It is saddening to learn that fewer of us now own pets. According to Mintel, just 56% of UK households today include a pet, compared with 63% in 2012. It is down to our smaller homes. The housing crisis(危机) is taking away one of our life’s joys: pets.
Pets can help us get over serious illness. Pets lessen our anxiety. Pets can be a godsend for people experiencing various forms of mental disorders. As if all that were not enough, pets also help their owners get a date because of complex psychological reasons.
There do, of course, remain oppositions to the very idea of pets. The charity PETA puts it thus: “This selfish desire to own animals and receive love from them causes immeasurable suffering, which results from selling or giving them away casually, and taking away their opportunity to enjoy their natural behaviour.” This is undoubtedly true in some situations. But seen from a different point of view, there’s something quite lovely about the story of people and their companion animals.
What was once a relationship based only on the animal’s functional effects—its ability to kill pests, guard houses and the like—has developed into something much more about care and love.
We share 84% of our DNA with dogs. We share 90% of our DNA with mice, for goodness sake. I have no idea how that works. But still: pets remind us we’re part of something bigger. Pets break down the barriers between us and the animal kingdom. We may teach pets to roll over, stand up, shake hands and so on. But they teach us much more: that life is actually really quite short and so should be filled as much as possible with life－giving experiences.
【解题导语】 本文是一篇议论文。文章提到很多家庭不再养宠物，并介绍了养宠物的诸多益处。
1．What does the underlined part “is down to” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?
A．Is the result of.
B．Does harm to.
C．Is away from.
D．Takes up.
A 解析：词义猜测题。根据第一段画线部分后的The housing crisis(危机) is taking away one of our life’s joys: pets.可知，宠物数量减少是由住房空间变小引起的。
2．What does Paragraph 2 mainly talk about?
A．The benefits of keeping pets.
B．The reasons why humans keep pets.
C．The fact that the number of pets is falling.
D．The relationship between humans and pets.
A 解析：段落大意题。第二段列举了养宠物的种种好处，故A项正确。
3．What does PETA think of keeping pets?
A．It builds love between animals and humans.
B．It takes away pets’ chance of living freely.
C．It disturbs humans’ normal life.
D．It benefits humans’ health.
B 解析：细节理解题。根据第三段中的taking away their opportunity to enjoy their natural behaviour可知，人类剥夺了宠物在大自然中生活的自由。
4．What lesson can we learn from the last paragraph?
A．Human－pet roots lie in their shared DNA.
B．Humans are a small part of nature.
C．Two heads are better than one.
D．Like attracts like.
B 解析：推理判断题。根据末段中的We share 84% of our DNA with dogs. We share 90% of our DNA with mice和pets remind us we’re part of something bigger可知，人类只是自然界中很渺小的一部分。
