纪录片《为何讲话》 第26期：野孩子（在线收听）

It's a problem that's notoriously difficult to unpick.

要解开这个问题相当困难

One theoretical solution that has enticed scientists for many years

一种理论上的解决方法吸引了科学家多年

would be to isolate a child and raise them in silence.

就是让一个孩子与世隔离在无声环境长大

Would the child develop language on their own?

那个孩子会发展自己的语言吗

Because of the cruelty involved,

由于这种做法的残忍性

scientists could never carry out this test on humans.

科学家永远不会在人类身上做这样的实验

It's become known as the forbidden experiment.

这是众所周知的禁忌实验

The best scientists could hope for

科学家能期望的

would be to find real live case studies,

顶多是找到这样的实例来研究

feral children, those brought up by animals in the wild.

比如在野生环境下由动物抚养长大的孩子

If children raised away from human contact could be found,

若能找到在远离人类的环境中长大的孩子

how they communicated could finally answer the question

他们的交流方式将会最终解答

of whether the ability to talk was innate.

说话能力是否天生这一问题

In 1991 the scientific community believed

1991年科学界认为

they'd stumbled across such a child.

他们已经发现了一个这样的孩子