Bloque A - Text 2 · Inglés PAU Andalucía Ordinaria Titular (Admisión) 2023

TEXT 2: CAN DOGS TALK?

1 Throughout human history, storytellers and scientists alike have wondered what it would be like if we could talk to animals, and

2 what animals would say if they could talk back. And some people, both fictional (Dr. Dolittle) and real (Francine Patterson, who

3 taught sign language to gorillas), have tried to bridge our communicative gaps.

4 Dogs certainly have ways to interact with us —they scratch at the door when they want to go out or they make puppy-dog eyes

5 at us to beg for a bite of whatever we're eating. But instead of learning their language, humans want them to learn ours.

6 First came Christina Smith, a speech-language pathologist, who taught her dog Stella to express herself using alternative

7 communication devices. Smith inspired Alexis Devine to teach her dog Bunny how to use buttons to communicate. "I didn't really

8 know what I was doing," says Devine, speaking from home while her famous dog sleeps on the couch nearby. She modeled the

9 buttons for Bunny, starting with one meaning 'outside', which eventually worked for the dog. When Bunny pressed it on her own

10 for the first time, "her ears flipped up and she seemed so proud of herself," Devine says. "If she can understand one button, then

11 she can understand them all," she adds.

12 When professor Federico Rossano, who studies dogs and primates within the field of cognitive science at the University of

13 California, saw the Bunny and Stella videos, his reaction was entirely skeptical. Despite that, he considers that whether or not they

14 can learn to talk, the dogs will inevitably develop close bonds with their owners because of the many hours of training. And maybe

15 that's a reward in itself.

CHOOSE AND WRITE THE CORRECT OPTION (A, B, C or D). (0.5 points each)

9. According to the text, humans...

10. According to the text, Bunny was happy when...

ARE THESE STATEMENTS TRUE OR FALSE? JUSTIFY YOUR ANSWERS WITH THE PRECISE WORDS OR PHRASES FROM THE TEXT, OR USE YOUR OWN WORDS. (0.5 points each)

11.

Dogs know how to express that they want to be fed.

TRUE

FALSE

12.

Alexis Devine came up with the idea of the experiment all by herself.

TRUE

FALSE

13.

After watching the videos, professor Rossano was convinced that the dogs could actually talk.

TRUE

FALSE

14.

According to Rossano, dogs and their owners will build stronger relationships during the instruction.

TRUE

FALSE

15. FIND IN THE TEXT: (0.5 points)

15.1.

15.2.

16. FIND IN THE TEXT: (0.5 points)

16.1.

16.2.