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JoshuaKlein_2008-_乌鸦的智慧_
How many of you have seen the Alfred Hitchcock film "The Birds"? 这里有多少人看过希区柯克的电影《鸟》？
Any of you get really freaked out by that? 是不是认为那片子太过离奇了？
freaked:v.(使)强烈反应,震惊,畏惧;(freak的过去分词和过去式)
You might want to leave now. 要是那样的话,你现在可以走了。
(Laughter) （笑声）
So this is a vending machine for crows . 大家看到的是一台专门为乌鸦设计的自动售货机。
vending machine:n.(出售香烟,饮料等的)投币式自动售货机; crows:n.[鸟]乌鸦(crow的复数形式);望风者;v.啼叫;吹嘘(crow的三单形式);
And over the past few days, many of you have been asking me, "How did you come to this? How did you get started doing this?" 过去几天,人们都在问我同样的问题: “你怎么开始搞这玩意的？有什么吸引你的地方吗？”
And it started, as with many great ideas, or many ideas you can't get rid of anyway, at a cocktail party . 说实话,这玩意就像很多伟大的想法, 或者一些你无法在脑中驱散的想法一样, 是从一次鸡尾酒派对产生的。
cocktail party:n.鸡尾酒会;
About 10 years ago, I was at a cocktail party with a friend of mine and we're sitting there, and he was complaining about the crows that he had seen that were all over his yard and making a big mess . 大概十年前,我与一个朋友在一个鸡尾酒派对上, 我们坐在那,他一直在抱怨乌鸦 乌鸦们把他的院子搞得一团糟。
complaining:adj.抱怨的;v.抱怨;控诉;(complain的现在分词) mess:n.混乱;餐厅;杂乱;肮脏;v.使不整洁;弄脏;弄乱;随地便溺;
And he was telling me that really, we ought to try and eradicate these things. 他那时很认真的跟我说,我们得想办法消灭这些鬼东西,
eradicate:vt.根除,根绝;消灭;
We gotta kill them because they're making a mess. 否则我们就不会有好日子过。
I said that was stupid, you know, maybe we should just train them to do something useful. 我跟他说,那才是坏主意呢, 咱们为何不训练它们,让乌鸦帮我们人类做一点有意义的事情？
And he said that was impossible. 他丢给我一句“那不可能”。
And I'm sure I'm in good company in finding that tremendously annoying 我相信绝对不只我一人觉得这极度恼人
tremendously:adv.非常地;可怕地;惊人地; annoying:adj.烦人的;使生气的;使烦恼的;v.使生气;打扰;骚扰;(annoy的现在分词)
- when someone tells you it's impossible. ——当有人告诉你“那不可能”时。
So I spent the next 10 years reading about crows in my spare time. 于是决定用10年的时间在我的业余时间专门研究乌鸦。
spare:v.节约,吝惜;饶恕;分出,分让;adj.多余的;瘦的;少量的;n.剩余;备用零件;
(Laughter) （笑声）
And after 10 years of this, my wife eventually said, "Look, you know, you gotta do this thing you've been talking about and build the vending machine." 现在10年过去了,我妻子说, “好吧,你也该把它做出来了, 你不是一直说要给乌鸦们做一个自动售货机么？”
eventually:adv.最后,终于;
So I did. 于是我就把它做出来了。
But part of the reason that I found this interesting is that I started noticing that we are very aware of all the species that are going extinct on the planet as a result of human habitation expansion , and no-one seems to be paying attention to all the species that are actually living -- that are surviving. 但我对这个项目感兴趣还有部分原因是因为 我开始注意到我们人类已经意识到 有很多物种因为人类无止尽的扩张 将会在地球上灭绝。 但貌似没人对那些 还生存在世上的物种有所关心——它们都还真正地活着。
species:n.[生物]物种;种类; extinct:adj.灭绝的,绝种的;熄灭的;vt.使熄灭; as a result:结果; habitation:n.居住;住所; expansion:n.扩张;膨胀;扩展;扩大;
And I'm talking specifically about synanthropic species, which are species that have adapted specifically for human ecologies. 这里我指的是那些长期与人共处, 并适应了人类生态系统的动物。
specifically:adv.特别地;明确地; adapted:adj.适于…的; v.使适应,使适合; (adapt的过去分词和过去式)
Species like rats and cockroaches and crows. 这样的动物包括老鼠、蟑螂、乌鸦。
cockroaches:n.[昆]蟑螂(cockroach的复数);
And as I started looking at them, I was finding that they had hyper-adapted. 而假如你仔细观察的话,你会发现所有的这类动物都已经对人类社会产生了高度的适应性,
