美国国家公共电台 NPR Say, What? Monkey Mouths And Throats Are Equipped For Speech

Say, What? Monkey Mouths And Throats Are Equipped For Speech

SCOTT SIMON, HOST: 

Humans can talk. I'm not always the best ad for it. But we can. Monkeys and apes can't talk. But what if they could? NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports on a new study that explored what monkeys' voices would sound like if they had humanlike brains to help them speak.

NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE¹: Did you ever see a movie called "Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes?"

(SOUNDBITE OF "RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES" FILM)

GREENFIELDBOYCE: It came out a few years ago. And in it, a chimp² named Caesar gets exposed to a brain-enhancing drug. Later, he escapes from a cage and is grappling with a guard, who tells him to get away.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As security guard) Take your stinking³ paw off me, you damn dirty ape.

ANDY SERKIS: (As Caesar) No.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: It's a shocker. Caesar can speak. He can say no. And all it took was changes in the brain. Tecumseh Fitch thinks that could really be true. He's a cognitive⁴ biologist at the University of Vienna. And he says there's long been this assumption that the evolution of speech required massive changes in the vocal⁵ tract⁶. But he doesn't buy it.

TECUMSEH FITCH: What you'll find in the textbooks is that monkeys can't talk because they don't have the appropriate vocal tract to do so. That, I think, is a myth.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says monkeys normally make all kinds of sounds and lip smacks⁷.

FITCH: So they make grunts⁸, cues. They have these threat vocalizations that are kind of like, heh, where they open their mouth really wide. They would scream if they were in pain.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He and some colleagues recently used special X-ray equipment to observe a long-tailed macaque named Emiliano. As the machine beeps, you can hear the monkey coo.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONKEY COOING)

GREENFIELDBOYCE: The researchers closely tracked the movements of his lips, tongue and larynx.

FITCH: So what we were interested in is, what are the possible shapes that a monkey vocal tract can take?

GREENFIELDBOYCE: With this information plus computer models, they could figure out what aspects of speech would be physically⁹ possible for a monkey. And it turns out monkeys could do a lot. They could produce five vowels¹⁰. And five vowels is pretty standard for human languages.

FITCH: So what we found is that they can make a very, very clearly - eh, ehh, ah, uh, oh - all of those vowels are within range of a monkey.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Then the researchers used the computer to simulate what it would sound like if a monkey talked. Let's say a monkey got in to the spirit of the season and said, happy holidays.

COMPUTER GENERATED VOICE #1: Happy holidays.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Or what if a monkey asked to marry you?

COMPUTER GENERATED VOICE #2: Will you marry me?

GREENFIELDBOYCE: They picked that phrase because it had a lot of vowels. But Fitch says monkeys would be able to make plenty of consonants¹¹ too. All it would take to talk is the right kind of brain.

FITCH: As soon as you had a brain that was ready to control the vocal tract, the vocal tract of a monkey or any other non-human primate¹² would be perfectly¹³ fine for producing lots and lots of words.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: The work appears in the journal Science Advances. And Fitch hopes it kills off the idea that monkeys' vocal anatomy¹⁴ is incapable¹⁵ of speech once and for all. Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF PATRICK DOYLE COMPOSITION, "LOFTY SWING")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 chimp   

n.黑猩猩

参考例句：

• In fact,the color of gorilla and chimp are light-color.其实大猩猩和黑猩猩的肤色是较为浅的。
• The chimp is the champ.猩猩是冠军。

3 stinking   

adj.臭的，烂醉的，讨厌的v.散发出恶臭( stink的现在分词 )；发臭味；名声臭；糟透

参考例句：

• I was pushed into a filthy, stinking room. 我被推进一间又脏又臭的屋子里。
• Those lousy, stinking ships. It was them that destroyed us. 是的！就是那些该死的蠢猪似的臭飞船！是它们毁了我们。 来自英汉非文学 - 科幻

4 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

5 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• 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。

6 tract   

n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林)

参考例句：

• He owns a large tract of forest.他拥有一大片森林。
• He wrote a tract on this subject.他曾对此写了一篇短文。

7 smacks   

掌掴（声）( smack的名词复数 )； 海洛因； （打的）一拳； 打巴掌

参考例句：

• His politeness smacks of condescension. 他的客气带有屈尊俯就的意味。
• It was a fishing town, and the sea was dotted with smacks. 这是个渔业城镇，海面上可看到渔帆点点。

8 grunts   

（猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的第三人称单数 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说； 石鲈

参考例句：

• With grunts of anguish Ogilvie eased his bulk to a sitting position. 奥格尔维苦恼地哼着，伸个懒腰坐了起来。
• Linda fired twice A trio of Grunts assembling one mortar fell. 琳达击发两次。三个正在组装迫击炮的咕噜人倒下了。

9 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

10 vowels   

n.元音，元音字母( vowel的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Note the various sounds of vowels followed by r. 注意r跟随的各种元音的发音。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

11 consonants   

n.辅音，子音( consonant的名词复数 )；辅音字母

参考例句：

• Consonants are frequently assimilated to neighboring consonants. 辅音往往被其邻近的辅音同化。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

12 primate   

n.灵长类（目）动物，首席主教；adj.首要的

参考例句：

• 14 percent of primate species are highly endangered.14%的灵长类物种处于高度濒危状态。
• The woolly spider monkey is the largest primate in the Americas.绒毛蛛猴是美洲最大的灵长类动物。

13 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

14 anatomy   

n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织

参考例句：

• He found out a great deal about the anatomy of animals.在动物解剖学方面，他有过许多发现。
• The hurricane's anatomy was powerful and complex.对飓风的剖析是一项庞大而复杂的工作。

15 incapable   

adj.无能力的，不能做某事的

参考例句：

• He would be incapable of committing such a cruel deed.他不会做出这么残忍的事。
• Computers are incapable of creative thought.计算机不会创造性地思维。