2021-2022学年学英语报九年级第15期答案及试题

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Parrots have been known to repeat words, but have you ever thought how they communicate? New research has found that wild parrots are actually given names by their parents.

According to a study led by Karl Berg of Cornell University in the US, nestlings (雏鸟) are given a special sound of their own, which stays with them through their lives. In the study, the team placed hidden cameras in the nests of 17 different wild parrots. After studying their sounds, the team found the differences in the calls parents used to communicate with each baby parrot. And the baby birds seemed to know the calls.

Sounds very similar to humans, doesn’t it?

The study also proved that these different calls are made socially not genetically (基因上地).To do this, scientists switched the eggs in nine of the 17 nests, so that half of the parrots were raising nestlings that weren’t theirs. Using the recordings, the scientists are sure that the nestlings all used names similar to those the parents (whether biological or non-biological) called them for the first weeks of their lives.

Lucie McNeil, from National Geographic, said, “this would be the first proven example of a non-human species teaching acoustical (声学的) communication.”

Karl Berg told National Public Radio of the US, “Most people say all those calls are just noise, but I think they’re having conversations.”

Fox News also asked Berg what else the parrots might be saying. He replied, “They may decide where the food is or if they should go 3 km North-Northwest. These are sorts of arguing or discussing.”

You never know, if the science of animal translation keeps developing, we might one day be watching a reality show about parrots.