Animal emotions - PAU Andalucía

>Exámenes selectividad inglés resueltos Andalucía

You may love your pet, but does your pet love you? Most animal lovers claim that animals definitely experience emotions. Many stories are told of older dogs who become jealous when a new dog (or a baby) arrives home. For many years, however, scientists did not agree that animals experienced emotions; these behaviours, they said, were simply physiological reactions to external stimuli. But now new research is beginning to confirm that animals may have feelings much like ours.
Recent studies have shown that many animals, including chimpanzees, dogs, horses, rats and birds, experience emotions similar to human jealousy, grief and love. Fear has also been widely observed by scientists, perhaps unsurprisingly, since this emotion helps in survival. Biologist Samuel Gosling claims that dogs exhibit four dimensions of personality: affection, sociability, emotional stability and “competence”, a combination of intelligence and obedience. These are similar to the categories of human personality generally found in basic psychological tests.
Other studies have shown that when a recording of dogs’ “laughter” is played to other dogs, they start to play with each other, and rats who “laugh” frequently seem to be popular among other rats, offering further proof of emotions among animals. In addition, animals respond to anti-depressant drugs and this proves that their brain chemistry, which is affected by the drug, must be similar to ours. Experts believe that their emotions must therefore be similar, too.
However, if animals really do have human-like emotions, there are some serious issues to consider: how fair is it, for example, for humans to keep animals in cages, or use them for pharmaceutical testing?

RESPUESTAS

I. READING COMPREHENSION

ANSWER QUESTIONS 1-2 ACCORDING TO THE INFORMATION GIVEN IN THE TEXT. USE YOUR OWN WORDS.  
1)   Why are scientists not surprised that animals experience fear?

• Because fear helps in survival.

 2)   Under what circumstances does the writer suggest it may be unfair to keep animals in cages?

• If animals feel the same emotions that humans do.

ARE THESE STATEMENTS TRUE OR FALSE? JUSTIFY YOUR ANSWERS WITH WORDS OR PHRASES FROM THE TEXT.
3)   Animal lovers believe that dogs can be jealous.

• True (line 2) “Many stories are told of older dogs who become jealous”

4)   Scientists are beginning to believe that animals have got feelings.

• True (line 5) “But now new research is beginning to confirm that animals may have feelings”

5)   Only humans experience both positive and negative emotions.

• False (lines 7-8) “many animals … experience emotions similar to human jealousy, grief and love”

6)   Dogs often “laugh” when they see other dogs playing. 

• False (lines 13-14) “when a recording of dogs’ ‘laughter’ is played to other dogs, they start to play with each other” 

 

II. USE OF ENGLISH

7)   Find in the text a synonym for SADNESS (noun).

• grief (line 8)          

8)   Give one opposite for FREQUENTLY (adjective, line 14).

• rarely, seldom, infrequently         

9)   Find in the text the word which has the following definition: “being able to live or exist in spite of great danger or difficulty (noun)                                                                 

• survival (line 9)

10)   Give a noun with the same root as OBSERVED (verb, line 9). 

• observation

11)   Turn the following sentence into the passive voice.
In the tests that Gosling performed, dogs exhibited four dimensions of personality.

• In the tests that were performed by Gosling, four dimensions of personality were exhibited by dogs.

12)   Rewrite the sentence without changing its meaning. Begin as indicated.
It seems that many animals can experience human-like emotions.

• It seems that many animals are able to experience human-like emotions.

13)   Fill in the gap with a correct preposition.

• We are the owners of three dogs. 

14)   Use the words in boxes to make a meaningful sentence. Use all the words and only the words in the boxes without changing their form.          
TO    HUMANS    DRUGS    REACT    DO    JUST     ANIMALS   ANTI-DEPRESSANT    AS

• Animals react to anti-depressant drugs just as humans do. 

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