2018年英语专业八级真题听力Mini-lecture原文(1)

Language and Humanity

语言和人类

Good morning, everyone.

大家早上好。

In today's lecture, we're going to discuss the relationship between language and humanity. As we all know, language is very powerful.

在今天的课上，我们将讨论语言和人类之间的关系。众所周知，语言是非常强大的。

It allows you to put a thought from your mind directly in someone else's mind.

它可以让你把你的想法直接放在别人的大脑里。

Languages are like genes talking, getting things they want.

语言就像会说话的基因，得到他们想要的东西。

And you just imagine the sense of wonder in a baby when it first discovers that, merely by uttering a sound, it can get objects to move across a room as if by magic, and maybe even into its mouth.

你可以想象，当一个婴儿第一次发现，仅仅通过发出一个声音，它就能让物体像中了魔法一样在房间里移动，甚至可能进入它的嘴里。

Now we need to explain how and why this remarkable trait, you know, human's ability to do things with language, has evolved, and why did this trait evolve only in our species?

现在我们需要解释这个显著的特征，也就是人类用语言做事的能力，是如何进化的，为什么进化，为什么这个特征只在我们人类身上进化？

In order to get an answer to the question, we have to go to tool use in the chimpanzees.

为了得到这个问题的答案，我们必须研究黑猩猩的工具使用。

Chimpanzees can use tools, and we take that phenomenon as a sign of their intelligence.

黑猩猩可以使用工具，我们把这种现象作为它们智力的标志。

But if they really were intelligent, why would they crack open nuts with a rock?

但如果他们真的聪明，他们为什么要用石头砸开坚果呢？

Why wouldn't they just go to a shop and buy a bag of nuts that somebody else had already cracked open for them?

他们为什么不去商店买一袋别人已经打开的坚果呢？

Why not? I mean, that's what we do.

为什么不呢？我是说，我们就是这么做的。