2023年03月六级第1套仔细阅读 Passage 2 原文翻译及答案解析

The ability to make inferences from the same and different, once thought to be unique to humans, is viewed as a cornerstone of abstract intelligent thought. A new study, however, has shown that what psychologists call same-different discrimination is present in creatures generally seen as unintelligent: newborn ducklings (小鸭).

从相同与差异中做出推断的能力，曾被认为是人类独有，现被视为抽象思维智能的基石。然而，一项新研究表明，心理学家所称的“同异辨别”能力，在通常被认为缺乏智能的生物身上也存在：新生雏鸭（小鸭）。

The study, published Thursday in Science, challenges our idea of what it means to have a birdbrain, said Edward Wasserman, an experimental psychologist at the University of Iowa who wrote an independent review of the study.

这项研究于周四发表在《科学》期刊上，挑战了我们对“鸟脑”这一概念的理解，爱荷华大学的实验心理学家爱德华·瓦瑟曼在为该研究撰写独立评论时说道。

"In fact, birds are extremely intelligent and our problem pretty much lies in figuring out how to get them to 'talk' to us, or tell us how smart they really are," he said.

他说：“实际上，鸟类极其聪明，而我们的问题主要在于如何让它们‘开口’与我们交流，或告诉我们它们究竟有多聪明。”

Antone Martinho and Alex Kacelnik, co-authors of the new paper, devised a clever experiment to better test bird intelligence.

这项新论文的合著者安托内·马丁霍和亚历克斯·卡采尔尼克设计了一个巧妙的实验，以更好地测试鸟类的智力。

First, they took 1-day-old ducklings and exposed them to a pair of moving objects. The two objects were either the same or different in shape or color. Then they exposed each duckling to two entirely new pairs of moving objects.

首先，他们将1日龄的雏鸭暴露在一对移动物体前。这两个物体在形状或颜色上要么相同，要么不同。然后，他们将每只雏鸭暴露在两对完全新的移动物体前。

The researchers found that about 70% of the ducklings preferred to move toward the pair of objects that had the same shape or color relationship as the first objects they saw. A duckling that was first shown two green spheres, in other words, was more likely to move toward a pair of blue spheres than a mismatched pair of orange and purple spheres.

研究人员发现，大约70%的雏鸭更倾向于靠近那对与它们最初看到的物体具有相同形状或颜色关系的物体。换句话说，一只最初被展示两个绿色球体的雏鸭，更可能靠近一对蓝色球体，而不是一对不匹配的橙色和紫色球体。

Ducklings go through a rapid learning process called imprinting shortly after birth—it's what allows them to identify and follow their mothers.

雏鸭出生后不久会经历一个称为印随学习的快速学习过程——正是这个过程使它们能够识别并跟随它们的母亲。

These findings suggest that ducklings use abstract relationships between sensory inputs like color, shape, sounds and odor to recognize their mothers, said Dr. Kacelnik.

卡采尔尼克博士说，这些发现表明，雏鸭利用颜色、形状、声音和气味等感官输入之间的抽象关系来识别它们的母亲。

By studying imprinting, the authors of this study have shown for the first time that an animal can learn relationships between concepts without training, said Jeffrey Katz, an experimental psychologist at Auburn University who was not involved in the study.

奥本大学实验心理学家杰弗里·卡茨（未参与该研究）表示，通过研究印随行为，这项研究的作者们首次证明了一种动物能够在没有训练的情况下学习概念之间的关系。

Previous studies have suggested that other animals, including pigeons, dolphins, honeybees and some primates (灵长类动物), can discern same from different, but only after extensive training.

以往的研究表明，其他动物，包括鸽子、海豚、蜜蜂和一些灵长类动物，也能辨别异同，但这需要经过大量训练。

Adding ducklings to the list- particularly untrained newborn ducklings -- suggests that the ability to compare abstract concepts "is far more necessary to a wider variety of animals' survival than we previously thought," Dr. Martinho said. He believes the ability is so crucial because it helps animals consider context when identifying objects in their environment.

马丁霍博士说，将雏鸭——特别是未经训练的新生雏鸭——加入这份名单表明，比较抽象概念的能力“比我们先前认为的对更广泛的动物生存更为必要”。他认为这种能力至关重要，因为它有助于动物在识别环境中的物体时考虑情境。

It's clear from this study and others like it that "animals process and appreciate far more of the intricacies in their world than we've ever understood," Dr. Wasserman said. "We are in a revolutionary phase in terms of our ability to understand the minds of other animals."

瓦瑟曼博士说：“从这项研究及类似研究中可以清楚地看到，‘动物对我们世界的复杂性的处理和理解远超我们以往的认知。我们正处在一个理解其他动物心智能力的革命性阶段。’