They'd become extremely adept at living with us. 并且随着继续与人生活在一起,它们的适应性还加变得更强。
extremely:adv.非常,极其;极端地; adept:adj.熟练的;擅长…的;n.内行;能手;
And in return, we just tried to kill them all the time. 但反观人类呢,我们只是一直在不断屠杀它们而已。
And in doing so, we were breeding them for parasitism . 为了做到这点,人类用喂养的方式来让它们寄生于我们
breeding:n.繁殖;饲养;教养;再生;v.生产;培育;使…繁殖;(breed的现在分词) parasitism:n.寄生状态;寄生病;
We were giving them all sorts of reasons to adapt new ways. 我们给了动物们适应新环境的各种理由。
So for example, rats are incredibly responsive breeders . 比如:老鼠的生育能力变得超强。
incredibly:adv.难以置信地;非常地; responsive:adj.响应的;应答的;回答的; breeders:n.饲养员(breeder的复数);增殖(反应)堆;产仔的动物;
And cockroaches, as anyone who's tried to get rid of them knows, have become really immune to the poisons that we're using. 而蟑螂,逮过蟑螂的人都知道, 它们已经不在乎我们的“诱饵”了。
immune:adj.免疫的;免于…的,免除的;n.免疫者;免除者;
So I thought, let's build something that's mutually beneficial . 于是我想,为何不制造出一些能让我们人类和这些“寄生虫”共同受益的东西呢？
mutually:adv.互相地;互助; beneficial:adj.有益的,有利的;可享利益的;
Well, then let's build something that we can both benefit from, and find some way to make a new relationship with these species. 以此和这些动物建立一种新型的关系,一种互利的关系。 从而让人类找到一条与其共处的新路子。
And so I built the vending machine. 这就是我制作动物专用自动售货机的理由。
But the story of the vending machine is a little more interesting if you know more about crows. 不过如果你多了解一下乌鸦, 这个自动售货机的故事会更有趣。
It turns out that crows aren't just surviving with human beings -- they're actually really thriving . 乌鸦们不仅仅是在人类环境中‘生存’得不错—— 事实上,他们活得还很精彩。
thriving:v.兴旺发达;繁荣;旺盛;茁壮成长;(thrive的现在分词)
They're found everywhere on the planet except for the Arctic and the southern tip of South America . 你在地球上任何一处角落——除了两极和南美至南端—— 都可以见得到乌鸦。
Arctic:adj.北极的;北极地区的;极冷的;严寒的;n.北极;北极地区; tip:n.小窍门,小费;v.给…小费;使倾斜; South America:n.南美洲;
And in all that area, they're only rarely found breeding more than five kilometers away from human beings. 通常它们的栖息地离人类居所 不出5公里。
rarely:adv.很少地;难得;罕有地;
So we may not think about them, but they're always around. 虽然你也许不会想到这一点, 可是它们确确实实一直都这么活在我们身边。
And not surprisingly , given the human population growth -- more than half of the human population is living in cities now. 这也不奇怪,我们的地球上人口暴涨, 其中有半数以上居住在城市。
surprisingly:adv.令人惊讶地;出乎意料地
And out of those, nine-tenths of the human growth population is occurring in cities. 除此之外,90%的人口增长 就都发生在城市里——
occurring:n.事件;事故;事变;
We're seeing a population boom with crows. 乌鸦这个种群也在经历同样的发展。
boom:n.繁荣;吊杆;v.激增;繁荣昌盛;轰鸣;轰响;adj.(美)猛涨起来的;
So bird counts are indicating that we might be seeing up to exponential growth in their numbers. 所以鸟类的数量在我们看来 将会有一个爆炸型的增长,
indicating:v.表明;显示;象征;暗示;(indicate的现在分词) exponential:adj.指数的;n.指数;
So that's no great surprise. 这并没有什么奇怪的。
But what was really interesting to me was to find out that the birds were adapting in a pretty unusual way. 但令我感到吃惊的是这些鸟儿竟然学会了 通过一些奇特的方式在我们的社会里求得生存。
adapting:v.使适应,使适合;适应;改编;改写;(adapt的现在分词)
And I'll give you an example of that. 大家看看下面的例子:
So this is Betty . She's a New Caledonian crow. 它的名字是Betty,它是一只New Caledonia（北美地名）的乌鸦。
Betty:n.贝蒂(皮包品牌); Caledonian:adj.苏格兰的;古苏格兰的;n.苏格兰人;古苏格兰人;
And these crows use sticks in the wild to get insects and whatnot out of pieces of wood. 在森林里,它们会用树枝从林木里 挑出虫子和其他食物。
whatnot:n.放古董的架子;不可名状的东西;
Here she's trying to get a piece of meat out of a tube. 此时它正尝试用铁线取出瓶子里的那块肉。
