From Jilly Cooper to Winston Clurehill, horse riders have long supported the emotional benefit of the human-horse bond. Hernan Melville, the author of Moby Dick, once argued: “No philosophers so thoroughly comprehend us as dogs and horses.”
When it comes to dogs, we have no doubt about it. But horses can tell when a human being is feeling unhappy, a study has found, although whether or not they care remains an open question.
The latest study, published in the journal Animal Cognition, sought to correct this. The question the researchers wanted to answer was; do horses understand a range of human emotions? To investigate this, they employed a technique often employed in studying baby cognition (认知); they showed the horses something that made no sense, and watched to see whether it puzzled them. One after another, the scientists put 28 horses in a room. Each horse was shown two pictures of the same person at the same time. In one picture the person had a happy face, in the other the person had a long face. At the same time they heard either a happy or sad voice.
From a human perspective, only one of the pictures made sense — the one with a voice that corresponded to the image. The other was “incongruent (不一致的)”. Were the horses similarly confused? It appears they were. What the scientists found was that on average the first time the horses saw the incongruent image, they spent longer looking at it.
Oceane Liehrmann, from the University of Turku in Finland, said this implied a level of emotional and cognitive complexity that we may not always credit to horses.
We don’t know whether horses themselves understand what it is to be sad, or experience the emotion. What the research suggested was that, however, it is possible they learn that it means something for a human — and that when we are sad they expect what we say to match how we look.
【小题1】Why does the author mention Herman Melville’s words in paragraph 1?| A．To introduce the topic of the text. | B．To state dogs and horses are smart. |
| C．To point out philosophers’ ignorance. | D．To promote Herman Melville’s book. |
| A．By observing their behavior in a room. |
| B．By testing their reactions to different emotions. |
| C．By training them to respond to human emotions. |
| D．By showing them pictures and playing corresponding voices. |
| A．ignored the incongruent image and voice |
| B．were not confused and showed no reaction |
| C．recognized the incongruence and showed anger |
| D．were puzzled and spent more time looking at them |
| A．Horses Are the Cleverest Animal |
| B．Horses Have Strong Cognitive Ability |
| C．Horses Can Make Sense of a Human’s Long Face |
| D．Horses Can Understand Humans’ Emotions Clearly |
