英语听力文摘 English Digest 189、猴妈妈的爱

　　Monkey Mother Love
母爱是世界上最伟大的爱。想过动物的母爱会是什么样的吗？有时候，人们会以为猕猴妈妈的爱似乎比较少见。事实上呢？让我们一起听听吧。

　　Picture a mother cradling her newborn infant.  She looks intently into the baby’s eyes, making kissing noises.
It’s a typical scene, right?
Except that the mother and baby aren’t human.  They’re rhesus macaque monkeys.
Until recently, scientists assumed that humans and chimps¹ are the only animals that interact so intimately with their offspring.  And in more than fifty years of studying macaque monkeys in captivity², nobody had noticed similar behavior.
That may be because macaque babies spend most of their time asleep. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health, though, managed to catch macaque mothers and babies together.  And they found that, just like people and chimps, macaques can be very tender.
The researchers observed macaque moms gently bouncing their young, holding their heads and trying to attract their gaze. And when the monkey moms made lip smacks³, their babies often responded in kind.
OK. But besides being adorable, so what?
Well, for one thing, it suggests that this sort of mother-baby bonding is nothing new. In fact, it appears to go back tens of millions of years. Knowing this will help scientists better understand the origins of interpersonal communication.
And knowing more about the origins may lead to greater understanding of the role that communication plays in infant development.

1 chimps   

（非洲）黑猩猩( chimp的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Chimps are too scarce, and too nearly human, to be routinely slaughtered for spare parts. 黑猩猩又太少，也太接近于人类，不可以作为人器官备用件说杀就杀。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命
• And as nonprimates, they provoke fewer ethical and safety-related concerns than chimps or baboons. 而且作为非灵长类，就不会产生像用黑猩猩或狒狒那样的伦理和安全方面的顾虑。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命

2 captivity   

n.囚禁；被俘；束缚

参考例句：

• A zoo is a place where live animals are kept in captivity for the public to see.动物园是圈养动物以供公众观看的场所。
• He was held in captivity for three years.他被囚禁叁年。

3 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。