The Secret Power of Pets
LD
1. Animals, like babies, can do wonders for the image, which is why
politicians try to be photographed with both as often as possible. Every
American president in living memory has exploited his pet’s electoral
appeal. Are companion animals as good for your health as they are for the
profile?
2. Public health experts have long been skeptical. After all, dogs bite and
pass on parasites, pigeons and parrots cause lung disease, cats can
provoke asthma and tortoises can transmit salmonella. Yet, animal lovers
should be encouraged by recent findings. In 1991 researchers at the
University of Cambridge discovered that just months after acquiring a cat
or a dog, some Britons suffer less from perennial health problems, such as
headache, backache and flu. And it was announced last year that
Australians who keep pets tend to have less cholesterol in their blood than
non-pet owners with comparable lifestyles, making them less likely to
develop heart disease.
3. For the time being, these findings are little more than puzzling
correlations. Why should owning a pet make you less likely to suffer from
backache? Why should it reduce your cholesterol level? Many researchers
suspect that answers will be found in the subtle links between mental and
physical well-being. If the newly discovered correlations between human
health and pet ownership can be confirmed, they are likely to trigger fresh
research on the psychological and physiological effects of keeping pets.
Questions:
1. The word “both” in paragraph 1 refers to ____________ and _____________.
2. Complete the sentence
Public health experts have long been skeptical whether ____________________
________________________________________________________________
3. Paragraph 3: Fill in missing words with ONE word only
The positive influence of an animal on his owner’s health may be due to a
________________ connection between mental and physical well-being. A
positive proof of this may ________________ new studies on the effects of
keeping pets.
4. The first hint that pets could help some people to live longer came from a
discovery made over a decade ago. Erica Friedmann from the City
University of New York investigated whether a person’s social life and
degree of social isolation might influence their ability to survive a heart
attack. Friedmann interviewed 92 convalescing male patients and quizzed
them in detail about their lifestyle, a few questions touching upon pets. A
year later 14 of the 92 men had died. Friedmann went back to her data to
look at differences between those who had and those who had not
survived. She found that socially isolated people were more likely to
become ill, and that those who had pets were more likely to recover.
5. So unexpected was this finding that Friedmann began to look at other
explanations. Perhaps the benefits came from the extra exercise the dog
owners received from walking their pets. Yet, she found that people with
other sorts of pets that needed no exercise were also more likely to
survive. She then investigated the possibility that pet owners were
healthier to start with, and so had less severe heart attacks. This theory
also proved to be false. Friedmann concluded that owning a pet really did
help people to recover after a heart attack. The benefit she found was
small: a 23 percent fall in the probability of death. But since more than a
million people in the U.S. die of heart disease every year, that means that
pets could help 30,000 Americans to survive annually.
6. In a recent study at the Baker Medical Research Institute in Prahran,
Australia, 5741 people attending a heart disease risk clinic were
questioned about their lifestyle, and whether they had any pets.
Researchers found that the average cholesterol level of the 874 patients
who owned pets was 2 percent lower than those who did not own pets.
Epidemiologists estimate this might lower the risk of heart attack by four
percent. Pet owners also had lower levels of fats in their blood and lower
blood pressure, which indicated that owning a pet was as efficient in
reducing blood pressure as eating a low salt diet or cutting down on
alcohol.
7. No one has yet suggested a mechanism by which pets could lower levels
of cholesterol or triglyceride fats. But Friedmann and her team have at
least established that people sometimes produce physiological responses
to animals. They measured the blood pressure of volunteers who were
either resting, talking, reading out loud or greeting their dogs. As
expected, blood pressure levels rose as the volunteers performed slightly
stressful tasks of talking or reading to the experimenters. But when the
volunteers talked to their dogs, their blood pressure returned to resting
levels or below. It seems that such responses do not necessarily depend
on stroking or talking to a pet. In various tests involving psychological
questionnaires and standard observational checks of anxiety levels, adults
and children proved to be more relaxed simply in the presence of a
friendly dog.
8. Yet, such studies do not prove there is anything special in our reactions to
animals. It has long been known that anything that distracts our attention
from our preoccupations has a calming effect on the body. A recent
experiment indicated that watching a video tape of tropical fish proved
more absorbing and relaxing than watching a thankful of real fish, judging
from measurements of blood pressure. Could pets improve human health
simply by distracting and absorbing us?
Questions:
4. TRUE/ FALSE
Erica Friedmann has discovered that dog owners were more likely to survive
heart disease since they get more exercise from walking their dogs.
Support your answer by copying from the text.
________________________________________________________________
5. What are the TWO things owning a pet is compared to in paragraph 6?
a._______________________________________________________________
b. ______________________________________________________________
6. What do the results of the experiment mentioned in paragraph 7 illustrate?
________________________________________________________________
9. Many researchers think this is unlikely. According to advocates of “pet
therapy”, animals can also make us feel better indirectly, by making
strange settings or people seem less threatening. In the late 1960s, for
example, B. Levinson, an American psychiatrist, noticed that severely
withdrawn children who were afraid to communicate with people made
rapid contact with his dog Jingles. By carefully insinuating himself into the
child-dog relationship, Levinson found he was able to reach his child
patients.
10. James Serpell of the University of Pennsylvania also distributed
questionnaires. Those responses indicate that pet owners value their
animals as “distinctive personalities with whom they have affectionate
relationships”. It is in the friendship that we find the real explanation for
pets’ beneficial effects on our health.
