Part II - Reading - World
Dominicans yesterday celebrated the birthday of the World’s oldest living person Elizabeth (Ma Pampo) Israel who turned 128. Unfortunately, the Guinness Book of World Records has not officially recognized Ma Pampo since they are still checking the facts. A certificate has been issued by the Roman Catholic Church with her birth date stated as January 27, 1875, but since it is not an official record, it cannot be used to confirm the claim. The claim was further thrown into doubt when it was learned that at some point in her life, she was called Minetta George. Guinness officials have said that it is important to clarify these issues before Ma Pampo can be given the title of the oldest person on earth. Born in Portsmouth, Dominica, and the daughter of slaves, she started working on a plantation at the age of 25 and retired 79 years later. Ma Pampo says the reason for her long life is her diet - including lots of dumplings (cooked food made from flour and water) and bush tea. She has survived her husband and two children. Dominica’s largely untouched and unspoilt environment, which is still unpolluted, has been given as the main reason for longevity on the Island. Editor's Note Since the publication of this article in January 2003 Ma Pampo died in October of that year without ever being recognised as the World's Oldest Person by the Guinness Book of World Records. Unfortunately, her death came before the scientific community could confirm her age.
Part II - Reading - Text 2: Read the text and answer questions 31 – 40. - Canine emotions
Dogs feel envy just like humans, but their jealousy is not complicated or underhand, nor does it revolve around the size of a new car or cost of a holiday abroad. Simply, it comes down to whether or not they are given a sausage. Scientists have proved what many dog owners suspected: man's best friend is capable of feeling the human emotions of envy and resentment, especially when the animal feels the victim of unfair dealings in the handing out of meaty rewards. An experiment with domestically trained dogs has shown that canines are capable of withdrawing their co-operation and friendship if they see another dog get tasty sausage morsels that they feel they deserve. An animal psychologist, Friederike Range and her University of Vienna colleagues, tested canine envy by sitting two dogs next to one another. The first was told to offer its paw to shake hands; it did. But instead of rewarding the paw-offering dog, the researchers gave the piece of sausage to the second dog. After doing this a few times, the first dog withdrew co-operation and turned its head away in disgust, in order to avoid eye contact with the human experimenter, the scientists explained. ‘Furthermore, we showed that it was not the presence of the second dog but the fact that the partner received the food that was responsible for the change in the subjects' behaviour,’ they say in their study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research is part of a wider investigation into the nature of ‘inequity aversion’ (reactions to a sense of injustice): this occurs in the animal kingdom when highly social creatures attempt to do something to stop the perceived inequalities within their social group. Inequity aversion is believed to be important in the evolution of co-operative behaviour. The dogs in the study were offered two kinds of reward either a bite of sausage or a piece of dark bread. Although the sausage is higher value in terms of a reward, the scientists saw no difference in the dogs' behaviour, whichever item of food was offered. ‘Interestingly, our results differed from the results of studies with humans in that we found no sensitivity by the animal toward the quality of the food-reward’ the scientists said. ‘Humans react to the quality of food, not just the presence [or] absence of food and show more negative reactions than the dogs in this study’. ‘Inequity aversion can thus be defined as ‘partners resisting unfair outcomes. In humans, it seems to be based on ‘the simultaneous evaluation of their costs and gains compared with those of their partner’, the scientists said. ‘Until recently, it has been thought that sensitivity toward an unequal reward is a uniquely human quality. However, several experiments carried out with capuchin monkeys and chimpanzees suggest otherwise’.
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