纪录片《为何讲话》 第26期：野孩子

It's a problem that's notoriously difficult to unpick.

要解开这个问题相当困难

One theoretical solution that has enticed¹ scientists for many years

一种理论上的解决方法吸引了科学家多年

would be to isolate² a child and raise them in silence.

就是让一个孩子与世隔离在无声环境长大

Would the child develop language on their own?

那个孩子会发展自己的语言吗

Because of the cruelty involved,

由于这种做法的残忍性

scientists could never carry out this test on humans.

科学家永远不会在人类身上做这样的实验

It's become known as the forbidden experiment.

这是众所周知的禁忌实验

The best scientists could hope for

科学家能期望的

would be to find real live case studies,

顶多是找到这样的实例来研究

feral children, those brought up by animals in the wild.

比如在野生环境下由动物抚养长大的孩子

If children raised away from human contact could be found,

若能找到在远离人类的环境中长大的孩子

how they communicated could finally answer the question

他们的交流方式将会最终解答

of whether the ability to talk was innate³.

说话能力是否天生这一问题

In 1991 the scientific community believed

1991年科学界认为

they'd stumbled across such a child.

他们已经发现了一个这样的孩子

1 enticed   

诱惑，怂恿( entice的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He enticed his former employer into another dice game. 他挑逗他原来的老板再赌一次掷骰子。
• Consumers are courted, enticed, and implored by sellers of goods and services. 消费者受到商品和劳务出售者奉承，劝诱和央求。

2 isolate   

vt.使孤立，隔离

参考例句：

• Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
• We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。

3 innate   

adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的

参考例句：

• You obviously have an innate talent for music.你显然有天生的音乐才能。
• Correct ideas are not innate in the mind.人的正确思想不是自己头脑中固有的。