TED演讲:谈乌鸦的智慧(1)

 How many of you have seen the Alfred Hitchcock film "The Birds"? 这里有多少人看过阿尔弗雷德·希区柯克的电影《鸟》？

Any of you get really freaked out by that? You might want to leave now. 是不是认为那片子太过离奇了？要是那样的话，你现在可以走了。

So this is a vending¹ machine for crows. Over the past few days, many of you have been asking me, 大家看到的是一台专门为乌鸦设计的自动售货机。过去几天，人们都在问我同样的问题：

"How did you come to this? How did you get started doing this?" “你怎么开始搞这玩意的？有什么吸引你的地方吗？”

It started, as with many great ideas, or many ideas you can't get rid of, anyway, at a cocktail² party. 说实话，这玩意就像很多伟大的想法，或者一些你无法在脑中驱散的想法一样，是从一次鸡尾酒派对产生的。

About 10 years ago, I was at a cocktail party with a friend of mine. 大概十年前，我与一个朋友在一个鸡尾酒派对上。

And we were sitting there, and he was complaining about the crows that were all over his yard and making a big mess. 我们坐在那，他一直在抱怨乌鸦们把他的院子搞得一团糟。

And he was telling me we ought to eradicate³ these things, kill them, because they're making a mess. 他那时很认真的跟我说，我们得想办法消灭这些鬼东西，否则我们就不会有好日子过。

I said that was stupid, maybe we should just train them to do something useful. And he said that was impossible. 我跟他说，那才是坏主意呢，咱们为何不训练它们，让乌鸦帮我们人类做一点有意义的事情？他丢给我一句“那不可能”。

And I'm sure I'm in good company in finding that tremendously annoying, when someone tells you it's impossible. 我相信绝对不只我一人觉得这极度恼人--当有人告诉你“那不可能”时。

So I spent the next 10 years reading about crows in my spare time. 于是决定用10年的时间在我的业余时间专门研究乌鸦。

And after 10 years of this, my wife said, "You've got to do this thing you've been talking about, and build the vending machine."  现在10年过去了，我妻子说，“好吧，你也该把它做出来了，你不是一直说要给乌鸦们做一个自动售货机么？”

So I did. But part of the reason I found this interesting is, 于是我就把它做出来了。但我对这个项目感兴趣还有部分原因是因为，

I started noticing that we're very aware of all the species that are going extinct on the planet as a result of human habitation expansion, 我开始注意到我们人类已经意识到，有很多物种因为人类无止尽的扩张将会在地球上灭绝，

and no one seems to be paying attention to all the species that are actually living; they're surviving. 但貌似没人对那些还生存在世上的物种有所关心--它们都还真正地活着。

And I'm talking specifically about synanthropic species, which have adapted specifically for human ecologies, 这里我指的是那些长期与人共处，并适应了人类生态系统的动物，

species like rats and cockroaches⁴ and crows. 这样的动物包括老鼠、蟑螂、乌鸦。

And as I started looking at them, I was finding that they had hyper-adapted. 而假如你仔细观察的话，你会发现所有的这类动物都已经对人类社会产生了高度的适应性。

They'd become extremely adept⁵ at living with us. 并且随着继续与人生活在一起，它们的适应性还加变得更强。

And in return, we just tried to kill them all the time. 但反观人类呢，我们只是一直在不断屠杀它们而已。

1 vending   

v.出售（尤指土地等财产）( vend的现在分词 )；（尤指在公共场所）贩卖；发表（意见，言论）；声明

参考例句：

• Why Are You Banging on the Vending Machine? 你为什么敲打这台自动售货机？ 来自朗文快捷英语教程 2
• Coca-Cola had to adapt almost 300,000 vending machines to accept the new coins. 可口可乐公司必须使将近三十万台自动贩卖机接受新货币。 来自超越目标英语 第5册

2 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

3 eradicate   

v.根除，消灭，杜绝

参考例句：

• These insects are very difficult to eradicate.这些昆虫很难根除。
• They are already battling to eradicate illnesses such as malaria and tetanus.他们已经在努力消灭疟疾、破伤风等疾病。

4 cockroaches   

n.蟑螂( cockroach的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• At night, the cockroaches filled the house with their rustlings. 夜里，屋里尽是蟑螂窸窸瑟瑟的声音。 来自辞典例句
• It loves cockroaches, and can keep a house clear of these hated insects. 它们好食蟑螂，可以使住宅免除这些讨厌昆虫的骚扰。 来自百科语句

5 adept   

adj.老练的，精通的

参考例句：

• When it comes to photography,I'm not an adept.要说照相，我不是内行。
• He was highly adept at avoiding trouble.他十分善于避开麻烦。