时差N小时 黑猩猩或使用手语与人类沟通(下)

They understood basic grammatical constructions, such as the difference between “me eat apple” and “apple eat me.”

它们也能明白基本的语法结构，比如“我吃苹果”和“苹果吃我”的区别。

They invented their own words, such as “water bird” for a swan.

它们自己还发明单词，例如将天鹅称作“水鸟”。

One especially adept¹ chimp² named Lucy was seen leafing through a magazine and signing “cat” when she saw a tiger, “drink” when she saw a wine ad, and “cry hurt food” when she tasted a radish.

一只名叫Lucy的黑猩猩十分聪慧，人们发现它翻阅杂志时，看到老虎会作出“猫”的手势；看到酒饮广告会作出“喝”的手势。当它吃到萝卜时，会“说”这是“伤心哭泣的食物”。

Another chimp in a similar experiment came up with the sentence “Give orange me give eat orange give me you,” when he wanted an orange.

在另一项类似的实验中，一只想吃橙子的黑猩猩用手势表示：“给橙我，给吃，橙给我，你”。

Sound familiar? If you’ve ever had a two-year old in the house you may recognize that kind of pattern.

听起来耳熟吧？如果你家里有一个两岁小孩，你一定对这样的场景不陌生。

In fact, chimps³ were found to have roughly the linguistic⁴ abilities of two-year-old humans.

事实上，人们发现黑猩猩大约有两岁儿童的语言能力。

It’s not Einstein, but it’s a far cry from being “dumb animals.”

它虽不及爱因斯坦这样的巨匠，但也绝不会是“愚蠢动物”。

1 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。

2 chimp   

n.黑猩猩

参考例句：

• In fact,the color of gorilla and chimp are light-color.其实大猩猩和黑猩猩的肤色是较为浅的。
• The chimp is the champ.猩猩是冠军。

3 chimps   

（非洲）黑猩猩( chimp的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Chimps are too scarce, and too nearly human, to be routinely slaughtered for spare parts. 黑猩猩又太少，也太接近于人类，不可以作为人器官备用件说杀就杀。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命
• And as nonprimates, they provoke fewer ethical and safety-related concerns than chimps or baboons. 而且作为非灵长类，就不会产生像用黑猩猩或狒狒那样的伦理和安全方面的顾虑。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命

4 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。