考研英語拓展閱讀及翻譯：科學(xué)家可讓猴子說“人話”
Monkeys have the vocal tracts to produce human speech sounds, but what they lack is a speech-ready brain, a new study has found.
據(jù)一項(xiàng)新研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，猴子的聲道可以發(fā)出人類語言的聲音，但是它們?nèi)鄙僖粋�會說話的大腦。
The study, conducted by researchers from the U.S. and Europe and published this week in the U.S. journal Science Advances, used X-ray video to see within the mouth and throat of macaque monkeys induced to vocalize, eat food, or make facial expressions.
這份研究由美國和歐洲的研究者們聯(lián)合進(jìn)行、發(fā)表在本周的美國雜志《科學(xué)進(jìn)展(Science Advances)》上，在獼猴發(fā)出聲音、進(jìn)食和做出面部表情時，使用X射線頻來觀察它們嘴巴和喉嚨內(nèi)部。
The scientists then used these data to build a computer model of a monkey vocal tract, allowing them to answer the question "what would monkey speech sound like, if a human brain were in control?"
科學(xué)家們隨后用這些數(shù)據(jù)建立了一個猴子聲道的電腦模型，從而使得他們回答這一問題--“如果猴子長了人腦，那么它們的'語言是什么樣的?”
The results showed that monkeys could easily produce many different sounds, enough to produce thousands of distinct words.
結(jié)果表明猴子可以輕松地發(fā)出許多不同的聲音，足以產(chǎn)生上萬個不同的詞匯。
For example, monkeys could produce comprehensible vowel sounds -- and even full sentences -- with their vocal tracts if they had the neural ability to speak.
舉例來說，如果猴子說話的神經(jīng)能力的話，它們可以用自己的聲道說出可理解的元音--甚至是完整的句子。
The researchers noted, however, that while monkeys would be understandable to the human ear, they would not sound precisely like humans.
然而研究者們指出，雖然人類可以理解說的話，但是它們的聲音卻和人類不大一樣。
Therefore, the researchers concluded that previous research -- largely based on plaster casts made from the vocal tracts of a monkey cadaver -- underestimates primate vocal abilities and that evolution of human speech capabilities required neural changes rather than an adaptation of vocal anatomy.
因此研究者們作出結(jié)論認(rèn)為，之前的研究(很大程度上基于一只死亡猴子聲道的石膏模型)低估了靈長類動物的發(fā)聲能力，而人類語言能力進(jìn)化需要的是神經(jīng)的改變而不是聲道生理構(gòu)造的改變。
"Now nobody can say that it’s something about the vocal anatomy that keeps monkeys from being able to speak -- it has to be something in the brain," said Asif Ghazanfar, a professor of psychology at the Princeton University and one of the study leaders.
該項(xiàng)研究領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者之一、普林斯頓大學(xué)心理學(xué)教授阿西夫表示說：“現(xiàn)在沒人說猴子不能說話是因?yàn)槁暤郎順?gòu)造和人類不同啦--而是它們大腦里的東西和人類不同。”
"Even if this finding only applies to macaque monkeys, it would still debunk the idea that it’s the anatomy that limits speech in nonhumans."
“即使這一發(fā)現(xiàn)只適用于獼猴，它仍然會打破認(rèn)為非人生物在語言方面的限制是因?yàn)樗鼈兟暤郎順?gòu)造和人類不同這一思想。”
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