(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
City dwellers can attest that the animals they share the city with—the pigeons, rats, roaches—can be pretty brazen when they're prowling for a bite.
While visiting Barbados, McGill University neurobiologist Jean-Nicolas Audet, noticed that local bullfinches were accomplished thieves.
"They were always trying to steal our food.
And we can see those birds entering in supermarkets, trying to steal food there."
And that gave him an idea.
"Since this bird species is able to solve amazing problems in cities, and they're also present in rural areas, we were wondering" are the rural birds also good problem-solvers, and they just don't take advantage of their abilities?
Or are they fundamentally different?
So Audet and his McGill colleagues captured Barbados bullfinches, both in the island's towns and out in the countryside.
They then administered the bird equivalent of personality and IQ tests:assessing traits like boldness and fear, or timing how quickly the finches could open a puzzle box full of seeds.
And it turns out the city birds really could solve puzzles faster.
They were bolder, too, except when it came to dealing with new objects—perhaps assuming, unlike their more naive country cousins, that new things can either mean reward…or danger.
The study is in the journal Behavioral Ecology.
The city birds bested their country counterparts in another trait:they have more robust immune systems, possibly from scavenging food and water in dirty places.
Which suggests that sometimes, a city's dirt and grit could be the very thing that gives avian residents a wing up.
参考译文
城市里的居民可以作证，与他们共同生活在城市中的鸽子、老鼠、蟑螂等动物在捕猎时非常厚颜无耻。
麦吉尔大学的神经生物学家简恩尼古拉斯·奥德特在参观巴巴多斯时发现当地的红腹灰雀是技艺娴熟的小偷。
“它们一直都在偷我们的食物。
而且我们发现这些鸟会进入超级市场，试图偷那里的食物。”
而这给了奥德特灵感。
既然这种鸟能在城市中解决令人称奇的问题，我们就想到，身处偏远乡村地区的它们是否也能很好的解决问题，还是只是没有善加利用自己的能力呢？
或者这些鸟是因地区而完全不同呢?
因此奥德特和他的同事们抓来了巴巴多斯城镇及乡村的红腹灰雀进行比较研究。
而后他们对这种鸟的性格及智商进行了评估测试：其中包括胆量及恐惧等特征测试环节，以及红腹灰雀琢开一个装满种子的谜题箱需要多长时间。
结果表明城市中的红腹灰雀能够更快的解决难题。
同时它们的胆子也更大。但在应对新鲜事物方面则是乡村鸟儿更胜一筹，因为新鲜的事物对它们而言要么是奖励，要么是危险。
这项研究已在《行为生态学》杂志上发表。
城市的红腹灰雀在另外一个方面也占据优势：它们有更强健的免疫系统，可能是其本身清除食物及水中脏东西的能力所致。
这表明，有时一个城市的污垢和砂砾可能对生活在其中的鸟类居民而言至关重要。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
重点讲解
1.equivalent of 等效
例句:It is common to ask for the equivalent of a month's rent as a deposit.
要求交一个月的房租作押金是很常见的。
2.share with 分享
例句:All artists have part of themselves that they can never share with anyone else.
所有艺术家内心深处都有一些不愿和他人分享的东西。
3.turn out 转出
例句:It's turned out nice again.
天气又突然转好了。
4.deal with 处理
例句:In dealing with suicidal youngsters, our aims should be clear.
在对待有自杀倾向的青少年时，我们的目标应当很明确。