But the researchers had a problem. 但是研究者们遇到了一个问题。
They messed up and left just a stick of wire in there. 他们把试验搞砸了,因为只留下了一根线在那里。
messed:v.使不整洁;弄脏;弄乱;随地便溺(mess的过去分词和过去式)
And she hadn't had the opportunity to do this before. 而Betty以前可没尝试过这样的挑战。
You see, it wasn't working very well. 你可以看到,它进行得并不顺利。
So she adapted. 于是它想出了一个新法子。
Now this is completely unprompted . She had never seen this done before. 要知道,它没有看到过别的乌鸦这么做。
unprompted:adj.自发的;未受提示的;
No one taught her to bend this into a hook; had shown her how it could happen. 之前也没有任何人或者别的乌鸦教它如何把线弯成钩子; 或者告诉过它可以通过这种方式捞肉。
But she did it all on her own. 这完全是它自己想出来的办法。
So keep in mind that she's never seen this done. 请一定记得它以前从没有学过的哦。
keep in mind:记住;
Right. 就这样。
(Laughter) (笑声)
Yeah. All right. 对,就这样。
(Applause) (鼓掌)
So that's the part where the researchers freak out. 这才是研究人员觉得不可思议的地方。
(Laughter) (笑声)
So it turns out we've been finding more and more that crows are really, really intelligent . 我们发现越来越多的证据表明 乌鸦的确是聪明的,
intelligent:adj.有才智的;悟性强的;聪明的;有智力的
Their brains are proportionate , in the same proportion as chimpanzee brains are. 它们的大脑占躯体的比例 和大猩猩相当。
proportionate:adj.成比例的;相称的;适当的;vt.使成比例;使相称; chimpanzee:n.[脊椎]黑猩猩;
There's all kinds of anecdotes for different kinds of intelligence they have. 大家也可能听过各种各样的关于乌鸦的趣闻吧。
anecdotes:n.奇闻轶事(anecdote的复数); intelligence:n.智力;智慧;才智;(尤指关于敌国的)情报;
For example, in Sweden, crows will wait for fishermen to drop lines through holes in the ice. 比如,在瑞典, 那里的乌鸦会趁渔人往冰隙里放钓钩的时候守在一边,
And when the fishermen move off, the crows fly down, reel up the lines, and eat the fish or the bait . 当渔人走了, 它们就飞过去拉起钓钩,吃掉钩上的鱼或钓饵。
reel:vi.卷;眩晕;蹒跚地走;退缩;vt.卷;使旋转;n.蹒跚;眩晕;旋转; bait:v.引诱;在…中放诱饵;折磨;n.饵;诱饵;vi.中途休息;
It's pretty annoying for the fishermen. 这可是搞得那里的渔人很烦恼。
On an entirely different tack , at University of Washington, they -- a few years ago, were doing an experiment where they captured some crows on campus . 而在华盛顿大学, 那里的研究员几年前 做了一个截然不同的实验。
tack:n.方针;方法;大头钉;v.抢风行驶;钉住; captured:adj.捕获的;被俘的;v.捕获;占领;引起;(capture的过去式和过去分词) campus:n.(大学)校园;大学,大学生活;校园内的草地;
Some students went out and netted some crows, brought them in, and were -- weighed them, and measured them and whatnot, and then let them back out again. 他们在校园里捉来一些乌鸦, 在实验室里加以标记、称量, 然后把它们放走。
measured:adj.缓慢谨慎的; v.测量; (measure的过去分词和过去式)
And were entertained to discover that for the rest of the week, these crows, whenever these particular students walked around campus, these crows would caw at them, and run around and make their life kind of miserable . 而随后的那个星期, 他们惊喜地发现,那些被放走的乌鸦 在校园里一见到那些捉过它们的学生, 就会冲着他们鸣叫, 并在他们周围飞来飞去,给他们的生活增添一些小烦恼。
run around:n.遁词;借口; miserable:adj.悲惨的;痛苦的;卑鄙的;
They were significantly less entertained when this went on for the next week. 但之后几个星期还是如此,他们就不再那么惊喜了。
significantly:adv.意味深长地;值得注目地;
And the next month. And after summer break. 甚至到了下个月,到了夏季学期结束,
Until they finally graduated and left campus -- and glad to get away, I'm sure -- came back sometime later, and found the crows still remembered them. 到了他们毕业离校了—— 我相信他们是很高兴地离去的—— 可当他们偶尔回校来看看时,那些乌鸦还是记得他们。
finally:adv.终于;最终;(用于列举)最后;彻底地;
So -- the moral being, don't piss off crows. 所以——大家看到了吧,千万别惹乌鸦。
moral:n.寓意;品行;教益;adj.道德的;道义上的;道德上的;品行端正的; piss off:惹恼;滚开;
