(单词翻译:单击)
数数对于人类来说，是再容易不过的一件事情。但你想知道动物也能数数吗？来听听加州大学研究人员的发现吧。猴子、蜥蜴、鱼，甚至蜜蜂，都能识数。那么自然界中的算术能力是怎样进化来的？动物们为什么需要识数呢？
【英文原文】
Can Animals Count?
Can animals count? People count easily, from the time we are little kids and learn our one-two-threes. But what about other species?Now careful observations in the wild support the idea that some can.
The American coot is a duck-like North American bird. Sometimes a coot will try and sneak one of its eggs into a neighbor’s nest. Some coots recognize the deception, and roll the stranger’s egg out again. Others don’t catch on, and raise the stranger’s egg as their own.
Researcher Bruce Lyon at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his team observed a series of coot nests for four seasons, noting which birds could spot a stranger’s eggs and which couldn’t. Then they compared how many eggs each kind laid.
Their finding? The coots that couldn’t tell when a stranger’s egg had been stuck into their nest laid that many fewer of their own–sneak one in, the coot lays one fewer.
Sneak two in, the coot lays two fewer. Coots that successfully spotted intruders knocked them out again and then laid the same number they normally would.
If the number of eggs laid were independent of how many the coot sees in its nest, coots that allow a stranger’s egg should wind up with one egg extra. But they don’t.
Lyon argues that, along with egg recognition, the coots must therefore be doing some version of “I see I have nine eggs here–time to stop laying now.” And that means coots count.
Other researchers aren’t convinced. But though the debate goes on, the case for animal counting just got stronger…by the weight of one coot.
重点词汇
1.sneak vi. 偷偷地走，偷偷地做
如：The cat ate the food and sneaked off.
猫吃完食物就偷偷跑了。
He sneaked a chocolate from the box.
他从盒子里偷拿了一块巧克力。
2.deception n. 骗局，诡计，欺诈
如：His pretended friendship was part of the deception.
他所谓的友谊是一种骗局。
It was an innocent deception, meant as a joke.
那是个无伤大雅的骗术，开个玩笑而已。
3.a series of 一系列，一连串
如：The student always asks his teacher a series of questions.
这个学生总是问他老师一连串的问题。
The business cycle is a series of peaks and troughs.
商业周期就是淡旺期交替。
4.intruder n. 侵入者，干扰者，妨碍者
如：The dog jumped at the intruder with frenzied barks.
那狗狂吠著跳起扑向闯进来的人。
We hid behind the bushes, ready to pounce on the intruder.
我们藏在灌木丛后，准备向来犯者发起突然袭击。
5.wind up with 以 ... 结束
