Tingroom Radio—驯服宠物（上）

Have you ever played with a dog or cat and wondered why they are so tame? How did our ancient ancestors take wild, and potentially dangerous, carnivores and turn them into “man’s best friend”? In 1959 a Russian geneticist name Dmitry Belyaev began an experiment to try and understand how domestication¹ worked. He started by selecting 130 of the captive wild foxes from a nearby fur farm that showed the least amount of fear and aggression² towards humans. With each successive generation he selected which foxes would breed based solely³ on tameness. Only the foxes that behaved in the friendliest and tamest manner towards humans were selected to breed.

1 domestication   

n.驯养，驯化

参考例句：

• The first was the domestication of animals. 第一个阶段是驯养动物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• In northwestern China, there is no evidence for endemic domestication of any animals. 在中国西北，没有任何当地动物驯化的迹象。 来自辞典例句

2 aggression   

n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害

参考例句：

• So long as we are firmly united, we need fear no aggression.只要我们紧密地团结，就不必惧怕外来侵略。
• Her view is that aggression is part of human nature.她认为攻击性是人类本性的一部份。

3 solely   

adv.仅仅，唯一地

参考例句：

• Success should not be measured solely by educational achievement.成功与否不应只用学业成绩来衡量。
• The town depends almost solely on the tourist trade.这座城市几乎完全靠旅游业维持。