Dogs can tell language difference狗可以区分语言的差异性

匈牙利的一项研究似乎表明，狗能够区分熟悉的和陌生的语言。研究人员表示，这是非人类大脑第一次被证明具有这种能力。

主题语境：人与自然 篇幅：327词 建议用时：7分钟

1 Dogs can tell the difference between different languages， researchers in Hungary have found. For their study， the researchers played recordings of the story The Little Prince in both Spanish and Hungarian to a group of 18 dogs. Then they examined how the animals' brains reacted.

2 The study was led by Laura V. Cuaya at Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest. She moved to Hungary from Mexico a few years ago and brought her dog Kun⁃kun with her. “I wondered whether Kun⁃kun noticed that people in Budapest spoke a different language， Hungarian，” she said. She said the study found for the first time that a non⁃human brain can “distinguish between languages”.

3 During the experiment， Kun⁃kun and other dogs were trained to lie down in a brain scanner for several minutes. Every dog in the study had heard only one of two languages

spoken by their owners—either Hungarian or Spanish. Then researchers compared how their brains reacted to a highly familiar language and to a completely unfamiliar one. Cuaya said that dogs could understand the differences in how the two languages are spoken.

Spanish， she said， is more melodic （有旋律的）， while Hungarian is more monotone （单调的）. “We believe that dogs detect that，” she said.

4 The dogs listened to parts of The Little Prince in Spanish and Hungarian. Researchers also played scrambled versions of the story to test if they could hear the difference between speech and non⁃speech. To scramble a recording means to change it so that listeners are not able to understand it.

5 When comparing brain reactions， researchers found clear activity in the dogs' primary auditory—or hearing—area of the brain. That suggested that they can distinguish between speech and non⁃speech. The dogs' secondary auditory area is for understanding complex sounds. This part of the dogs' brains produced different activity patterns when they heard a familiar language compared to an unfamiliar language. The researchers also found that the older the dogs were， the better they were able to distinguish between the two languages.

Reading Check

Detail

1. What can we know about dogs in the study？

A. They were all brought from Mexico.

B. They could hear only two languages.

C. They were trained for speaking languages.

D. They could tell languages better with aging.

Detail

2. Why can dogs tell the differences between languages？

A. They have different secondary auditory areas.

B. They are able to understand complex sounds.

C. They can feel different rhythms of languages.

D. They are good at telling different activity patterns.

Vocabulary

3. What does the underlined word “scramble” in paragraph 4 most probably mean？

A. Understand. B. Disturb. C. Play. D. Sort. Inference

4. Which statement about dogs does the author agree with？

A. Dogs can distinguish between languages.

B. Dogs can speak two different languages.

C. Dogs have the ability to learn languages.

D. Dogs have the same brains as humans.

anguage Study

Difficult sentence in the text

“I  wondered  whether  Kun⁃kun  noticed  that  people  in  Budapest  spoke  a  different

language， Hungarian，” she said. 她说：“我想知道Kun⁃kun是否注意到布达佩斯的人们说的是不同的语言——匈牙利语。”

【点石成金】本句是主从复合句。引号里面的句子是宾语从句，作动词said的宾语;宾语从句中，whether引导的又是一个宾语从句;后面的that引导的还是个宾语从句。