TED演讲:谈乌鸦的智慧(3)

 Now, this is completely unprompted; she had never seen this done before. 要知道，它没有看到过别的乌鸦这么做。

No one taught her to bend this into a hook or had shown her how it could happen. 之前也没有任何人或者别的乌鸦教它如何把线弯成钩子；或者告诉过它可以通过这种方式捞肉。 

But she did it all on her own. So keep in mind -- she's never seen this done. 这完全是它自己想出来的办法。请一定记得它以前从没有学过的哦。

Right. Yeah. All right. So that's the part where the researchers freak out. 就这样。对，就这样。这才是研究人员觉得不可思议的地方。

So it turns out, we've been finding more and more that crows are really intelligent. 我们发现越来越多的证据表明乌鸦的确是聪明的。

Their brains are in the same proportion as chimpanzee brains are. 它们的大脑占躯体的比例和大猩猩相当。

There's all kinds of anecdotes¹ for the different kinds of intelligence they have. 大家也可能听过各种各样的关于乌鸦的趣闻吧。

For example, in Sweden, crows will wait for fishermen to drop lines through holes in the ice. 比如，在瑞典，那里的乌鸦会趁渔人往冰隙里放钓钩的时候守在一边。

And when the fishermen move off, the crows fly down, reel up the lines, and eat the fish or the bait. 当渔人走了，它们就飞过去拉起钓钩，吃掉钩上的鱼或钓饵。

It's pretty annoying for the fishermen. 这可是搞得那里的渔人很烦恼。

On an entirely² different tack³, at University of Washington a few years ago, 而在华盛顿大学，那里的研究员几年前做了一个截然不同的实验，

they were doing an experiment where they captured some crows on campus. 他们在校园里捉来一些乌鸦。

Some students went out, netted some crows, brought them in, weighed and measured them, and let them back out again. 在实验室里加以标记、称量，然后把它们放走。

And they were entertained to discover that for the rest of the week, whenever these particular students walked around campus, 而随后的那个星期，他们惊喜地发现，那些被放走的乌鸦在校园里一见到那些捉过它们的学生，

these crows would caw at them and run around, and make their life kind of miserable⁴. 就会冲着他们鸣叫，并在他们周围飞来飞去，给他们的生活增添一些小烦恼。

They were significantly less entertained when this went on for the next week. 但之后几个星期还是如此，他们就不再那么惊喜了。

And the next month. And after summer break. 甚至到了下个月，到了夏季学期结束。

Until they finally graduated and left campus, 到了他们毕业离校了，

and -- glad to get away, I'm sure -- came back sometime later, and found the crows still remembered them. 我相信他们是很高兴地离去的--可当他们偶尔回校来看看时，那些乌鸦还是记得他们。

1 anecdotes   

n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• amusing anecdotes about his brief career as an actor 关于他短暂演员生涯的趣闻逸事
• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman. 他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

3 tack   

n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝

参考例句：

• He is hammering a tack into the wall to hang a picture.他正往墙上钉一枚平头钉用来挂画。
• We are going to tack the map on the wall.我们打算把这张地图钉在墙上。

4 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。