Pets Are Good for you 
    The basic meaning of "pet" is an animal we keep for emotional rather than economic reasons. (1) A pet animal is kept as a companion, and we all need companions to keep us feeling happy. But pets offer us more than mere companionship; they invite us to love and be loved. Many owners feel their pets understand them, for animals are quick to sense anger and sorrow. Often a cat or dog can comfort us at times when human words don’t help (2). We feel loved, too, by the way pets depent on us for home, for food and drink. Dogs especially, look up to their owners, which makes them feel important and needed. (3) 
    A pet can be something different to each member of the family, another baby to the mother, a sister or brother to an only child, a grandchild to the elderly, (4) but for all of us pets provide pleasure and companionship. It has even been suggested that tiny pets should be sent as companions to astronauts on space ships, to help reduce the stress and loneliness of space flights. 
    In this Plastic Age, (5) when most of us live in large cities, pets are particularly for children. A pet in the  family keeps people in touch with the more natural, animal world. Seeing an animal give birth brings understanding of the naturalness of childbirth of the naturalness of childbirth, and seeing a pet helps a child to cope with sorrow. (6) Learning to care for a pet helps a child to grow up into a loving adult who feels responsible towards those dependent on him. Rightly we teach children to be good to their pets. They should learn, too, that pets are good for us human beings.

　　I. Listen 
    Listen to the text with the help of the following notes. 
   1. The basic meaning of "pet" is an animal we keep for emotional rather than economic reasons: "寵物“ 的基本含義是，我們出于感情原因，而不是經(jīng)濟目的而飼養(yǎng)的一種動物。 
   2. when human words don’t help: 人的語言安撫無濟于事時。 
   3. Dogs especially, look up to their owners, which makes them feel important and needed: 特別是狗對其主人的尊重使用權他們產(chǎn)生一種舉足輕重和不可缺少的感覺。 
   4. A pet can be something different to each member of the family, another baby to the mother, a sister or brother to an only child, a grandchild to the elderly: 對家庭的每一個成員來說，一只寵物有著不同的作用：對母親來說，它是另一個孩子；對獨生子女來說，它則成了一個妹妹或弟弟；老人面前，它又變成了孫子。 
   5. In the Plastic Age: 在這一塑料時代（即指當今塑料制品取代了自殺的生活用品）。 
   6. Seeing an animal give birth brings understanding of the naturalness of childbirth, and seeing a pet die helps a child to cope with sorrow: 觀察一只動物的分娩可以幫助人理解嬰兒出生的自然過程；而看到一只寵物的死去則可以幫助孩子怎能樣面對痛苦。