章鱼有多聪明？How intelligent is the octopus?

Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m Neil.
大家好，欢迎来到六分钟英语。我是尼尔。
Hello. And I’m Catherine.
大家好。我是凯瑟琳。
Now, Catherine, how do you feel about cephalopods?
现在，凯瑟琳，你觉得头足类动物怎么样？
Er …cephalopods?
额……cephalopods？
Yeah. You do know what cephalopods are, don’t you?
是的。你知道cephalopods是什么，是吧？
Yes, of course I do. It’s a new kind of ipod, isn’t it?
是的，我当然知道。它是一款新的苹果音乐播放器，不是吗？
Not exactly, no. A cephalopod is a kind of sea creature, like a squid or octopus.
实际上不是，并不是。头足类动物是一种海洋生物，像鱿鱼或者章鱼。
Oh, cephalopods, yes, of course. I know what a cephalopod is.
哦，头足类动物，是的，当然。我知道头足类动物是什么。
Of course you do. Well, today’s programme is all about one of these squishy creatures, the octopus, which apparently is a pretty clever animal. To start, here’s today’s quiz question. What is the correct plural form of octopus? Is it a) octopuses b) octopodes or c) octopi?What do you think, Catherine?
你当然知道。好的，今天节目全是关于一种黏糊糊的生物——章鱼，显然它是一种相当聪明的动物。节目开始是今天的测试问题。章鱼正确的复数形式是什么？是a) octopuses b) octopodes 还是 c) octopi?你认为是什么，凯瑟琳？
OK. I think this is a trick question. I think people think that it’s ’octopi’.But it’s actually, there’s a technical term for it, which is the correct term and that’s ’octopodes’. But some people think, like children and staff, they just put the plural ’s’ on so they say ’octopuses’. So I’m going for answer b) octopodes.
好吧，我觉得这是一个刁钻的问题。我觉得人们会认为是“octopi”。但是它实际上有一个专业术语，那是它的正确形式“octopodes”。但是一些人认为，像小孩和老师，他们只是把复数“s”加上，所以他们说是“octopuses”。所以我会说答案是b) octopodes。
Wow! Listen out for the answer at the end of the programme, just to see how right or wrong you are. Now, apparently the octopus is a remarkably intelligent creature. They have the ability to solve some complex problems and in one famous case one was even able to predict the result of World Cup football matches.
哇！在节目最后留心听答案来看看你是对是错。现在显然章鱼是一种非常聪明的生物。它们有解决某些复杂问题的能力，而且在一个很出名的事件中，有一只章鱼甚至可以预测世界杯足球赛的结果。
Oh, yes, Paul, that octopus. I don’t think he was really psychic though. It was just a publicity stunt by the zoo that had him, as a way to promote their zoo.
噢，是的，那只叫保罗的章鱼。然而我并不认为它真的是超能力者。那只是它所在动物园的炒作，作为推广他们动物园的一种手段。
It may have been a publicity stunt, but he was actually quite accurate. In fact, he correctly predicted the result of 12 matches out of 14 - that’s 86%. Not bad, eh?
它或许是一个炒作，但事实上它十分准确。事实上，14场比赛中，它正确预测出12场比赛的结果，那占了86%。不错了吧，嗯？
That’s amazing. I didn’t know he was that good. Anyway, Neil, tell us more about the octopus.
难以置信。我不知道它那么棒。不管怎样，尼尔，告诉我们更多关于那只章鱼的信息。
Well, I’ll leave that to Peter Godfrey-Smith, philosopher of science and author of Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness. He is quite a fan of our eight-tentacled friends. On the BBC Radio 4 programme Start the Week he said that humans and the octopus have a common ancestor. This is a term in science which means ’a creature from which both species evolved’. Like a very distant relative. How long ago does he say this common ancestor lived?
好的，我会把那留给皮特?戈弗雷?史密斯来解释。他是一名科学哲学家以及《他心：章鱼，海洋，意识的深层起源》的作者。他是我们八触手朋友——章鱼的大粉丝。在BBC广播4频道的节目《一周伊始》中，他说人类和章鱼有共同的祖先。这是科学领域的一个术语，指的是从一种生物进化而来的物种。就像远亲。他说这个共同的祖先生活在多久以前？
We got the octopus as a very special evolutionary product. It’s an animal that’s removed from us by a lot of evolutionary distance. The common ancestor that we share with an octopus lived about 600 million years ago or actually even a bit longer than that. But it has a large nervous system in a range comparable to vertebrates.
我们觉得章鱼是一种非常特别的进化产物。它是一种进化距离和我们很远的生物。我们和章鱼的共同祖先生活在大约6亿年前或者实际上比那更久远。但是它有一套庞大的神经系统，在很大程度上和脊椎动物相似。
So our common ancestor lived about 600 million years ago or maybe a little bit longer than that.
