【英语时差8,16】追随别人的目光

Don: Time to go again to the A Moment of Science mailbag. A listener writers: Dear Ya?l and Don: Why is it that whenever I see someone looking at something, like someone gazing up at the sky, I look there too? Is it just me, or do we all do this? Ya?l: Great question! And the answer is that what scientists call gaze-following is pretty much a universal human trait. We're all prone¹ to follow another person's gaze even if we're not sure what they're looking at, or why. D: Right. But why do we gaze-follow? British researchers think it dates back to our primitive² primate³ ancestors, who may have evolved the behavior as a way to locate food. When the British scientists studied gaze-following in lemurs, which are very primitive primates⁴, they found that lemurs do in fact use gaze-following as a strategy to locate areas likely to contain food. When a lemur sees one or more of its fellows looking in a particular direction, it will turn its attention that way, too. And at some point the lemur is likely to search that area for hidden food. Y: Of course, gaze-following could also be a way of sensing danger and staying away from a certain place. In any case, the point is that our human tendency to gaze-follow could have ancient origins. We no longer follow gazes for foraging⁵ purposes. But it's still useful as a way of being alerted to something interesting, or menacing, in the vicinity.

1 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

2 primitive   

adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物

参考例句：

• It is a primitive instinct to flee a place of danger.逃离危险的地方是一种原始本能。
• His book describes the march of the civilization of a primitive society.他的著作描述了一个原始社会的开化过程。

3 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。

4 primates   

primate的复数

参考例句：

• Primates are alert, inquisitive animals. 灵长目动物是机灵、好奇的动物。
• Consciousness or cerebration has been said to have emerged in the evolution of higher primates. 据说意识或思考在较高级灵长类的进化中已出现。

5 foraging   

v.搜寻（食物），尤指动物觅（食）( forage的现在分词 )；（尤指用手）搜寻（东西）

参考例句：

• They eke out a precarious existence foraging in rubbish dumps. 他们靠在垃圾场捡垃圾维持着朝不保夕的生活。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The campers went foraging for wood to make a fire. 露营者去搜寻柴木点火。 来自辞典例句