Read the text and underline by the way most important sentences.

Dogs are probably much cleverer than most people think, scientists say. They are convinced that dogs can count and that the animals try to convey different messages through the pitch and pace of their barks. Animal behaviorists used to think their bark was simply a way of attracting attention. Now a new study suggests that individual dogs have specific barks with a range of meanings. For example, dogs usually use high-pitched single barks when they are separated from their owners and a lower, harsher super bark — when stran­gers move towards them or the doorbell rings.

Dogs also know when they are receiving fewer treats because they have a basic mathematical ability that enables them to tell when one pile of objects is bigger than another. But to count, an animal has to recognize that each object is a set corresponds to a single number and that the last number in a sequence represents the total number of objects.

The theory has been tested on eleven dogs. They were first shown treats before a screen was lowered, so that the treats were out of sight. The treats were left as they were or some were added or taken away. If a treat was added or taken away, the dogs looked at them much longer than they did when the treats were not disturbed, presumably because they had done their sums and the numbers did not meet their expectations.

Dogs are descended from wolves, which not only have a large neo-cortex — the brain' center of reasoning — but live in large social groups. This mathematical ability could have been used to work out how many enemies and allies they had in a pack.

Mammals

Read the given word combinations and continue them during text’s reading.

warm-blooded animal - теплокровный

heated from inside – нагреваемый изнутри

to build new tissue – восстанавливать ткань

to insulate against heat loss – препятствовать потере тепла

goose bumps - мурашки

desert mammals – млекопитающие пустыни

to survive cold – выживать в холод

to break down food - расщеплять пищу
to heat  - согревать

endothermic – теплопоглощающий

 

A mammal is an endothermic, "warm-blooded", animal whose body is "heated from inside" and stays much the same temperature, no matter how hot or cold the surroundings.

When a mammal's body breaks down food and oxygen in or­der to build new tissue and to supply energy, heat is produced. Hair, which grows out of the mammal's skin, and fat, which lies under it, help insulate the mammal's body against heat loss.

If the mammal becomes too hot, it cools itself by sleeking down its hair, sweating, panting or moving to a cool place. If the mammal becomes too cold, goose bumps pull its hair erect; it shivers to make extra body heat, and moves to a warmer place.

Monotremes have a normal body temperature of 30°C. Marsupials average 35°C, while human body temperature is normally 37°C.

Desert mammals often have big ears and rangy bodies. The large skin area loses heat fast.

Mammals which live in cold places have compact bodies and thick fur. Insulating fat beneath their skins can be used by the body as a food source in very cold weather.

Some animals, like small bats and echidnas, survive cold by going into a short-term resting state called torpor, or a longer "sleep" called hibernation.

2. Answer questions:

1. Why is a mammal an endothermic animal?

2. How is heat produced in the mammal's body?

3. What does the mammal do if it's too hot or too cold?

4. Is the body temperature of monotremes different from that of marsupials?

5. Why do desert animals often have rangy bodies?

6. What kind of bodies do mammals living in cold places have?

7. Why do they insulate fat beneath their skins?

8. How do some animals survive cold?

 

 

Elephants

Do you know something about elephants, penguins, koala, emu and echidna ?

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