智慧的鹦鹉(之一)

- What is it that elevates[1] human beings above the rest of the animal kingdom? It's getting complicated. Researchers once thought it was our ability to use tools, but, no, it turned out chimps[2] use twigs or leaves as crude[3] tools.

1． elevate：举起，提高。这个词在表示"具体的提高，升高"之时是一个正式用语，有时会显得装腔作势，所以通常用raise取代。用作"提升、晋升"的情况较多，比如be elevated from lecturer to senior lecturer（由讲师提划为高级讲师），这个时候它的同义词是promote。在这段话中elevate用的是喻意，比如这句话也表示抽象含义：Reading good books elevates your mind. 阅读好书使人思想高尚。
2． chimps：黑猩猩。它还能写成chimpanzee。科学家本以为人类高于一般动物的优势在于人类会使工具，结果事实上，chimps也能做到这一点。
3． crude：在这里它用的是原意，表示"天然的，未加工的"（工具）。指人或人的行为态度时表示"粗鲁的、低极的"，比如：crude manners/people。它还可以指"赤裸裸的，未加修饰的"，比如：the crude birth rate（总出生率）a crude fact（赤裸裸的现实）

Then the researchers seized on[4] our ability to use language, but it has turned out that dolphins make certain sounds for certain things and gorillas can learn sign language.

4．seized on：抓住，夺取，利用。科学家又抓住人类会运用语言的特点，想以此证明人类强于一般动物。但是却发现不仅海豚（dolphin）能发出代表某种含义的声音，大猩猩（gorilla）也懂得某些手语。Seize on是一个很有用的词组，人的一生中机遇种种，关键要靠我们seize on(upon) the wonderful opportunities （抓住大好时机）。

And now we move a step further. Alex, an African gray parrot, is unlike any other animal: he can talk. When he says, "come here!" he really wants his owner to come here. She says Alex understands that words have meaning and he does not just mimic[5] random sounds he has been taught.

5．mimic：模仿。表示"模仿"含义的动词可多了，比如imitate，copy等，但imitate意为像某人那样行事，或追随某人的典范或风格，但并不一定表示与原型一模一样，比如：The child imitated the father's mannerisms.孩子模仿父亲的习惯行为。copy指尽可能精确地复制或尽可能逼真地仿效。比如：You should copy his good points. 你应当仿效他的优点。而mimic指准确地模仿他人的行为、言谈或习性。当然很多时候意在取笑，比如：He mimicked his uncle's voice and gestures very cleverly. 他惟妙惟肖地模仿叔父的声音和姿势。

相关链接

推荐文章

主题文章

"These birds have the emotional[6] and social skills of about a 2-and-a-half year-old, 3-year-old child, says Pepperberg. "Their intellectual skills are more like a 5 or 6 year old in some cases."

6．emotional：感情上的，情绪上的。比如我们在日常生活中经常会遇到情感困扰（emotional difficulties/emotional problems），有的人感情外露，比如He is an emotional boy. 某个特定时候一首动情的歌（an emotional song）就能激起你感情世界的涟漪。

Alex can identify about 50 different objects, can name seven colors, and knows numbers up to six. "You can ask him what color, what shape, what material," says Pepperberg, "and he knows what set of answers belong in those categories."

So when she says "color," he doesn't answer, "four." When he wants to go back to a safe place, he lets you know by squawking[7], "wanna go back."

Pepperberg says she once asked him, "you wanna go back?" and he restructured the sentence to "I wanna go back."

7．squawking：这里用的是原意，指的是"（鸟类）嘎嘎叫"，比如：The hens squawked in terror.母鸡吓着嘎嘎叫。这个词还能用作"大声诉苦，发牢骚"。Are you always squawking?