Read the text and underline by the way most important sentences.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 952.

Read the title of the following text and predict with your neighbor what the text is about.

Complete the dialogue according the example.

21. Match words with their translations:

clever позволять(давать возможность)

to count отделенный

pitch способность

pace умный

bark враг

separated лай

lower частота

ability тембр

to enable держатель

enemy считать

harsher грубый

Smart dog!

Dogs are probably much cleverer than most people think, scientists say. They are convinced that dogs can count and that the animals try to convey different messages through the pitch and pace of their barks. Animal behaviorists used to think their bark was simply a way of attracting attention. Now a new study suggests that individual dogs have specific barks with a range of meanings. For example, dogs usually use high-pitched single barks when they are separated from their owners and a lower, harsher super bark — when stran­gers move towards them or the doorbell rings.

Dogs also know when they are receiving fewer treats because they have a basic mathematical ability that enables them to tell when one pile of objects is bigger than another. But to count, an animal has to recognize that each object is a set corresponds to a single number and that the last number in a sequence represents the total number of objects.

The theory has been tested on eleven dogs. They were first shown treats before a screen was lowered, so that the treats were out of sight. The treats were left as they were or some were added or taken away. If a treat was added or taken away, the dogs looked at them much longer than they did when the treats were not disturbed, presumably because they had done their sums and the numbers did not meet their expectations.

Dogs are descended from wolves, which not only have a large neo-cortex — the brain' center of reasoning — but live in large social groups. This mathematical ability could have been used to work out how many enemies and allies they had in a pack.