2021年经济学人 研究表明,城市鼠比乡下鼠聪明

Mice

老鼠

Country bumpkins and city slickers

乡巴佬与城市人

Where a rodent¹ lives may determine how clever it is

啮齿类动物生活的地方能够决定它们有多聪明

Aesop's fable² about the town mouse and the country mouse concentrates on the dangers of city living and rather sneers³ at its advantages. Yet advantages there are, for mice and men alike, as long as those involved are able to grasp them. That, though, requires an ability to respond successfully to novel problems. So a pair of researchers in Germany have looked to see whether urban mice are better at doing this than rural ones. Their conclusion, just published in Animal Behaviour, is that they are.

这则关于城市老鼠和乡下老鼠的伊索寓言强调的是城市生活的危险，而对它的好处却嗤之以鼻。然而，居住在城市无论对老鼠还是对人都是有好处的，只要居住者能够掌握它们。不过，这需要成功应对新问题的能力。对此，德国的两位研究人员研究了城市老鼠是否比农村老鼠更擅长应对新问题。他们刚刚在《动物行为》上发表的结论是：确实如此。

Valeria Mazza of the University of Potsdam and Anja Guenther of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary⁴ Biology, in Plon, captured 17 striped field mice from farmland and 14 others from various places in central Berlin. They kept these animals in a laboratory for a year, to acclimatise them, and then challenged them with various tasks which, if performed successfully, would yield a reward of food. Tasks included opening the window panes⁵ of a house made of Lego bricks; opening the lid of a Petri dish; and yanking out a wad of paper jammed inside a clear plastic tube. As a control, all the mice were also given a naturalistic task that involved digging through a heap of bedding to find a reward.

波茨坦大学的瓦莱里娅·马扎和普伦马克斯·普朗克进化生物学研究所的安雅·冈瑟从农田里抓了17只斑纹田鼠，同时从柏林市中心的不同地方也抓了14只斑纹田鼠。他们将这些动物在实验室里饲养了一年，让它们适应环境，然后让它们完成各种任务，如果成功完成，它们将获得食物奖励。任务包括：打开乐高积木房子的窗玻璃，打开皮氏培养皿的盖子，拽出一团塞在透明塑料管里的纸。作为对照，所有的老鼠还被分配了一项自然任务，在一堆被褥里翻找奖励。

Both groups seemed equally eager to participate in the tasks, but the urban mice were better at solving the novel ones. They had a 77% success rate, to the rural mice's 52%. When it came to the control task, though, both were equally good, solving it 85% and 88% ofthe time respectively.

两组老鼠似乎都渴望参与任务，但城市老鼠更擅长解决新奇的问题。它们的成功率是77%，而乡下老鼠的成功率是52%。然而，在控制型任务中双方的表现一样好，分别解决了85%和88%的问题。

The researchers' next object of investigation⁶ is whether the urban mice had learned their smarts prior to their incarceration⁷, or had inherited them, suggesting they were the product of natural selection acting⁸ on their city dwelling⁹ ancestors. This will involve raising mouse pups from the two populations in identical laboratory conditions. Dr Mazza and Dr Guenther hope to have the answer later this year.

研究人员的下一个研究课题是：城市老鼠的聪明是在被监禁前学会的还是说它们天生丽质？这个问题能够表明它们是自然选择作用于其在城市居住的祖先的产物。这需要在相同的实验室条件下饲养这两个种群的幼鼠。马扎博士和冈瑟博士希望今年晚些时候能够找到答案。

1 rodent   

n.啮齿动物；adj.啮齿目的

参考例句：

• When there is a full moon,this nocturnal rodent is careful to stay in its burrow.月圆之夜，这种夜间活动的啮齿类动物会小心地呆在地洞里不出来。
• This small rodent can scoop out a long,narrow tunnel in a very short time.这种小啮齿动物能在很短的时间里挖出一条又长又窄的地道来。

2 fable   

n.寓言；童话；神话

参考例句：

• The fable is given on the next page. 这篇寓言登在下一页上。
• He had some motive in telling this fable. 他讲这寓言故事是有用意的。

3 sneers   

讥笑的表情（言语）( sneer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You should ignore their sneers at your efforts. 他们对你的努力所作的讥笑你不要去理会。
• I felt that every woman here sneers at me. 我感到这里的每一个女人都在嘲笑我。

4 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

5 panes   

窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sun caught the panes and flashed back at him. 阳光照到窗玻璃上，又反射到他身上。
• The window-panes are dim with steam. 玻璃窗上蒙上了一层蒸汽。

6 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

7 incarceration   

n.监禁，禁闭；钳闭

参考例句：

• He hadn't changed much in his nearly three years of incarceration. 在将近三年的监狱生活中，他变化不大。 来自辞典例句
• Please, please set it free before it bursts from its long incarceration! 请你，请你将这颗心释放出来吧！否则它会因长期的禁闭而爆裂。 来自辞典例句

8 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

9 dwelling   

n.住宅，住所，寓所

参考例句：

• Those two men are dwelling with us.那两个人跟我们住在一起。
• He occupies a three-story dwelling place on the Park Street.他在派克街上有一幢3层楼的寓所。