VOA常速英语2018--猫能感受人类情绪

We also know the ancient and special bond between dogs and humans. Our canine¹ friends can read our tone of voice and our expression, and they look into our eyes for clues that help our two species get along so well. Well move over rover because it turns out your house cat, far from being the aloof² master of the house can do the same thing.

我们都知道狗狗与人类之间源远流长的特殊联系。狗狗是我们的朋友，他们能读懂我们语调和表达的变化，会望着我们的眼睛以寻求线索，来帮助我们两个物种友好相处。言归正传，其实我们的家猫也不是冷漠的主子，它们也能做到狗狗的这点。

In general, we found that cats are very good in following human gazing signals. In experiments, researchers put 2 exactly alike bowls of food on the floor, but only look at one and guess which one the cat went to? Whether it be in the way sustained gaze when we don’t take off our eyes from the target, or we do a momentary³ gaze when we just look shortly on the target and then turn back to the cat and independently of the difficulty or the level of difficulty of this gazing signals, cats are very good in following it.

总体来讲，我们发现，猫子们也很擅长追随人类的视线信号。在实验中，研究人员将2个非常相似的碗放在地板上，碗里都有食物，但研究人员会只盯着其中一个。那么大家猜一下猫子会走向那个碗呢？无论是我们视线始终如一，一直盯着某个碗作为目标，还是我们暂时性地看着某个碗作为目标，然后再看向猫子，不管视线信号是否有难度，也不管难度有多高，猫子们都很擅长追随信号。

The question these researchers are asking now: Is it just cats and dogs who’ve learned to do this because they have lived with us for so long. Or is this something that animals just do? Cats learn spontaneously that by human’s looking at can be important. And this is a very interesting thing because then you could ask that, okay if it is not in need but the cat learn it, could any other animals learn it?

于是，这些研究人员就有了一个问题：是否只有猫子和狗子学会了这样做呢？原因是否是它们跟人类生活得太久了呢？还是说，这是所有动物与生俱来的本能呢？猫子能自然而然地学会随着人类的目光，并认识到其重要性。这件事很有趣，因为我们会想问一个问题：好吧，就算没必要学会，而猫子学会了，那是否说明其他动物也能学会呢？

This is the only test on this done so far but the results were clear. We established whether the given cat perform better than picking randomly⁴. Our results showed that their success rate was 70% overall. Researchers say one of the reasons it has taken so long to learn about this behavior because cats are notoriously hard to study. Evidently, they just could not be bothered.

这是目前为止这个领域的绝无仅有的实验，但结果是显而易见的。我们确定了是否特定的猫要比随机选择的猫更擅长追随人类的目光。结果表明，总体成功率有70%。研究人员表示，了解猫子的这种行为之所以需要如此长的时间是因为猫子们很难了解。因为很显然，猫子不喜欢被人打扰。

1 canine   

adj.犬的，犬科的

参考例句：

• The fox is a canine animal.狐狸是犬科动物。
• Herbivorous animals have very small canine teeth,or none.食草动物的犬牙很小或者没有。

2 aloof   

adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的

参考例句：

• Never stand aloof from the masses.千万不可脱离群众。
• On the evening the girl kept herself timidly aloof from the crowd.这小女孩在晚会上一直胆怯地远离人群。

3 momentary   

adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的

参考例句：

• We are in momentary expectation of the arrival of you.我们无时无刻不在盼望你的到来。
• I caught a momentary glimpse of them.我瞥了他们一眼。

4 randomly   

adv.随便地，未加计划地

参考例句：

• Within the hot gas chamber, molecules are moving randomly in all directions. 在灼热的气体燃烧室内，分子在各个方向上作无规运动。 来自辞典例句
• Transformed cells are loosely attached, rounded and randomly oriented. 转化细胞则不大贴壁、圆缩并呈杂乱分布。 来自辞典例句