鳥(niǎo)兒能讀懂人類的眼神

張明波

研究發(fā)現(xiàn)寒鴉能根據(jù)人的瞳孔顏色發(fā)現(xiàn)信息，從而找到食物。它們的腦容量很大，非常聰明，是鳥(niǎo)類中最聰明的一種。

1. jackdaw n. 寒鴉

2. pupil n. 瞳孔

3. irise n. 虹膜

4. predator n. 捕食性動(dòng)物

5. goshawk n. 蒼鷹

6. sophistication n. 復(fù)雜巧妙;高水平

1. How do other birds understand humans except jackdaws？

2. List the phrases ending with the preposition “to”.

Jackdaws possess human like eyes with dark pupils and light blue or silvery irises. And that may give the social birds an edge in understanding signals from friendly humans.

Hand raised birds in a study could find food in a “cooperative” situation when a familiar person s eyes looked back and forth from the food to the bird. They also responded when the person pointed to the food s location， but did not react when the person turned their head toward the food. That sensitiv ity to human eye signals contrasts with the lesser sensitivity of birds such as chickens. Many birds are sensitive to eye like patterns without showing much understanding of more subtle eye signals that communicate information.

However， the jackdaws took longer time to approach food when an unfamiliar person was watching， and in this case paid attention to where a person s head was turned. A similar delayed reaction occurred when the person kept an eye closed or was glancing away with one eye on the food， even when the researchers replaced the person with images of a person s face. The response to unfamiliar humans may reflect an evolved response to potential predators or other threats， when subtle eye signals are less important than head direction. Predator birds such as owls and goshawks tend to turn their entire head when looking—and besides， it s probably too late for any unlucky jackdaws close enough to see a predator s subtler eye movements.

Jackdaws may have evolved a response to more subtle eye signals not from threat of predation， according to the study， but instead from cooperation as social animals. The birds often form lifelong partnerships with mates， and their survival success depends on close communication. This fits with the theory that social sophistication may select for intelligence in evolution. Jackdaws are among the most intelligent birds along with parrots. If you compare them to apes， our closest relatives， they ve got exactly the same brain size relative to body size and weight. Even chimpanzees have shown themselves less responsive to eye signals， possibly because their darker eyes lack the contrast between white human eyeballs and darker pupils.

—From LiveScience

1. What contributes to the jackdaws ?ability to read communicative signals？

A. Human friendliness from familiar people.

B. Their excellent social ability and big brain.

C. Their dark pupils and light blue or silvery irises.

D. The cooperative situation and close communication.

2. The example of potential predators mainly intends to show us .

A. subtle eye cues are less important than head direction for owls and goshawks

B. jackdaws evolved a response to subtle eye signals from cooperation as social animals

C. jackdaws can interpret human eye cues and even follow human gestures like pointing

D. jackdaws tend to turn their entire head when looking as well as owls and goshawks

3. The study compares jackdaws to apes and chimpanzees possibly to explain .

A. some crow cousins have demonstrated tool usage on par with that of apes

B. jackdaws have relatively big brain and they are the most intelligent birds

C. jackdaws have exactly the same brain size as the apes ?and chimpanzees

D. the social sophistication which may select for intelligence in evolution

閱讀研究報(bào)告時(shí)，要關(guān)注研究報(bào)告的結(jié)構(gòu)。研究報(bào)告的結(jié)構(gòu)是整個(gè)報(bào)告謀篇布局的整體設(shè)計(jì)，其主要組成部分是：研究發(fā)現(xiàn)—方法及步驟—呼吁。研究發(fā)現(xiàn)部分通常是研究所產(chǎn)生的新的結(jié)論，是讀者關(guān)注的焦點(diǎn);主體部分是研究的方法、研究的過(guò)程，或者是該研究具體數(shù)據(jù)的呈現(xiàn)和影響;呼吁部分通常是研究的結(jié)果所帶來(lái)的相關(guān)影響或未來(lái)所應(yīng)該采取的措施。撰寫研究報(bào)告時(shí)，要根據(jù)實(shí)驗(yàn)的事實(shí)采用合理的結(jié)構(gòu)去靈活多樣地表述研究?jī)?nèi)容。

本文的篇章結(jié)構(gòu)如下：

Ⅰ. 文本填空

1. And that may give the social birds________（優(yōu)勢(shì)） in understanding signals from friendly humans.

2. That sensitivity to human eye signals ________（與……形成對(duì)比） the lesser sensitivity of birds such as chickens.

3. Predator birds such as owls and goshawks________（往往） turn their entire head and besides， it s probably too late for any unlucky jackdaws close enough________（看見(jiàn)） a predator s subtler eye movements.

4. The birds often________（與……形成終生關(guān)系） ?mates， and their survival success________（依賴） ?close communication.

5. This________（與……一致） the theory that social sophistication may select for intelligence in evolution.

Ⅱ. 詞匯總結(jié)

在英語(yǔ)中，很多短語(yǔ)都以to結(jié)尾，但是有的to是不定式符號(hào)，而有的to卻是一個(gè)介詞。本文就出現(xiàn)了以介詞to結(jié)尾的短語(yǔ)。

Ⅲ. 寫作推薦

It s probably too late for any unlucky jackdaws close enough to see a predator s subtler eye movements. 對(duì)于任何不幸的寒鴉來(lái)說(shuō)，當(dāng)靠捕食者過(guò)近，能看見(jiàn)其微妙的眼神變化時(shí)，就可能一切都太遲了。

在鳥(niǎo)類世界中，烏鴉、渡鴉、樫鳥(niǎo)，以及鴉科家族的其他成員，并不是“沒(méi)有智力的笨鳥(niǎo)兒”，相反，它們一般被視為聰明的動(dòng)物。而人類對(duì)于烏鴉“笨”的這種印象，似乎由來(lái)已久，甚至在《伊索寓言》里，也編織了一個(gè)“烏鴉喝水”的故事。 今天，科學(xué)家的研究證明，烏鴉比人類所想象的要聰明許多。一項(xiàng)新的研究證明，烏鴉的感知能力可與靈長(zhǎng)類動(dòng)物相媲美，與黑猩猩、大猩猩相比，它們的智力也毫不遜色。這份研究報(bào)告是由英國(guó)劍橋大學(xué)動(dòng)物行為與實(shí)驗(yàn)心理學(xué)系的兩位研究人員共同完成的，發(fā)表在《科學(xué)》雜志上。