the scientist.
Science requires more than intuition and instinct. It demands theories, experiments, data collection, outcome assessments, replication of results. Science doesn't merely mean knowing something; it needs proof. And proving what animals feel － or even that they feel － can be infinitely frustrating. Even the word “emotion” is hard to define. Most of us think we understand what it means, yet the term isn't easily corralled into useful scientific parameters. Emotions still defy science's empirical method. They're subjective, fleeting, evanescent, elusive and subject to the bias of the observer. But that's no reason to discard the obvious, to discount the abundant evidence of our own senses. Animal lovers know better; and the dog enthusiast or cat fancier, the fan of the wildlife programs on television, might well wonder what difference it makes where science stands on the subject of animal emotions. But it does matter. Science helps us structure and codify our knowledge about animals and, more important, it expands that knowledge. This is vital. The more we know about the nonhuman creatures who share our planet － and the better we both appreciate and respect their emotions － the more we will be able to live with them in civility, equity and accord. Their world will be safer for the knowledge, and ours is richer and infinitely more beautiful.
1. single out (para.1): choose someone or sth from among a group of similar people of things, esp in order to praise them or criticize them; choose for special attention
e.g. —— His article starts by singling out the five key goals of US foreign policy.
—— She singled him out as being a good person for the job.
2. suitor (para.1): a man who wants a particular woman to marry him; such a male animal; a person or company who wants to take control of another company
e.g. —— It’s the story of a young woman who can’t make up her mind which of her many
suitors she should marry.
—— PJH Corporation said it had been approached by two possible suitors who had submitted bids to buy the company.
3. linger (para.1): stay somewhere a little longer, esp because one does not want to leave; continue looking at or dealing with sth for longer than is usual
e.g. —— They lingered over coffee and missed the last bus.
—— Mike couldn’t help letting his eyes linger on her face.
4. surface (para.1): rise to the surface of water; become known (after being hidden)
e.g. ——A submarine surfaced outside the harbor.
—— The bird dived and didn’t surface for at least a minute.
—— A rumor has surfaced that the company is about to go out of business.
5. in unison (para.1): in perfect agreement or accord; at the same time and in the same way
e.g. —— My feeling are in unison with yours.
—— Her parents nodded in unison.
6. whimper (para.2): (esp. of an animal) make a series of small weak sounds, expressing pain or unhappiness
e.g. —— A half-starved dog sat miserably in the corner, whimpering pathetically.
—— I said she couldn't have an ice cream and she started to whimper.
7. listless (para.2): lacking energy and enthusiasm and unwilling to do anything needing effort; indifferent
e.g. —— A report from leading businesses suggests that the economy will remain listless
until the end of the year.
—— She was listless after her illness.
8. sentient (para.3): able to experience physical and possibly emotional feelings
e.g. —— They failed to offer sound moral justifications(正当理由) for treating sentient creatures as mere research tools.
—— It is hard for a sentient person to understand how any parents could treat their child
so badly.
9． morose (para.3): bad-tempered, unhappy, and silent
e.g. —— Daniel seems very morose and gloomy.
—— Why are you so morose these days—what’s depressing you?
10. elated (para.3): extremely happy and excited, often because sth has happened or been achieved
e.g. —— The prince was reported to be elated at / by the birth of his new daughter.
—— The parents of the child were elated to hear that she had been found safe and well.
11. parlance (para.3): a group of words or style of speaking used by a particular group of people
e.g. ——The 1960s first saw the widespread use of the oral contraceptive or, as it is known in common parlance, “the pill”.
——It may take months before the government adopts or, in business parlance, “takes on board”, the ideas suggested in the report.
12. aversion (para.4): a feel of strong dislike or a lack of willingness to do sth
e.g. —— I felt an instant aversion to his parents.
—— She has a deep aversion to get / getting up in the morning.
13. anthropomorphism (para.4): the showing or treating of animals, gods and objects as if they are human in appearance, character or behavior; the belief that animals and things have human feelings
e.g. —— The books Alice in Wonderland, Peter Rabbit and Winnie-the-Pooh are classic examples of anthropomorphism.
14. attribute (para.4): say or think that sth is the result or work of sth or someone else
e.g. —— The doctors have attributed the cause of the illness to an unknown virus.
—— We attribute our success to being in the right place at the right time.
15. manipulate (para.4): control sth or sb to your advantage, often unfairly or dishonestly
e.g. —— Her remarkable success as a rock star is partly due to her ability to manipulate the media.
—— The opposition leader accused government ministers of manipulating the statistics to suit themselves.
16. strident (para.5): loud, rough and unpleasant; forceful and determined
e.g. —— Although he has some very good ideas, people are put off by his strident voice.
—— They are becoming increasingly strident in their criticism of government economic
policy.
17. elicit (para.5): obtain (esp. information or a reaction) or produce
e.g. —— The questionnaire was intended to elicit information on eating habits of the district.
——The parasites that cause malaria elicit an immune response in the body.
18. entail (para.6): make sth necessary, or involve sth
e.g. —— Such a large investment inevitably entails some risk.
—— Repairing the roof will entail spending a lot of money.
19. intangible (para.7): not solid or able to be seen or felt, although real, and therefore difficult to explain exactly or show
e.g. —— I don’t know how to describe the feeling — it’s more intangible than depression.