11. Study after study has shown that people who feel isolated and depressed
are more likely to succumb to illness than people who claim to be
contented. Last year Serpell and his colleagues showed for the first time
that pets could improve an ordinary person’s general health. They
recruited three groups of people. At the start, there was no significant
difference between their scores on a questionnaire mentioning minor
health problems. Then one group of people were given dogs, another
cats. When they filled in the questionnaire again a month later, those who
had new pets reported a marked improvement in their general health
throughout a 10-month study. In contrast to Friedmann’s earlier study, dog
owners did slightly better than cat owners, perhaps partly because they
also increased their amount of exercise. Serpell is repeating the study with
three times as many people, all of whom have the same socio-economic
status. Halfway through the experiments the results bear out his earlier
study. Serpell claims that pets provide owners “with a special kind of
emotional support, which is lacking or at least is uncommon in
relationships between people”. He claims that an animal muteness is very
positive. The problem with language is that although we use it to
communicate our deepest thoughts and emotions, we also use it to
deceive, misinform, criticize and insult. Pets listen and seem to
understand, but do not question or evaluate. They make us feel respected,
admired and wanted.
Questions:
7. The case reported by a psychiatrist Levinson shows that
a. pets calm people down by distracting their attention from their preoccupations.
b. pets can alleviate our fear of strange places or people.
c. Jingles is a pet perfectly suitable for communication with children.
d. pet owners have affectionate relationships with their pets.
8. Serpell claims that human-pet relationships are similar to/ different from the
relationships between people because _________________________________
________________________________________________________________
12. “Our confidence, self-esteem, ability to cope with stresses of life and
ultimately, our physical health depend on a sense of belonging,” says
Serpell. The sense of responsibility involved in caring for an animal is
especially significant. Such nurture gives meaning to our lives, a sense of
being needed that can deeply sustain, an ability to set personal goals.
13. Why then, does not everyone keep pets? Serpell has found that childhood
experiences with pets are the key. Children brought up with pets are much
more likely to have them as adults. Those who went without pets as
children seem to remain indifferent to companion animals throughout their
lives.
14. Pet ownership does have its disadvantages. Britain’s canine population
deposits about 4.5 million liters of urine and 1 million kilograms of feces
every day, some of it in public places where it can be a health hazard.
Dogs can transmit infection, which can cause blindness in children. But
the condition remains rare. Pet animals also cause significant injury to
people: in Britain over a quarter of a million dog bites are registered each
year. Many of these problems could be minimized by public education and
restrictions on dogs in recreation areas.
Questions:
9. Name THREE advantages of having pets according to the text.
a. ______________________________________________________________
b. ______________________________________________________________
c. ______________________________________________________________
10. The writer presents disadvantages of having pets in order to convince the
readers that
a. they should avoid having pets if they wish to remain healthy.
b. pets are the major cause of infection.
c. the number of pets should be strictly limited.
d. safety precautions are necessary to avoid getting illness from pets.
11. What is the main idea of the article?
a. Pets prolong the lives of their owners.
b. Owning a pet may contribute to one’s political profile.
c. Pets have several advantages for their owners.
d. Pets muteness is very beneficial for their owners.
Vocabulary exercises
Finding synonyms: Find words in the text which mean the same as the following
words/expressions:
1. buying, purchasing (para. 2) _____________________
2. similar (para. 2) ____________________
3. probably (para. 3) ____________________
4. decrease, lessen (para. 3) _____________________
5. get better (para. 4) _______________________
6. advantages (para. 5) _______________________
7. every year (para. 5) ________________________
8. reactions (para. 7) ________________________
9. fear, worry (para. 7) ________________________
10. activities (para. 8) ________________________
11. different (para. 10) ________________________
12. apathetic, uncaring (para. 13) ______________________
13. danger (para. 14) ______________________
14. limitations, boundaries (para. 14) ____________________
In the following sentences, the words in bold may function as different parts of
speech and have different meanings in different contexts. Translate these words
as they are used here. You may need to use a dictionary.
1. Every American president in living memory has exploited his pet’s electoral
appeal. (para. 1) ___________________
2. For the time being, these findings are little more than puzzling correlations.
(para. 3)
______________________
3. But Friedman and her team have at least established …. (para. 7)
______________________
4. As expected, blood pressure levels rose as the volunteers performed slightly
stressful tasks… (para. 7) ________________________
Useful grammar
“For the time being, these findings are little more than puzzling correlations.”
(para. 3)
According to this sentence, the findings are/are not puzzling correlations.
+
-
a little
Little
a few
Few
While “a little: and “a few” have a positive meaning and can be replaced by the
word “some”, “little” and “few” have a negative meaning (meaning “not enough”
or “hardly any”) and can be replaced by the word “no”
Study the following examples:
1. Mr. Smith has little time to talk to you. He is late for a meeting. (no time)
2. I have a few ideas for my paper. (some ideas)
Read the following sentences and answer the questions:
1. Mrs. Zehavi usually gets little support from her management.
Mrs. Zehavi’s managers encourage/ don’t encourage her.
2. There are a few advantages to working at home as opposed to working in the
office.
Working in the office is better than working at home. True/ False
3. There is little difference in the happiness rates among men and women.
Statistically men and women are similarly happy. True/False
4. According to the recent report by the Ministry of Education, few teenagers in
this high school don’t graduate.
Complete the sentence: Most teenagers in this high school
____________________.
References
Fill in the following table to show comprehension of references in the text.
Reference word/s
Para. #
These findings
3
this finding
5
this theory
5
this
6
such responses
7
It
11- bottom
such nurture
12
These problems
14
Who or what the word refers to