Ifa cat or dog shares your house, I’ll guess that you don’t refer to the four-fo-组卷网

阅读理解-阅读单选 0.65 引用1 组卷69

If a cat or dog shares your house, I’ll guess that you don’t refer to the four-footed family member who licks(舔) your face and sleeps on your bed as “it”. You probably call them by a name, and refer to them as “he” or “she”.

A group of more than 80 people, including Dr. Jane Goodall, have signed a letter calling on the editors of the Associated Press Stylebook to rewrite their guidance so that animals in news stories would be recognized as “she/her/hers and he/him/his when their sex is known, and they, or he/she, or his/hers when their sex is unknown.” News organizations often follow the guidance of the AP Stylebook. The signers of this letter hope that when we write about animals in zoos, fields, farms, forests, seas and labs, they are recognized as living beings who feel hunger, fear, happiness and pain. “This update would reflect the fact that animals have feelings, and encourage people to respect and protect them and their rights and interests, and to shape a fairer world,” says Jane.

Ben Dreyer, copy chief at Random House, says thoughtful adjustments to our language don’t have to wait for a stylebook. “Writers should write the way they see fit to write,” he says. “The so-called genderless(无性别的) ‘he’ for example is now a thing of the past because writers haven’t used it.”

Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit and other best-selling books, tells us that if we don’t refer to animals in a personal way, we open ourselves to ignoring and abusing(虐待) creatures whose ability of suffering is no less than our own. “We form beautiful relationships with them, and we place animals on a moral plane alongside ourselves and far above that of the stone or the cap, the things we call ‘it’.” she says.

【小题1】What is the function of Paragraph 1?

A．To encourage readers to keep a pet.

B．To give some advice to pet keepers.

C．To tell readers the way to raise a pet.

D．To introduce the topic to be discussed.

【小题2】What do the signers call on the editors to do from Paragraph 2?

A．Treat the animals in their own way.

B．Reveal the unfair treatment of animals.

C．Change their guidelines of animal calling.

D．Use “it” to refer to animals in news report.

【小题3】What is Laura’s attitude toward the proposal for the AP Stylebook?

A．Cautious.