VOA慢速英语2016 你知道狗是如何喝水的吗？

Think You Know How Dogs Drink Water? 你知道狗是如何喝水的吗？

Why is it that when dogs drink, water seems to go everywhere?

为什么狗狗喝水的时候，水会四处飞溅？

When my dog drinks from her bowl, there is no question, water will end up on the floor. It looks like a sloppy¹, unorganized way to get a good drink of water.

毫无疑问，我的狗用碗喝水时，水会打湿整个地板。这种喝水的方式看起来真的是邋遢至极。

Researchers at Virginia Tech University have been studying how dogs drink. They say dogs know exactly what they are doing. The animals are actually making precise movements at a high speed. This helps them get the fluid they need when they are thirsty.

美国弗吉尼亚理工大学的研究人员正在研究狗狗们如何喝水。他们表示，狗狗们当然知道自己的行为。要知道即便在很快的速度下，动物们也能精准地完成高难度动作。当动物感到饥渴时，这项技能就显得尤为重要。

It turns out that neither dogs, nor cats, have a full set of cheeks. This means they cannot create suction to drink, like humans or elephants and horses.

然而事实证明，无论是猫还是狗，他们的面部构造都比较特殊。这就意味着他们无法像人类或是大象和马一样吮吸。

Dogs lap, or take up, the water with their tongues curled backward. As they lap, they move their tongues very quickly to build up momentum². That forces the water into a column and up into their mouths.

狗通过向后弯曲舌头来喝水。当用舌头轻拍水面时，狗狗会快速地摆动舌头制造一种冲力，这股力量将水旋为柱形直接进入口腔。

The Virginia Tech researchers filmed 19 dogs of different sizes and breeds as they drank water. They created different laboratory models to measure tongue motion, and the amounts of water taken in.

研究人员挑选了19个不同体型和种类的狗进行喝水试验。他们用不同的试验模型来测量狗的舌头运动速率和吸入的水量。

Using the data from these experiments, the researchers were able to make a model that shows how a dog drinks water.

通过所得数据，研究人员可以制造一种模型来展示狗是如何喝水的。

The researchers said that since the mouths of dogs and cats are structured nearly the same way, they thought they would drink water the same way, too.

研究人员还称因为猫和狗的口腔构造相似，他们还以为两者喝水的方式也相同。

But here is a surprise. The studies showed each family of animals has its own special drinking method.

但是事实却出人意料。研究发现不同类型的动物其喝水的方式也千差万别。

“We know cats and dogs are quite different in terms of behavior and character,” said Sunghwan “Sunny” Jung, a study author and an associate professor of biomedical engineering and mechanics at Virginia Tech.

Sunghwan解释称“从行为和性格方面来看，我们知道猫和狗是完全不一样的。”Sunghwan "Sunny" Jung是美国弗吉尼亚理工大学生物医学与工程力学领域的副教授。

“But before we did fundamental studies of how these animals drink fluids, our guess was dogs and cats drink about the same way. Instead we found out that dogs drink quite differently than cats,” he said.

“在开始这项动物是如何饮用液体的研究之前，我们一直认为猫和狗是和饮水方式是一样的。”而现在我们知道狗和猫的饮水方式完全不同。

What is the difference?

究竟有哪些不同之处呢？

Dogs must quickly move their tongues down into the water using momentum to bring the water up and into their mouths. Cats don't bend their tongues to drink like dogs. Cats use less momentum and a more gentle action. They just skim, or barely touch, the surface of the water to drink it.

狗把舌头伸进水里，当舌头转动时，会兜起一段水柱带入口中。而猫却无法像狗一样卷起舌头喝水。猫喝水的方式较为优雅。它们只是蜻蜓点水似的轻触水面。

“Cats tend be viewed as neater, dogs are messier, but dogs really have to accelerate their tongues” to make good use of the way the fluid column works, said researcher Sean Gart, a Virginia Tech graduate student.

研究人员肖恩.加特称：“人们一直认为猫是整洁优雅的，而狗是邋里邋遢的，殊不知狗狗必须加速舌头的搅动才能将水旋成柱形送入口中。” 这一发现已经被刊登在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。

Words in This Story

sloppy – adj. not careful or neat

precise – adj. very accurate or exact

thirsty – adj. needing water

suction – n. the act or process of sucking

momentum – n. the strength or force that something has when it is moving

column - n. something tall and thin in shape

accelerate –v. to move faster

1 sloppy   

adj.邋遢的，不整洁的

参考例句：

• If you do such sloppy work again,I promise I'll fail you.要是下次作业你再马马虎虎，我话说在头里，可要给你打不及格了。
• Mother constantly picked at him for being sloppy.母亲不断地批评他懒散。

2 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。