1、Passage 6 Embryonic Learning 1 Before birth, babies can tell the difference between loud sounds and voices. 2 They can even distinguish their mothers voice from that of a female stranger. 3 But when it comes to embryonic learning, birds could rule the roost. 4 As recently reported in The Auk: Ornith
2、ological Advances, some mother birds may teach their young to sing even before they hatch. 5 New-born chicks can then imitate their moms call within a few days of entering the world. 6 This educational method was first observed in 2012 by Sonia Kleindorfer, a biologist at Flinders University in Sout
3、h Australia, and her colleagues. 7 Female Australian superb fairy wrens were found to repeat one sound over and over again while hatching their eggs. 8 When the eggs were hatched, the baby birds made the similar chirp to their mothersasound that served as their regular “feed me!” call. 9 To find out
4、 if the special quality was more widespread in birds, the researchers sought the red-backed fairy wren, another species of Australian songbird. 10 First they collected sound datafrom 67 nests in four sites in Queenslandbefore and after hatching. 11 Then they identified begging calls by analyzing the
5、 order and number of notes. 12 A computer analysis blindly compared calls produced by mothers and chicks, ranking them by similarity. 13 It turns out that baby red-backed fairy wrens also emerge chirping like their moms. 14 And the more frequently mothers had called to their eggs, the more similar w
6、ere the babies begging calls. 15 In addition, the team set up a separate experiment that suggested that the baby birds that most closely imitated their moms voice were rewarded with the most food. 16 This observation hints that effective embryonic learning could signal neurological strengths of chil
7、dren to parents. 17 An evolutionary inference can then be drawn. “As a parent, do you invest in quality children, or do you invest in children that are in need?” Kleindorfer asks. “Our results suggest that they might be going for quality.”一 单词和短语Words and expressions* embryonic /embrnk/ adj. 胚芽的；胎儿的
8、* rule the roost 称雄* ornithological /:nldkl/ adj. 鸟类学的* hatch /ht/ n. & vi. & vt. 孵化imitate /mtet/ vt. 模仿；效仿* fairy /fer/ n. 仙女; 小精灵* wren /ren/ n. 鹪鹩* fairy wren 细尾鹪鹩* chirp /tp/ n. 唧唧声vi. 吱喳而鸣vt. 尖声地说emerge /md/ vi. 出现；浮现; 暴露; 摆脱* neurological /njrldkl/ adj. 神经病学的；神经学上的inference /nfrns/ n.推论；结论二 参
9、考译文Translation胎 教1出生前，婴儿可以分辨出响亮的声音和普通声音之间的区别。2它们甚至可以将母亲的声音与陌生女人的声音区分开来。3但是当谈及胎教，鸟类无可匹敌。4正如最近在海雀：鸟类学的进步那篇文章中报道的那样，一些母鸟甚至可以在孵化前教它们的小孩唱歌。5新生小鸟可以在来到这个世界的几天内模仿出它们妈妈的叫声。6这种教育方法最早是在2012年由南澳大利亚弗林德斯大学的生物学家索尼娅. 克雷恩多佛和她的同事们观察到的。7他们发现澳大利亚雌性壮丽细尾鹪鹩在孵蛋时一遍又一遍地重复一种声音。8当卵孵化出来时，幼鸟会发出与它们母亲的叫声类似的唧唧声一种用来求食的叫声。9为了弄清楚这种特殊能
10、力是否在鸟类中更为普遍，研究人员找到了另一种澳大利亚鸣鸟红背细尾鹪鹩。10首先，它们从昆士兰州四个地点的67个巢中收集了孵化前后的声音数据。11然后他们通过分析音符的顺序和数量来辨识不同的求食叫声。12计算机分析随机地比较了母鸟和小鸟的叫声，按相似性对它们进行归类。13结果表明，红背细尾鹪鹩也会像它们的妈妈一样发出唧唧声。14母鸟对着正在孵化的鸟蛋叫得越频繁，雏鸟的求食叫声与母鸟的叫声越相似。15 此外，该团队还做了另一个实验。该实验表明，模仿母鸟声音模仿得最像的幼鸟获得的食物最多。16 这一观察结果表明，好的胎教会使孩子向父母发出神经系统力量增强的信号。 17我们由此得出一个关于孩子发育方面
11、的结论：“作为父母，你是想要得到一个高质量的孩子，还是只是基于需求而要一个孩子？”柯林德费尔问道。 “我们观察的结果表明他们或许想要一个高质量的孩子。”三 理解Comprehension1.Theunderlined phrase in Paragraph 1 means “_”. A. be the worst B. be the best C. be just as bad D. be just as good2. What are Kleindorfers findings based on?A. Similarities between the calls of moms and ch
12、icks.B. The observation of fairy wrens across Australia.C. The data collected from Queenslands locals.D. Controlled experiments on wrens and other birds.3. Embryonic learning helps mother birds to identify the baby birds which_.A. can receive quality signals B. are in need of trainingC. fit the envi
13、ronment better D. make the loudest call四用另一个单词或短语替换以下摘自本文的单词或短语。Replace the following words or phrases in the passage with another word or phrase.3 could rule the roost 5 a few days of entering the world 12 chicks, ranking 13 emerge chirping like their moms 14 begging calls 15 most closely imitated 17 inference_Passage 6 三BAC 四. 3 have no equal 5 a few days of their hatching/ a few days after they hatch 12 baby birds, ranging 13 made the similar chirp to their mothers 14 chirp 15 best imitated 17 conclusion
