Ejercicio B · Inglés PAU Madrid Ordinaria (2ª lengua) Coincidencias 2021

TEXTO B

Dogs are Humans’ Oldest Companions

A study of dog DNA has shown that our “best friend” in the animal world may also be our oldest one. The analysis reveals that dog domestication can be traced back 11,000 years, to the end of the last Ice Age, and that they were domesticated before any other known species.

Our canine companions were widespread across the northern hemisphere at this time and had already split into five different types. Despite the expansion of European dogs during the colonial era, traces of these ancient indigenous breeds survive today in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania.

The research fills in some of the gaps in the natural history of our close animal companions. Dr Skoglund told BBC News: “Dogs are really unique in being this quite strange thing if you think about it; when all people were still hunter gatherers, they domesticated what is really a wild carnivore – wolves are pretty frightening in many parts of the world.” To some extent, dog genetic patterns mirror human ones, because people took their animal companions with them when they moved.

G. Larson, a co-author from the University of Oxford, said: "Dogs are our oldest and closest animal partner.” Dogs are thought to have evolved from wolves that ventured into human camps, perhaps sniffing around for food. As they were tamed, they could then have served humans as hunting companions or guards.

Dr Skoglund said it was unclear where the initial domestication occurred: “Dog history has been so dynamic that you can’t really count on it still being there to readily read in their DNA. We really don’t know – that’s the fascinating thing about it.” Many animals, such as cats, probably became our pets when humans settled down to farm the land a little over 6,000 years ago.

Adapted from “Dogs are humans’ oldest companions, DNA shows,” BBC News, October 30, 2020. <https://bbc.in/2TOkLks>

QUESTIONS

B.1.- Are the following statements TRUE or FALSE? Copy the evidence from the text. No marks are given for only TRUE or FALSE.

(Puntuación máxima: 2 puntos)

a)

Dogs were domesticated almost ten thousand years ago.

TRUE

FALSE

b)

The investigation provides several data about the evolution of dogs that we did not know before.

TRUE

FALSE

B.2.- In your own words and based on the ideas in the text, answer the following questions. Do not copy from the text.

(Puntuación máxima: 2 puntos)

a)

Why is dog genomics partly similar to the one of human beings?

b)

What does the text say about the origin of dogs?