大学英语自学教程 上册 un05

[08:04.05]The horse is not long in learning many things connected
[08:06.92]马在学习干很多与它的活儿
[08:09.80] with the work which he has to do.
[08:11.98]有关的事情上还不算慢。
[08:14.16]The shepherd dog does not know as much about most things as some other dogs,
[08:17.54]牧羊犬对很多事情不如别的狗知道得多，
[08:20.92]and yet he understands very well how to take care of sheep.
[08:23.95]可它非常明白应该如何看管好羊群。
[08:26.98]Though animals think and learn,
[08:28.90]虽然动物既思考也学习，
[08:30.82]they do not make any real improvement in their ways of doing things,as men do.
[08:34.21]但在做事的方法上并不能像人那样有真正的改进。
[08:37.59]Each kind of bird has its own way of building a nest,
[08:40.46]每种鸟都有其独特的筑巢方式，
[08:43.34] and it is always the same way.
[08:45.47]但总是一成不变。
[08:47.60]And so of other animals.
[08:49.67]别的动物也如此。
[08:51.75]They have no new fashions,and learn none from each other.
[08:54.62]它们缺乏新的花们，也不会相互学习。
[08:57.50]But men,as you know,are always finding new ways of building houses,
[09:01.13]而人呢，正如你知道的那样，总在发现建造房屋的新方法，
[09:04.76]and improved methods of doing almost all kinds of labor.
[09:07.59]并入进了几乎所的工作的方法。
[09:10.43]Many of the things that animals know how to do
[09:13.21]有许多事情动物知道怎么做，
[09:15.99] they seem to know either without learning,
[09:18.21]但它们要么未经过学习就会，
[09:20.43]or in some way which we cannot understand.
[09:22.96]，要么是以某种我们不了解的方式学会的。
[09:25.50]They are said to do such things by instinct;
[09:28.12]据说它们凭本能就会做这些事，
[09:30.75]but no one can tell what instinct is.
[09:33.18]但没人能说清什么是本能。
[09:35.61]It is by this instinct that birds build their nests
[09:38.44]正是通过这种本能，鸟类搭巢，
[09:41.28] and beavers their dams and huts.
[09:43.50]海狸筑堤造窝。
[09:45.72]If these things were all planned and thought out just as men plan new houses,
[09:49.40]如果这些事情像人设计新房子一样有所计划，
[09:53.08]there would be some changes in the fashions of them,and some improvements.
[09:56.32]有所设想，式样上就应该有所变化，有所改进。
[09:59.56]I have spoken of the building instinct of beavers.
[10:02.54]我已经谈过海狸 的建筑本能。
[10:05.52]An English gentleman caught a young one and put him at first in a cage.
[10:09.20]一个英国绅士捉了只小海狸，先把它关在笼子里。
[10:12.88]After a while he let him out in a mom
[10:15.67]过了一会儿绅士把它放到一个有各种东西的房间里。
[10:18.45] where there was a great variety of things.
[10:20.67]小海狸一被放出来，
[10:22.89]As soon as he was let out he began to exercise his building instinct.
[10:26.57]就开始运用它的建筑本能。
[10:30.26]He gathered together whatever he could find,
[10:32.62]它把所能找到的各种东西集中起来，
[10:34.98]brushes,baskets,boots,clothes,sticks,bits of coal,etc.,
[10:39.75]如刷子、篮子、靴子、衣服、棍子、
[10:44.52] and arranged them as if to build a dam.
[10:46.95]小煤块等，把它们摆放得好像筑堤一样。
[10:49.38]Now,if he had had his wits about him,
[10:52.32]那么，如果海狸真有才智的话，
[10:55.26]he would have known that there was no use in building a dam
[10:57.99]它本应该知道
[11:00.71]where there was no water.
[11:02.49]，在没有水地方筑堤是毫无意义的。
[11:04.27]It is plain that,
[11:05.94]很明显，
[11:07.61]while animals learn about things by their senses as we do,
[11:10.75]当动物像人一样依靠感官学习时，
[11:13.88]they do not think nearly as much about what they learn,
[11:16.70]它们不像人一样对学习的东西深入思考，
[11:19.52]and this is the reason why they do not improve more rapidly.
[11:22.50]而这就是为什么它们不能得到更快提高的原因。
[11:25.48]Even the wisest of them, as the elephant and the dog,
[11:28.56]即使它们中紧聪明的动物，如大象和狗，
[11:31.64]do not think very much about what they see and hear.
[11:34.47]对所见所闻也思考不够。
[11:37.29]Nor is this all.
[11:39.10]这还不是全部原因。
[11:40.92]There are some things that we understand,
[11:43.33]我们人能理解的一些东西，
[11:45.75]but about which animals know nothing.
[11:47.97]动物对此则一无所知。
[11:50.19]They have no knowledge of anything that happens outside of their own observation .
[11:53.87]它们不了解发生在自己观察范围之外的事情。
[11:57.56]Their minds are so much unlike ours
[11:59.99]它们头脑与我们的大不一样，
[12:02.42]that they do not know the difference between right and wrong.
[12:05.24]以致无法知道对错之分。