Pracrise Listening 40 - Thấm Tâm Vy

Nội dung text: Pracrise Listening 40 - Thấm Tâm Vy

1. would have swallowed them whole for elevenses. Traditionalists attending the Pet Ttheories annual dogmeat festival in Guangxi now find themselves under attack by packs Reigning cats and dogs of snarling animal-lovers. As pet ownership booms, a troubling question rears its head: who owns whom? The pet business is growing even faster than pet numbers, because people are spending more and more money on them. No longer are they food-waste- There is a range of theories about how Homo sapiens came to rule the planet. recyclers, fed with the scraps that fall from their masters’ tables. Pet-food Opposable thumbs, cranial size, altruism and cooking all played a part, but shelves groan with delicacies crafted to satisfy a range of appetites, including ice central to the naked ape’s success was its ability to dominate other species. cream for dogs and foods for pets that are old, diabetic or suffer from sensitive Bovids, equids and, in particular, canids, were put to work by H. sapiens; felids digestion; a number of internet services offer bespoke food, tailored to the pet’s always took a slightly different view of the matter, but were indulged for their individual tastes. rodent-catching talents. In the business this is called “pet humanisation”—the tendency of pet owners As humanity has got richer, animals’ roles have changed. People need their to treat their pets as part of the family. This is evident in the names given to services less than before. Fewer wolves and bandits meant less demand for dogs dogs, which have evolved from Fido, Rex and Spot to—in America—Bella, Lucy for protection; the internalcombustion engine made horses redundant; modern and Max. It is evident in the growing market for pet clothing, pet grooming and sanitation kept rats in check and made cats less useful. No longer necessities, pet hotels. It is evident in the demand for breeds such as the French bulldog, domestic animals became luxuries. Petkeeping seems to kick in en masse when which, tellingly, looks a bit like a human baby. household incomes rise above roughly $5,000. It is booming. People still assume that pets must be working for humanity in some way, perhaps making people healthier or less anxious. But the evidence for that is weak. Rather, new research suggests that canines have evolved those irresistible “puppy-dog eyes” precisely to manipulate human emotions. It has worked. The species that once enslaved others now toils to pay for the care of its pets, which lounge on the sofa waiting to be taken to the grooming salon. Sentimental Americans often refer to themselves not as cat-owners but as the cat’s “mommy” or “daddy”. South Koreans go one further, describing themselves The trend is not a new one. Archaeologists have found 10,000-year-old graves as cat “butlers”, pandering to every feline whim. Watch a hapless dog-walker in which dogs and people are buried together. Some cultures—such as in trailing “his” hound, plastic bag in hand to pick up its mess, and you have to Scandinavia, where canines have long been both working dogs and wonder: who’s in charge now? [The Economist UK, June, 2019] companions—have kept pets for millennia. But these days the pet-keeping urge has spread even to parts of the world which have no tradition of snuggling up Notes: on a comfy chair with a furry creature. - altruism: chủ nghĩa vị-tha - bovids: loài thú có sừng In parts of Asia where people used to regard the best place for man’s best - equids: loài thú có móng vuốt friend as not the sofa but the stewing-pot, along with some onions and a pinch - felids: loài thú thuộc họ mèo of seasoning, and where cats were made into tonics, norms are changing fast. - comfy [< comfortable] - cutesy [<cute]: xinh xắn, ngộ nghĩnh; kháu khỉnh The South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, has a rescue dog, and the mayor of - bourgeois: thuộc giai cấp tư sản; trưởng giả Seoul has promised to shut down dog butchers. China, where dogs were once - to manipulate: thao túng, chi phối rounded up and slaughtered on the ground that keeping pets was bourgeois, - pander to: cố thỏa mãn has gone mad for cutesy breeds like Pomeranians, whose wolfish ancestors Thẩm Tâm Vy, June 23, 2019 PRACTISE LISTENING 40