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The dog Gelert and the wolf may have looked very similar. But they did not treat the people around them in the same way. Today's Spotlight is on dogs and their relationship with humans.
忠犬杰樂和狼看起來很相似。但是它們對待周圍的人的態度截然不同。今天的Spotlight講述的就是狗和人類的關系。
So what made Gelert and the wolf so different? Many years ago, dogs and wolves were the same. But about 14,000 years ago, some wolves began to change. They were no longer as wild. No one knows exactly how this happened. Angus Phillips of National Geographic Magazine thinks it may have happened like this:
那么是什么讓忠犬杰樂和狼有如此大的差異呢？很久以前，狗和狼一樣，它們都是狼。但是在一萬四千年前左右，一些狼開始改變。它們的野性沒有了。沒有人確切地知道為什么會這樣。國家地理雜志的安格斯 菲利普斯認為大概的原因應該是這樣的：
"Some wolves moved close to human cooking fires after smelling something good to eat. Then they worked to get closer to groups of humans. They did this by being helpful or proving they would not hurt people. The humans might have used the wolves' better hunting skills to help them hunt animals. The wolves could warn humans of danger at night."
一些狼聞到人類生火做飯的美味后接近了人類。通過向人類證明自己對人類并無歹心且能幫助人類，它們和人類的關系越來越密切。人類可能也覺得有這些狼也不錯，因為它們有很好的捕獵能力幫助他們捕獲獵物，并且能在晚上危險來臨時給他們警告。
Humans and wolves both lived in groups. The groups usually had a leader. The smaller, weaker wolves knew how to obey the wolf leader. So it was easy for them to learn to obey a human leader. Both humans and these smaller wolves got something good from this relationship. Angus Phillips explains the result:
人類和狼都是群居動物。狼的族群一般都會有個頭領。弱小的狼都會聽命于頭狼。所以它們很快就學會了聽命于人類。任何這些小一點的狼在相互的關系中獲益。安格斯菲利普斯解釋了如下結果：
"Over thousands of years. . .humans kept the large, rough wolves out of the human camps. This led to the development of different kinds of dogs that were more friendly to people. They began to look different than wolves. . .They were generally smaller than wolves, with a shorter nose."
過了幾千年......人類將那些大型而粗野的狼驅出人類的營地。許多不同種類而又對人類非常友好的狗由此發展而來。它們開始看起來和狼有了一些不同......一般來說，它們都會比狼小一些，鼻子也會比狼短一些。
Today, there are about 400 different kinds of dogs. People can see many of these kinds of dogs at dog shows. At these shows, people bring their dogs to compete for a prize. The dogs run, walk and do tricks for judges. Some of the dogs are as tall as the waist of a person. Others are small enough to be carried in one hand. Some dogs have long hair that reaches to the ground. Others have no hair at all.
如今，大約有四百多種狗。人們可以在狗類選秀節目中看到許多種類。在這些選秀節目中，人們帶著他們的愛犬參加比賽并獲獎。狗狗們在裁判面前又跑，又走，還會做一些技巧性動作。有些狗與人齊腰高，有些小的用一只手就可以抱起來；有些狗長毛著地，有些狗一毛不長。
Dogs can be very different in size, shape and colour. Peter Tyson works for the science magazine NOVA. He explains why there are so many kinds of dogs:
狗狗們的大小、體型和顏色有很大不同。彼得泰森在科學雜志NOVA工作。他向我們解釋了為什么會有這么多種狗狗：
"There are so many kinds of dogs mainly because of human and not natural selection...Through the late 19th century, humans would mate dogs for special skills they wanted."
“有這么多狗主要是人為原因而非自然選擇......整個十九世紀末期，人類都在給狗配種以讓自己的狗狗們獲得人類想要的技能。”
