觀察熟睡的狗給我們什么啟示？

湖北 魯淑珍

英語諺語“Let sleeping dogs lie.” 意思是不要自找麻煩。 然而，匈牙利科學家發現了另一個讓狗繼續沉睡的理由——狗睡覺的時候也在學習。

題材 體裁動物 記敘文 341 ★★★文章詞數 難度建議用時6分鐘

There is an English proverb that says, “Let sleeping dogs lie.” It means not to bring up an old problem. Researchers in Hungary have found another reason to let dogs keep on sleeping. It seems that the animals are learning while they sleep.

The scientists placed wires on the dogs'heads to measure electrical activity in their brains. The brain activity, called sleep spindles,takes place in human beings, and has been linked with learning.

The Hungarian scientists hope to understand how the dogs' ability to learn and remember changes as they get older. The study may help researchers understand how human brains change as we age. Ivaylo Iotchey is a neuroscience researcher. He says that this is the first time dogs' sleep spindles have been measured,and related to the dogs learning new things.

“From studies with humans and rodents (嚙齒動物), we know that they are not only extremely useful markers of memory and cognition but also of aging and activity. In the dog, sleep spindles have only been described, they were never quantified, they were never related to function. This is the first time we were able to show that sleep spindles predict learning in the dog.”

The scientists found differences between male and female dogs. Iotchey says the females appeared much better at learning new things.“Female dogs have approximately, on average,twice as many spindles per minute as male dogs,and they also happen to be the better learners;they memorize the task much better.”

“But it was harder for all the older dogs to remember things, especially when several things were happening at the same time. Also, the older dogs were easily tricked. If we first hide the reward into one pot, then in another and in another, they get confused after a while. So their performance is declining, and they are getting less effective in solving novel problems and

Reading Check

1. Why is the proverb about sleeping dogs mentioned in the first paragraph?

A. To warn people to stay away from sleeping dogs.

B. To lead in the topic of the text.

C. To show why dogs keep on sleeping.

D. To prove that the proverb is correct.

2. Why are wires placed on the dogs' heads?

A. To help the dogs learn.

B. To help the dogs sleep well.

C. To measure their brain activity.

D. To diagnose the dogs' diseases.

3. Which of the following is true about sleep spindles?

A. They predict learning in the dog.

B. They are mainly markers of memory and cognition.

C. They are mainly markers of aging and activity.

D. They are linked with sleep quality.

4. Studies show that_______.

A. male dogs appear much better at learning new things

B. male dogs have more spindles per minute than female dogs

C. male dogs are the better learners

D. old dogs are more likely to be cheated shifting from one task to another.”

Researchers hope the study will not only help understand the cognitive ability and memory changes in dogs, but also the aging process in humans.

Language Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence

He says that this is the first time dogs'sleep spindles have been measured, and related to the dogs learning new things. 他表示，這是人類第一次測量狗的睡眠梭狀波，并把它和狗學習新知識聯系起來。

【點石成金】這是一個主從復合句。 He says是主句，that this is the first time dogs' sleep spindles have been measured, and related to the dogs learning new things是賓語從句，that只起連接主句和從句的作用， 在從句中不充當任何成分，也沒意義，可以省略。 賓語從句中的the first time引導時間狀語從句， 時態多用完成時。

Ⅱ. Text-centered chunks

bring up 養育；提出；嘔吐

keep on doing sth 繼續做某事

be linked with 與……相連接/關聯

the ability to do sth 做某事的能力

be related to 和……有關聯

the differences between A and B A與B之間的差異

on average 平均

happen to do sth 碰巧/恰好做某事

the aging process 老化過程