F2F Class Notes (Lily) [R]

Vocabulary

1.siblings= 兄弟姐妹（直属）
ex: how many siblings do you have?
ex: I have two siblings, a younger sister and a younger brother.

2. companion= 伙伴
ex: Cats can be humans’s best friend, good companions as well.

3. breed=（动植物的）品种
breeder= the person who sells |pure| dogs
ex: if you want to buy a Bichon, you should find a breeder.

4. guide dog 导盲犬
ex: the guide dogs help blind people to walk on the street without hitting other things.
ex: I watched a movie on guide dogs. 

5. role= 角色
ex: we all have different roles in the society. Some of us are mothers, students, employees.

6. undergraduate= 本科生
ex: I’m an undergraduate student from UBC.
ex: Ally is an undergraduate student from UCLA.

7. academic= 学术上的
ex: I never talk to Ally about anything academic because she refuses.
ex: I don’t talk to my boyfriend about anything academic because it’s not good for the relationship.

8. homesick= miss home
ex: I get homesick when I think about my sister.
ex: I get homesick when I get off the plane.

Some people say that dogs are man’s best friend– good companions, loyal and loveable. Of course, they can be more than just a pet as certain breeds are excellent working dogs too. We know about the amazing help guide dogs give to blind people and, more recently, a new role has been found for the animals – working as therapy dogs in universities.

Research by Washington State University in the US, has found spending time with a pooch can help stressed out students. Patricia Pendry from the university told the BBC that a study of 300 undergraduates had found weekly hour-long sessions with dogs brought to the university by professional handlers had made stressed students at “high risk of academic failure” or dropping out, “feel relaxed and accepted”. The dogs helped them to concentrate, learn and remember information.

I know that strokinga dog helps me to relax; other research has shown that petting animals can reduce stress hormone levels and anxiety, so it makes sense to introduce them into an environment where people are stressed. The BBC’s education correspondent Sean Coughlan writes that around 1,000 campuses in the US already use therapy pets and it’s becoming more common in the UK. For example, The University of Middlesex has employed ‘canine teaching assistants’ to help stop lonely students dropping out. Fiona Suthers, head of clinical skills at the university, says that five Labradors had a “stringent assessment” to ensure they had the right temperament.But she adds “it’s hard to describe the impact of just having a dog lying down in the corner of a class.”

Using dogs for therapy can also help the dogs themselves. In Wales, Swansea University Students’ Union has used rescued greyhoundsto help students unwind between exams. Sessions allow mistreated and abandoneddogs to interact with humans and begin to trust them again. Student Union education officer Chloe Hutchinson told the BBC that “a lot of students have dogs at home and might be a bit homesick, especially around exam time when it is stressful and you just want your home comforts.” So if you’re a student who’s been working like a dog, but you still feel like you haven’t a dog’s chancein passing your exams, maybe introducing a four-legged friend into your life might be the help you need.