美国科学60秒 SSS 2013-07-22
时间：2018-12-24 作者：英语课 分类：Scientific American(七)月
英语课
This is Scientific American - 60 Second Science. I'm SantiCriber. This will just take a minute.
Many animals use sounds to convey information. Humans use vocal 1 labels forobjects and for people. We call these words are names. Afew creatures such as dolphins and parrots can learn specific vocal labels and wilddolphins are known to have particular individual signature whistles.
Scientists at Scotland's St.Andrews University want to know these whistles be used as labels. The researchers analyze 2 sounds from dolphins of Scotland's east coast and extract these signature whistles. Then they alter the sounds so the course wouldn't sound exactly like the original dolphin. They play those sounds back to the dolphins along with whistles form dolphins familiar to the animals and whistles from strangers. When the dolphins heard their own signature whistle, they routinely responded with that same sound. Their reaction only happen twice when they heard sounds from their pals 3, and not at all when they heard the alien dolphin.
The reserchers are proceeding 4 with the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers think dolphins' signature whistle serve as self-identification and maybe even as a label for addressing each other, just like a name.
1 vocal
adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目
- The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
- Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。
2 analyze
vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)
- We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
- The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。
3 pals
n.朋友( pal的名词复数 )；老兄；小子；（对男子的不友好的称呼）家伙
- We've been pals for years. 我们是多年的哥们儿了。
- CD 8 positive cells remarkably increased in PALS and RP(P CD8+细胞在再生脾PALS和RP内均明显增加(P 来自互联网
4 proceeding
n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报
- This train is now proceeding from Paris to London.这次列车从巴黎开往伦敦。
- The work is proceeding briskly.工作很有生气地进展着。