VOA慢速英语2014 学校帮助狗狗克服飞行的恐惧

 

School Helps Dogs with Fear of Flying 学校帮助狗狗克服飞行的恐惧

Welcome to American Mosaic¹ from VOA Learning English.  I’m June Simms. 

Today on the show we tell you about some unusual training for some exceptional² animals: service dogs.   They are are needed everywhere so there are classes to teach them about all kinds of environments. 

Fly Dogs

Air travel makes some people very nervous.  The crowds, the noise and flying itself can cause unease.  But there are classes people can take to help them defeat the fear of flying.  And, now Caty Weaver³ tells us about similar training for service dogs that suffer the same problem.

Service dogs almost never leave the side of the people they care for.  You will see them working on buses, trains and other public transport systems.  But the busy environment found at an airport can trouble even the best trained working dog. 

People with disabilities depend on their dogs.  They want the animals to safely guide them through security areas.  They also need to the dogs to remain calmly on duty on the airplane, even when the flying is not smooth. This takes special training. The Air Hollywood K9 Flight School is one place where such help can be found.

The school has a piece of equipment that provides the sights, sounds and even the feel of an airplane in flight.  It is called a flight simulator.  The simulator was built for filming airplane scenes in movies.

Sandy Alexander lives in Newport Beach, California.  He has a disability that requires his two-year-old dog, Doc, to be always at his side.  Mr. Alexander took the dog to the flight school to get him ready for plane trips.  He says Doc did not like the bumpy⁴ part of the flight simulation⁵.

“When that started he was pretty agitated⁶ and looked up at me and wasn’t sure what was going on, and I think we are going to be prepared the next time it happens.”

Dog trainer Mary Segall is with Canine⁷ Companions for Independence.  It provides dogs for people with disabilities. Ms. Segall says successful training is based on a simple rule: preparation.

“Dogs need to be exposed gradually and repetitively to stimulation⁸, to the environment, to loud noises, to sounds and other dogs so that when this experience happens to them on a daily basis, they’re able to act in a way that they’re used to acting⁹ and that they don’t get excitable.”

Stacy Huckeba’s nine-month-old dog, Striker, is still in training to be a guide dog.

“I don’t fly a lot so I don’t know a lot, but, so I don’t know the routine myself. So with a dog I would have been lost.”

Dog owners who attended the training at Air Hollywood K9 Flight School say they now feel much more at ease about future flights.  Their dogs also seem ready for takeoff.

1 mosaic   

n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的

参考例句：

• The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面。
• The image mosaic is a troublesome work.图象镶嵌是个麻烦的工作。

2 exceptional   

adj.优越的，杰出的，例外的，独特的，异常的

参考例句：

• He is a man of exceptional talent.他是位具有非凡才能的人。
• He showed exceptional musical ability.他显示出特殊的音乐才能。

3 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

4 bumpy   

adj.颠簸不平的，崎岖的

参考例句：

• I think we've a bumpy road ahead of us.我觉得我们将要面临一段困难时期。
• The wide paved road degenerated into a narrow bumpy track.铺好的宽阔道路渐渐变窄，成了一条崎岖不平的小径。

5 simulation   

n.模拟

参考例句：

• To make the training realistic the simulation operates in real time . 为使训练真实，模拟是实时运行的。
• a computer simulation of how the planet functions 行星活动方式的计算机模拟

6 agitated   

adj.被鼓动的，不安的

参考例句：

• His answers were all mixed up,so agitated was he.他是那样心神不定，回答全乱了。
• She was agitated because her train was an hour late.她乘坐的火车晚点一个小时，她十分焦虑。

7 canine   

adj.犬的，犬科的

参考例句：

• The fox is a canine animal.狐狸是犬科动物。
• Herbivorous animals have very small canine teeth,or none.食草动物的犬牙很小或者没有。

8 stimulation   

n.刺激，激励，鼓舞

参考例句：

• The playgroup provides plenty of stimulation for the children.幼儿游戏组给孩子很多启发。
• You don't get any intellectual stimulation in this job.你不能从这份工作中获得任何智力启发。

9 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。