While dogs openly demonstrate joy or displeasure through wide smiles and grimaces (怪相), recognizing a cat’s emotions from its face is often hard, even for its owner. Now researchers from Canada’s University of Guelph claim that stoic (高冷的) as they may appear, cats also express emotions on their faces.

For their study, Professors Lee Niel and Georgia Mason found 6,300 people from 85 countries. The participants were asked a few questions and then watched 20 short cat videos. Each video highlighted just the cat’s face, its eyes, nose and mouth, and gave no clues (提示) to its surroundings. The viewers did not have to determine the cat’s exact emotions, but just decided whether it was in a positive or negative state.

The researchers found that only 13 percent, or 819 participants, were able to read the cats’ emotions accurately over 75 percent of the time. Further research showed that the so-called “cat whisperers” were mainly women and animal doctors. Younger adults also seemed to be able to read the expressions better than older individuals.

“The fact that women generally scored better than men is in line with previous research that has shown that women appear to be better at interpreting nonverbal expressions of emotion, both in humans and dogs,” said Mason. Being a cat owner did not help study participants, indicating that a strong attachment to the animal did not necessarily mean better understanding of its emotions.

Fortunately, all is not lost for cat owners who are unable to tell their pets’ emotions. The researchers believe the skills are not innate (天生的) but learned over time, which explains why animal doctors scored high in the study. “It is important to be able to do so because it could help strengthen the ties between cats and their owners,” said Niel.

【小题1】What’s the second paragraph mainly about?

A．The research tool.	B．The research method.
C．The research process.	D．The research subject.

【小题2】What do “cat whisperers” probably refer to?

A．Those behaving like cats.

B．Those loving cats very much.

C．Those speaking softly to cats.

D．Those good at telling cats’ emotions.

【小题3】What can we learn from the study?

A．Older people are more experienced in taking care of pets.

B．Women are better at sensing emotions than men.

C．Pet owners understand cats’ emotions more than others.

D．Young people scored lower than the old.

【小题4】Why does Niel think it’s important to identify cats’ emotions?

A．It helps cat owners train the cats.

B．It makes it easier to care for cats.

C．It is good for the cat-human relationship.

D．It contributes to developing cats’ potential.