A Dog Sent Its Owner to Prison

劉新會

Dont try telling Mark Bouch that dogs are mans best friends. His pet Keilar helped land him in prison. She dropped his package of amphetamine at the feet of police as they began a search of his house.

Bouch， 26， was sure that the two officers would not find the package after he hid it in the bathroom. But he failed to take the natural instincts of dogs into consideration and now he is starting a nine-month prison sentence.

Michelle Lockhart， 20， Marks girlfriend at the time， said yesterday： “I put the dogs into the bathroom to get them out of the way. The next thing I knew， Keilar had a package in her mouth. Mark had hidden it in the bathroom and it was just on the floor. I couldnt believe it when the dog came out and put it right in front of the policemen. It was just following its instinct to pick things up. The police looked as surprised as I was and Keilar just looked? ?really pleased with herself. She really gave the game away. I havent spoken to Mark since it happened.”

The police had arrived at Bouchs home in Wigton， Cumbria， after a warning. They were puzzled to see a pet dog run out from behind a chair with a package in her mouth.

It is believed Keilar had found the drugs in the bathroom before moving quickly down behind the furniture and then presenting the officers with her find. Detective Constable James Little， who was in charge of the case， said： “Somebody had a bag of amphetamine and when the police arrived， it disappeared rather rapidly. The dog， following its natural instinct， went and picked it up in its mouth and brought it back.”

Choose the best answer for the following questions：

1. We can guess from the text that the underlined word in the second paragraph “instinct” means ___.

A. inborn ability? ? B. possibility to do something

C. natural honesty D. special interest

2. Which of the following shows the RIGHT order of what happened in the story？

a. The police arrived at the Marks home.

b. Bouch was at Carlisle Crown Court.

c. The dog picked up the package of amphetamine.

d. Mark hid the amphetamine.

A. a， d， c， b? B. d， c， a， b? C. d， a， c， b D. a， b， c， d

3. The police looked surprised when the dog put the package in front of them because ___.

A. they found their suspect， Mark， was honest

B. they had made a wrong decision

C. they found the dog was an excellent police dog

D. they hadnt expected the dog would find the amphetamine for them