VOA慢速英语2018 法国虎鲸会说"你好和再见"

 

This is What's Trending Today...

这里是《今日热点》节目。

Wikie is a 14-year-old whale living in captivity¹ in France.

薇姬（Wikie）是一头14岁的鲸鱼，现圈养在法国。

Wikie is an orca. Orcas are extremely smart, making them dangerous to their prey². Orcas are also called "killer³ whales."

薇姬是一头虎鲸。虎鲸非常聪明，这对于它们的猎物来说十分危险。虎鲸也被称为“杀人鲸”。

Their intelligence makes them easy for humans to train. Many captive orcas perform tricks for audiences at marine⁴ parks. And, as it turns out, orcas can even be trained to "speak" using human language.

虎鲸智力高超，训练难度小。许多被圈养的虎鲸在海洋公园为观众表演魔术。而且，事实证明，虎鲸甚至还可以接受训练，用人类的语言“说话”。

An group of international researchers said this week they taught Wikie to repeat human words.

本周，一组国际研究人员表示，他们教薇姬重复人类的语言。

They taught her to mimic⁵ words like "hello," "bye bye" and the name "Amy." She also repeated numbers as well as sounds made by the researchers.

他们教她模仿“你好”、“再见”和人名“艾米”的发音。她甚至还重复了研究人员发出的声音和数字。

Wikie was a quick learner; she was able to mimic a word or sound after just 10 tries.

薇姬学的很快。只需尝试10次她就能模仿一个单词或声音。

(You can listen to Wikie's sounds here:)

The news made Wikie a trending topic on social media.

这条新闻让薇姬成为社交媒体上的热门话题。

In the wild, orcas live in groups of whales called pods. Each pod uses different sounds and calls to communicate with each other.

在野外，虎鲸通常以“群居”的方式生活。每个群体会使用不同的声音和叫声进行交流。

Scientists already knew that orcas were able to learn new whale "dialects." One orca even learned to communicate with a dolphin while living with it in captivity.

科学家们了解到，虎鲸能够学习其他鲸鱼的“方言”。一头虎鲸甚至在圈养期间学会了与海豚交流。

Although Wikie is able to mimic human words and sounds, that does not mean she can understand them.

虽然薇姬能够模仿人类的语言和发音，但这并不意味着她能理解词语的含义。

Josep Call is a professor of evolutionary⁶ origins of mind at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He is the co-author of the study. He told The Guardian⁷ this week that there is no evidence that Wikie understands what ‘hello' stands for.

约瑟（Josep Call）是苏格兰圣安德鲁斯大学进化起源学科的教授。他是这项研究的合著者。本周，他对《卫报》表示，没有证据表明薇姬能够理解“你好”的含义。

But the orca's ability is, in Call's words, "impressive -- even though the morphology of orcas is so different, they can still produce a sound that comes close to what another species, in this case us, can produce."

不过，约瑟指出“虎鲸的能力令人印象深刻——尽管虎鲸的形态各异，但它们却能发出类似另一个物种的声音——这种人类才具备的能力。”

The study was published in the journal Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

这项研究发表在《英国皇家学会学报B:生物科学》上。

1 captivity   

n.囚禁；被俘；束缚

参考例句：

• A zoo is a place where live animals are kept in captivity for the public to see.动物园是圈养动物以供公众观看的场所。
• He was held in captivity for three years.他被囚禁叁年。

2 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

3 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

4 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

5 mimic   

v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人

参考例句：

• A parrot can mimic a person's voice.鹦鹉能学人的声音。
• He used to mimic speech peculiarities of another.他过去总是模仿别人讲话的特点。

6 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

7 guardian   

n.监护人；守卫者，保护者

参考例句：

• The form must be signed by the child's parents or guardian. 这张表格须由孩子的家长或监护人签字。
• The press is a guardian of the public weal. 报刊是公共福利的卫护者。