—— She has that intangible quality which you might call charisma.
—— Common sense and creativity are some of the intangibles we’re looking for in an employee.
20. aggregate (para.8): the total after a lot of different parts or figures have been added together
e.g. —— Society is not just an aggregate of individuals.
—— They purchased an aggregate of 3,000 shares in the company.
21. legitimize (para.8): make legal or acceptable
e.g. —— The decided to legitimize their business relationship.
—— The government fears that talking to terrorists might legitimize their violent
actions.
22. garner (para.8): take, collect, obtain, or earn sth often with difficulty
e.g. —— Coppola garnered several Oscar awards for "The Godfather".
—— Mr. Smith gradually garnered a national reputation as a financial expert.
23. symposium (para.8): a meeting or conference for discussion of a topic, esp one in which the participants form an audience and make presentations
e.g. —— She was speaking at an energy-efficiency symposium.
—— They have held many symposiums on animal-welfare issues.
24. wake (para.10): an area of water whose movement has been changed by a boat or ship moving through it
e.g. —— The wake spread out in a v-shape behind the ship.
—— The little boats were left bobbing about in the cruise ship's wake.
—— The demonstrators rampaged through the town centre, leaving chaos in their wake.
25. somersault (para.10): roll the body in a complete circle, heels over head
e.g. —— The bus plunged down the hill, somersaulted twice, and landed on its side.
—— She somersaulted across the gymnasium.
26. pirouette (para.10): whirl about on one toe or the front part of one foot, as in ballet dancing; turn the body around gracefully
e.g. —— The ballet dancer pirouetted on to the stage gracefully.
—— She pirouetted at the foot of the stairs and challenged, “How’s this?”
27. abandon (para.10): the state when one’s feelings and actions are uncontrolled; freedom from worry or inhibitions; lack of control or care
e.g. —— The people were so excited that they jumped and shouted with wild abandon.
—— The kids hurled pieces of wood on the campfire with gay abandon.
28. unfettered (para.10): free from care or responsibility; not restricted by laws, rules or any other controlling influence
e.g. —— In writing poetry one is unfettered by the normal rules of sentence structure.
—— They want to replace one form of unfettered power with another.
29. wail (para.11): make a long high cry, usu because of pain or sadness
e.g. —— The women gathered around the coffin and began to wail, as was the custom in the region.
——She had that passionate wailing voice, so typical of country music singers.
30. droop (para.11): bend or hang down heavily
e.g. —— I can see you're tired because your eyelids have started to droop.
—— My spirits droop at the prospect of work on Monday.
—— We tied the boat under the drooping branches of the willow tree.
31. freeze (para.14): become motionless or immobile, as from surprise or attentiveness; become unable to act or react, as from fear
e.g. —— I heard a sound and froze in my tracks.
—— The teacher froze the noisy class with a single look.
—— “Freeze (=don’t move at all) or I’ll shoot,” screamed the gunman.
32. activate (para.15): set in motion; cause to start; make active or more active
e.g. —— The lock is activated by a magnetic key.
—— His lofty spirit has greatly attracted and activated others.
33. warrant (para.15): make (a particular activity) necessary
e.g. —— Obviously what she did was wrong, but I don't think it warranted quite such severe punishment.
—— It's a relatively simple task that really doesn't warrant a great deal of time being spent on it.
34. implicate (para.15): show or seem to show that someone is involved in sth wrong or criminal; show or seem to show that sth is the cause of sth bad or harmful
e.g. —— He claims that the evidence has been made up to implicate him in the robbery.
—— Tobacco has already been implicated as one of the causes of the disease.
35. bolster (para.16): support or make stronger
e.g. —— They had to bolster the roof before searching for survivors in the rubble.
—— She tried to bolster my confidence by telling me that I had a special talent.
—— Troop movements on the border have bolstered fears that the country is planning to invade its neighbor.
36. bonding (para.17): the process by which a close emotional relationship is developed
e.g. —— Much of the bonding between mother and child takes place in those early weeks.
—— He says he has rediscovered the comforts of male bonding in a Washington men's
group.
37. entertain (para.18): hold in mind or be willing to consider or accept
e.g. —— The general refused to entertain the possibility of defeat.
—— He entertained some doubts about how truthful the government was.
38. boil down to (para.19): amount to; owe to
e.g. ——The whole matter boils down to the fact that you two don’t like each other.
—— The problem all boils down to a lack of money.
39. out of the blue (para.20): suddenly and unexpectedly
e.g. —— John arrived completely out of the blue.
—— They would suddenly, out of the blue, for no reason at all, start shouting and
screaming.
40. stringent (para.21): having a very severe effect or being extremely limiting
e.g. —— The government is to impose stringent restrictions on the number of immigrants to be allowed into the country.
—— Security will be improved with the introduction of more stringent measures such as identity cards.
—— Car manufacturers argue that the more stringent pollution standards will increase prices.
41. ascribe (para.22): consider sth to be caused, created or possessed by sb or sth
e.g. —— After years of research, scholars have finally ascribed this anonymous play to Christopher Marlowe.
—— Husbands are often mistaken in the virtues they ascribe to their wives.
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