評論
打印
Once again we go to the mailbag. A listener writes:
我們又一次打開郵箱。一位聽眾寫到:
Dear A Moment of Science, Besides chimps, which animals do you think are the most likepeople?
親愛的科學一刻，除了黑猩猩，你認為哪種動物最像人類？
Scientists have closely studied prairie dog chirps and found that they're really complex.
科學家仔細研究了草原狗的叫聲，發現這很復雜。
You know how some animals have warning calls such as warning shrieks or yells that alert theirgroup when a predator is nearby?
你知道當有捕食者靠近時，一些動物會發出警號信號比如叫聲或呼喊來警告同伴么？
Prairie dogs do this, too, but in a way that's impressively detailed.
草原狗也有這種行為。而且在某種程度上，草原狗的具體行為令人印象深刻。
For example, they not only havespecific chirps for different kinds ofpredators, but also for specific details about what the predatorslook like.
例如，草原狗不僅對特定的捕獵者有特定的叫聲，對于捕獵者的外貌也有特定的細節描述。
Yes. In fact, they'd exchange information not only about your presence but about what you looklike your size, shape, and the color of your clothes.
是的，事實上，他們不僅交流你出現的信息，還會討論你的高矮和體型，你衣服的顏色。
They did a cool little experiment where they sent the same person into a prairie dog colony atdifferent times, wearing different colored tee shirts.
他們做了一個很酷的小實驗，在不同的時間里，讓同一個人穿著不同顏色的T恤進入草原狗的領地。
When they analyzed the animals' alarm callsthey found that they used the same ones for the person's size and shape, but different onesdepending on the color of the tee shirt.
當科學家們分析動物的警覺信號時，他們發現動物用同樣的叫聲表示人的高矮和體型，但是會根據T恤的顏色改變叫聲。
And it speaks to the larger point that humans are not the only animals with a sophisticatedlanguage system.
從更深層次的角度上說，人類不是唯一具有復雜語言系統的生物。
Ours may be the most complex, but it's only one among many other, nonhuman descriptive languages.
我們的語言可能是最復雜的，但是只是許多其它非人類描述性語言中的一種。
