英语听力文摘 English Digest 340、狗最懂人的缘由

Here! Boy
     乖乖，看这！

Point at a ball and a dog will look at the ball, whereas a cat will probably look at your hand. Dogs seem to have a ready understanding of how human beings direct attention by pointing, and can follow our gestures almost as if they thought the same way we do.

Of course, dogs probably aren’t born knowing anything about people. We just carefully train them to look, fetch, and so on, right? Or do we? A comparative psychologist at the Max Plank¹ Institute in Germany,named Michael Tomasello ran a series of tests on dogs,in which they had to find which sealed container had yummy dog food in it. The only hint they got was from a human being who looked  at or pointed² at the right container. This wasn’t hard for dogs at all.

But it was hard for wolves. Wolves that have been raised by people should have had the same success at finding the sealed container, but they didn’t. Even chimpanzees, which are very smart animals indeed, weren’t as fast at finding the food as dogs. What does this mean?

One interpretation³ is that dogs do, in fact, have a natural ability to understand forms of human communication. Even nine-week old puppies found the food, suggesting the skill is there before training. Wolves don’t have the skill, suggesting that it has developed in dogs since the time they branched off from their evolutionary predecessors.

There is debate about this idea. But Tomasello thinks that in the past fifteen thousand years, as human beings and dogs have evolved together, the basis for fido’s ability to understand what you mean may have become encoded in his genes⁴.

当人手指着球的时候，狗会看着球;而猫很可能看着手。似乎，狗能读懂人的指示并执行指示。狗和人类的思维方式好像是一致的。

当然，狗不可能天生就知道人的想法，都是受过精心的训练：看、拿……是不是？德国普朗克学院的比较心理学家Michael Tomasello对狗进行了一系列测试。他要求狗找出藏有美味食物的密封容器。而唯一的提示是人的眼神或指示。这项测试对狗而言是小菜一碟。

但是狼却做不到。本以为一直受人抚养的狼也能准确找出，可是，狼却失败了。甚至十分聪明的黑猩猩，也比不上狗的速度。为什么？

一种解释是狗确实天生理解人沟通的方式。甚至是9周大的小狗都能找到食物，说明这种能力并非后天受训。而狼却不具备这种能力，狗和狼虽有共同的祖先，但是由于进化而形成差异。

虽然这一观点备受争议，但是Tomasello认为，早在15000年前，人和狗都在进化过程中，那时，狗已经具备能力读懂人的想法并代代相传。
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1 plank   

n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目

参考例句：

• The plank was set against the wall.木板靠着墙壁。
• They intend to win the next election on the plank of developing trade.他们想以发展贸易的纲领来赢得下次选举。

2 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

3 interpretation   

n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理

参考例句：

• His statement admits of one interpretation only.他的话只有一种解释。
• Analysis and interpretation is a very personal thing.分析与说明是个很主观的事情。

4 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