美国科学60秒 SSS 2012-10-17
时间：2018-12-24 作者：英语课 分类：Scientific American(十)月
英语课
Researchers have known about these high-pitched squeaky songs for years. But they only recently discovered that mice can learn the songs of other mice. Such vocal 1 learning is a rarity among animals. We know of only three kinds of birds—parrots, hummingbirds 2 and songbirds—and some mammals—like humans, whales, dolphins, sea lions, bats and elephants—that have demonstrated the ability to learn the vocal patterns of other animals. That is, until now.
Scientists at Duke University observed that when two male mice of different lineages were kept together, the animals gradually learned to match the pitch of their songs to one another. And when the researchers examined the mice, they found that the rodents 3 can also form the correct brain-to-vocal-cord connections to control the sounds they make. The research is published in the journal PLoS ONE.
The mouse songs are admittedly primitive 4. But the findings left scientists on a high note.
1 vocal
adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目
- The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
- Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。
2 hummingbirds
n.蜂鸟( hummingbird的名词复数 )
- Hummingbirds have discovered that nectar and pollen are very nutritious. 蜂鸟发现花蜜和花粉是很有营养的。
- Why do hummingbirds and gorillas both have backbones? 为什么蜂鸟和大猩猩都有脊骨？