We are members of an exclusive group: animals that recognize their own faces in a mirror. Besides us, great apes, Asian elephants, Eurasian magpies, and bottlenose dolphins are the only other animals known to recognize themselves. Dolphins as young as seven months will pose, twirl, and put their eye right up against the mirror to stare at their faces. Only humans are known to express dismay when looking at their reflections.
我們是個特殊群體的成員，即能在鏡子里認出自己面孔的動物。除了我們之外，類人猿、亞洲象、歐亞喜鵲和寬吻海豚是唯一能認出自己的幾種動物。7個月大的海豚會擺姿勢、旋轉，把眼睛對著鏡子盯著自己的臉。只有人類在看到自己的倒影時才會表示出沮喪情緒。
As we scrutinize our own faces for wrinkles and flaws, we can fail to notice what a marvelous organ the face is. Our faces are the most distinctive part of our visible body, a mysterious mosaic of the physical and the psychical. Faces are the body's workaholics: They confer and confirm identity, express emotion, communicate meaning, perform basic functions necessary for life, and enable us to experience the world through our senses.
當我們仔細審視自己臉上的皺紋和瑕疵時，我們可能不會注意到這張臉是多么神奇的器官。臉是我們可見的身體中最獨特的部分，是身體和心理的神秘鑲嵌圖案。面部表情是身體的代表，它們交流和確認身份、表達情感、傳達意義、執行生活中必要的基本功能，使我們能夠通過感官體驗世界。
We are born seeking faces. Newborns turn toward them during their first moments out of the womb. Babies observe, respond to, and mimic our expressions as though it's their job. And in a way, it is. This close study of faces is the way we all begin to understand the curious business of being human. Faces, in evolutionary terms, helped us become social animals.
我們生來就在尋找各種臉。新生兒在出娘胎的第一時間轉向它們。嬰兒觀察、回應和模仿我們的表情，就好像這是他們的工作一樣。在某種程度上，確實如此。這種對臉孔的密切研究是我們開始理解人類好奇的方式。從進化的角度來看，臉孔可以幫助我們成為社會動物。
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