听力文摘：同情心研究

Part of being human is feeling sympathy,

人类的一大特点就是有同情心，

but just howearly on in our lives we learn this is something that scientists would like to know.

可是科学们想知道的是同情心最早是什么时候进入我们的生活的。

Behavioral scientists know that newborns respond to the emotional¹ states of other people, bycrying when other babies cry.

行为科学家确信新生儿会对他人的情绪状态进行回应，会因为其他宝宝大哭而大哭。

However, babies can't distinguish² between themselves and others—shown by recognizing themselves in a mirror-until they're eighteen to twenty months old.

然而，婴儿无法分辨自己和他人的区别—这是通过观察他们能否从镜子中分辨自己得出的结论—直到他们18到20个月大才行。

Toddlers also start to show concern for others around this time.

这些刚开始走路的孩子在这一阶段也开始展现出对他人的关注。

Kids also begin to do things like comfort other people at about this age.

同时，儿童大约在这一时间段开始做出类似安慰他人的举动。

By the time they're three,most children will try to protect a victim from a bully³ in a fight.

等到他们三岁的时候，大多数孩子会在打斗中尝试从欺负人者手中保护受害者。

But how do kids go from the infantstage, crying when others cry, to the protecting stage of later childhood?

可是孩子是如何从别人哭自己也哭的小婴儿阶段转变到之后幼年期的保护阶段的呢？

To find out, researchers from Kyoto University, and Toyohashi University of Technology in Japan,designed a program to test for signs of sympathy in ten-month olds.

为了找到原因，日本京都大学和丰乔技术科技大学的研究人员设计了一个计划来测试10个月大的婴儿的同情心迹象。

In the video, a blue ballchases a yellow cube⁴ around the screen, repeatedly⁵ pushing and hitting it.

在录像周，一个蓝色的球在屏幕中到处追逐一个黄色的方块，并不断推它，打它。

After the babies watched the video, they tended to reach out and try to touch the yellow cubevictim, a sign of sympathy.

婴儿们看完录像后，他们往往会伸出手，试图触摸这个黄色的受害方块，这是有同情心的表现。

When the bully became the victim, babies still reached out for theobject that got hurt.

当欺负人的物体变成受害者后，婴儿们仍会对被打的物体伸出手。

However, some researchers think that babies might just be attracted to an object that movesdifferently in videos such as these.

然而，部分研究人员认为婴儿可能只是被这类在录像中活动方式不同的物体所吸引了而已。

So the matter of exactly when sympathy may develop is still upfor debate.

因此同情心到底是什么时间产生的扔有待商榷。

1 emotional   

adj.令人动情的；易动感情的；感情(上)的

参考例句：

• Emotional people don't stop to calculate.感情容易冲动的人做事往往不加考虑。
• This is an emotional scene in the play.这是剧中动人的一幕。

2 distinguish   

vt.区别，辩明，识别，辨认出；vi.区别，辨别，识别

参考例句：

• It is not easy to distinguish cultured pearls from genuine pearls.辨别真正的珍珠与养殖的珍珠不容易。
• Some people find it difficult to distinguish right from wrong.一些人认为很难辨对与错。

3 bully   

n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮

参考例句：

• A bully is always a coward.暴汉常是懦夫。
• The boy gave the bully a pelt on the back with a pebble.那男孩用石子掷击小流氓的背脊。

4 cube   

n.立方体，立方形；立方；vt.使自乘两次

参考例句：

• The cube of 3 is 27.3的立方是27。
• A cube has six sides.立方体有6个面。

5 repeatedly   

adv.重复地，再三地

参考例句：

• The loudspeakers blared the speech repeatedly.扬声器里反复大声地播送那篇演讲。
• He repeatedly beat his foot upon the floor.他反复用脚敲着地板。