VOA慢速英语2019 猫能听懂自己名字

 Cats Recognize Their Own Names, But May Not Come When You Call

Studies show that human beings and cats have been living together for about 9,500 years.

研究表明，人类和猫已经共同生活了大约9500年。

Dogs have lived with humans longer than cats. Dogs are domesticated², meaning they have been trained to do what people want them to do.

狗与人类生活的时间比猫更长。狗是人类驯养的，这意味它们已经受过训练，可以做人们希望它们做的事。

What do cats understand?

猫能听懂什么？

As cat owners know well, cats do not obey humans in the same way dogs do. In fact, some scientists claim that cats have trained us to take care of them. As a result, many people have come to think that maybe cats simply do not understand human language.

正如猫主人所知，猫不像狗一样服从人类。事实上，一些科学家声称猫训练了人类照顾它们。因此，很多人开始认为，猫可能根本听不懂人类语言。

A report in the scientific journal Nature shows that cats understand human beings well enough to recognize their own names.

《自然》科学杂志上发表的一篇报道显示，猫能听懂它们自己的名字。

The report describes a series of experiments with house cats in Japan. These tests involved having people say four words that were similar to a cat’s name. Each word had the same number of syllables⁴ as the name and some of the same sounds.

这篇报道描述了一系列针对日本家猫的实验。这些实验让人们说出跟猫的名字相似的四个单词。每个单词跟猫的名字有同样多的音节，并且有一些相同的发音。

The cats seemed to lose interest after the speaker said a few of the words. Then the person said the cat’s name. The cats moved their ears or turned their head when they heard their names. They also moved their feet or bodies very little – not a surprising result.

在说话者说出一些单词之后，猫似乎失去了兴趣。然后这个人叫出了猫的名字。当猫听到它们的名字时，它们会动耳朵或是转过头，它们还会小幅移动脚或身体，这个结果并不令人惊讶。

Cat cafe friends know their names

猫咪咖啡馆的猫咪知道自己的名字

In another part of the experiment, Japanese researchers compared house cats to cats who live in a cat café, a business where humans can come to spend time with cats. People said the names of the cats staying in the cat café. These animals reacted just as much to the name of a fellow cat living at the cat café as to their own name. The researchers thought this was because visitors may give food to the cat or rub its back when it responds.

在该实验的另一部分，日本研究人员将家猫和生活在猫咪咖啡馆的猫进行了比较。猫咪咖啡馆是人们与猫共度时光的店铺。人们喊出呆在猫咪咖啡馆的猫的名字，这些猫会跟猫咪咖啡馆被叫到名字的猫做出一样的反应，研究人员认为，这是因为顾客可能会在它们做出反应时给它们投食或者抚摸它们的背。

Another finding was that a cat will react when a person who is not its owner says its name. The study was carried out by four researchers: Atsuko Saito, Yuki Ito, and Toshikazu Hasegawa at the Department of Cognitive⁵ and Behavioral Science of the University of Tokyo and Kazutaka Shinozuka of the RIKEN Center for Brain Science in Saitama.

另一项发现是，猫咪会对主人以外的人喊它的名字做出反应。该研究由东京大学认知和行为科学系的Atsuko Saito、Yuki Ito、Toshikazu Hasegawa以及琦玉县脑科学理化研究所的Kazutaka Shinozuka完成。

Helping⁶ humans and cats

帮助人类和猫

“I think many cat owners feel that cats know their names, or the word ‘food,’” but until now, there was no scientific evidence to back that up, says Saito, who is a cat owner.

一位猫主人Saito表示：“我认为很多猫主人都觉得猫知道自己的名字，或是食物这个词，但是截至目前尚没有任何证据支持这一点。”

The researchers hope that the findings from their study will help both cats and people. They added that perhaps cats can learn words to warn them of dangerous things or places.

研究人员希望他们的研究结果能够同时帮助到猫和人类。他们还说，也许猫可以学会那些警告它们危险的单词。

I’m Jill Robbins.

Words in This Story

domesticate¹ – v. to breed or train (an animal) to need and accept the care of human beings

syllable³ – n. part of spoken language that has one vowel sound

1 domesticate   

vt.驯养；使归化，使专注于家务

参考例句：

• Many thousand years ago people learned how to domesticate animals.数千年以前人们就学会了饲养动物。
• If you domesticate this raccoon,it will have trouble living in the wild.如果你驯养这只浣熊，它生活在野外将会有困难。

2 domesticated   

adj.喜欢家庭生活的；（指动物）被驯养了的v.驯化( domesticate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He is thoroughly domesticated and cooks a delicious chicken casserole. 他精于家务，烹制的砂锅炖小鸡非常可口。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The donkey is a domesticated form of the African wild ass. 驴是非洲野驴的一种已驯化的品种。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 syllable   

n.音节；vt.分音节

参考例句：

• You put too much emphasis on the last syllable.你把最后一个音节读得太重。
• The stress on the last syllable is light.最后一个音节是轻音节。

4 syllables   

n.音节( syllable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a word with two syllables 双音节单词
• 'No. But I'll swear it was a name of two syllables.' “想不起。不过我可以发誓，它有两个音节。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

5 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。

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。