所以我们共同的祖先生活在大约6亿年以前，或者是比那更久远。
And he says that the octopus has a nervous system that is comparable to vertebrates. Comparable means ’similar to’, ’like’.And vertebrates is the term for the group of animals that have a spine or backbone. We humans are examples of vertebrates.
而且他说章鱼的神经系统和脊椎动物相似。Comparable指的是“相似”，“像”。而且脊椎动物是有脊椎或者脊骨的动物的术语。我们人类就是脊椎动物的例子。
So what Godfrey-Smith is saying is that the squishy octopus has a nervous system which has some similarities to our own.In that it’s quite large.
所以戈弗雷·史密斯说的是黏糊糊的章鱼有和我们相似的神经系统。因而它的神经系统相当庞大。
And a large nervous system is a sign of intelligence. He goes on to talk a bit more about how we might be able to relate to the octopus. He talks about the protean nature of its body. Protean is an adjective which means ’adaptable or changeable’. And the octopus’s body is certainly that. Why might that be a problem for us?
而且庞大的神经系统是智慧的象征。他会继续谈到更多关于我们如何和章鱼有所关联的内容。他谈到了章鱼千变万化的身体特征。Protean是一个形容词，指的是“随机应变的或者变化无常的”。而且章鱼的身体确实是那样的。为什么对我们来说那或许是个问题？
The sensory world of an octopus has, in some way it’s recognisable. They’re very visual animals, they’re very taste-oriented animals and those things make sense to us. But the absence of hard parts, the protean nature of the body and the sort of extent of the sensitivity makes it a hard thing to think about.
章鱼所拥有的感官世界在某种程度上来说是可识别的。他们是非常视觉性的动物，是非常重视味觉的动物。而且那些对我们来说很有意义。但是没有脊椎，千变万化的身体特征以及敏感性让人很难想象它是聪明的。
This is interesting, isn’t it? So the octopus uses its senses of vision and taste, like we do, and this is something we can recognise. But what is tricky for us is that its form is so completely different from ours. The octopus isn’t a vertebrate, so it can change its form and its shape very easily.
这很有趣，不是吗？所以章鱼使用它的视觉和味觉，就像我们一样，而且这是我们承认的。但是对我们来说棘手的是它的形态和我们如此不同。章鱼不是脊椎动物，所以它可以非常容易地改变自己的形态和形状。
Yes, we’re not used to thinking of soft squishy things having intelligence. And speaking of intelligence, we’ve been very careful not to use the plural of octopus so as not to give away the answer to today’s question, which was: what’s the correct plural form? a) octopuses b) octopodes /?k?t?p??d??z/ or c) octopi ?Catherine, you said…
是的，我们不习惯说柔软的，黏黏糊糊的东西聪明。而且说到聪明，为了不泄露今天问题的答案，我们一直很小心不使用章鱼的复数形式。今天的问题是：哪个是正确的复数形式？a) octopuses b) octopodes 还是 c) octopi？凯瑟琳，你说……
Well, I said that some people think it’s ’octopuses’, a lot of people think it’s ’octopi’, but the actual answer is ’octopodes’.
好吧，我说有些人认为是“octopuses”，很多人认为是“octopi”，但是真正的答案是“octopodes”。
And you’re completely right. Congratulations!
你完全正确，恭喜你！
Thank you. So let’s review today’s vocabulary. Cephalopod is the name of the group of animals to which the octopus belongs.
谢谢。所以让我们回顾一下今天的词汇吧。头足类动物是章鱼所属于的种群的名字。
Publicity stunt is something a company might do to grab your attention and promote its products. Like claiming an octopus can predict the winner of football matches.
炒作是公司或许为了吸引你的注意以及推销自己产品所作出的事情。就像宣称章鱼可以预测足球比赛的冠军。
A common ancestor is a distant relative from which two different species evolved.
共同的祖先是进化为两个不同物种的远亲。
Comparable to means ’similar to’. And vertebrates are animals that have a spine.
Comparable to指的是“相似”。而且脊椎动物是有脊椎的动物。
And then finally we had protean, this adjective means ’adaptable and changeable’.
然后最后我们提到了protean，这个形容词指的是“随机应变的，变化无常的”。
Time now for us to say goodbye. But remember you can find us on --Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube as well as our website, bbclearningenglish.com. So be sure to check us on one, several or all of those before joining us again. Goodbye.
现在到了我们说再见的时候。但是记得，你可以在Instagram，Twitter，YouTube以及我们的网址bbclearningenglish.com上找到我们。所以在再次加入我们之前，一定要查看其中的一个，多个甚至是所有啊。再见。
Bye!
拜！