So now, students at the University of Washington that are studying these crows do so with a giant wig and a big mask. 正是这样的缘故, 现在华盛顿大学做乌鸦研究的学生 都带上巨大的假发,还套上面具。
giant:n.巨人;伟人;巨兽;adj.巨大的;特大的 wig:n.假发;v.激动;发狂;使戴假发;斥责
(Laughter) (笑声)
It's fairly interesting. 这真是令人哑然的一件事。
fairly:adv.相当地;公平地;简直;
So we know that these crows are really smart, but the more I dug into this, the more I found that they actually have an even more significant adaptation . 以上说的无非是要证明乌鸦是非常聪明的, 但我研究得越是深入, 越是觉得它们的智慧要比我们想象的高出一个层次。
adaptation:n.适应;改编;改编本,改写本;
Video: Crows have become highly skilled at making a living in these new urban environments. 视频:在新的城市环境中, 乌鸦们的谋生技能正在变得越来越娴熟。
highly:adv.高度地;非常;非常赞许地; skilled:adj.熟练的;有技能的;需要技能的; urban:adj.城市的;都市的;城镇的;都市音乐的;
In this Japanese city, they have devised a way of eating a food that normally they can't manage -- drop it among the traffic. 这是一座日本城市, 这里的乌鸦发明了一种吃果仁的办法—— 把坚果丢到车道上。
devised:v.设计(devise的过去式和过去分词);计划;发明; normally:adv.正常地;通常地,一般地;
The problem now is collecting the bits without getting run over. 然后飞走, 等待汽车开过。
Wait for the light to stop the traffic. 之后它们在马路边等待绿灯,
Then, collect your cracked nut in safety. 然后飞到马路中央安全地衔走那颗果仁
cracked:adj.疯狂;破裂的;有裂纹的;v.破裂;裂开;断裂;(crack的过去分词和过去式)
(Laughter) (笑声)
(Applause) (掌声)
Joshua Klein: Yeah, yeah. Pretty interesting. Joshua Klein: 看看,这是不是挺有趣的？
Joshua:n.约书亚;约书亚书;
So what's significant about this isn't that crows are using cars to crack nuts. 不过,有趣的倒不是借助过往车辆压开果核的做法,
In fact, that's old hat for crows. 事实上,乌鸦老早就学会了这门手艺了。
This happened about 10 years ago in a place called Sendai City, at a driving school in the suburbs of Tokyo. 刚才大家看到的景象 发生在10年前东京市郊的 一家驾驶学校附近。
driving school:n.驾驶学校; suburbs:n.郊外(suburb的复数);
And since that time, all of the crows in the neighborhood are picking up this behavior. 从那时开始, 附近的乌鸦也学会了这样的吃坚果的方式。
neighborhood:n.附近;地区;街坊;adj.附近的;
And now, every crow within five kilometers is standing by a sidewalk waiting to collect its lunch. 如今,方圆五公里内的乌鸦都在人行道旁守候着, 等待过往车辆为他们带来午餐。
sidewalk:n.人行道;
So they're learning from each other. And research bears this out. 乌鸦通过互相学习,都掌握了这种技巧。
Parents seem to be teaching their young. 乌鸦父母还教会自己的孩子这样的技巧呢。
They've learned from their peers; they've learned from their enemies. 它们向同伴学习,也向它们的敌人学习。
If I have a little extra time , I'll tell you about a case of crow infidelity that illustrates that nicely . 如果我还有更多演讲时间,我会告诉你们一个有关乌鸦背信的案例 来更好地证明我的观点。
extra time:n.[体]加时(赛);延长(赛); infidelity:n.(夫妻或伴侣间的)不忠行为;通奸; illustrates:v.阐明;举例说明(illustrate的三单形式);给…加插图; nicely:adv.细致地;有吸引力;令人满意;令人愉快;adj.强健的;
The point being that they've developed cultural adaptation. 最关键的是它们学会了适应不同的生态文化。
cultural:adj.与文化有关的;文化的;与艺术、文学、音乐等有关的;
And as we heard yesterday, that's the Pandora's Box that's getting human beings in trouble, and we're starting to see it with them. 就如昨天我们听到的那样, 是潘多拉之盒将人类引入混乱, 现在是开始着手解决它的时候了。
They're able to very quickly and very flexibly adapt to new challenges and new resources in their environment, which is really useful if you live in a city. 他们能快速且融洽地适应 新的挑战及环境中的新资源, 对于城市生活来说,这可真有用。
flexibly:adv.灵活地;易曲地;柔软地;有弹性地; resources:n.[计][环境]资源; v.向…提供资金(resource的第三人称单数);
So we know that there's lots of crows. 好了,现在我们都知道城市里有大量的乌鸦,
We found out they're really smart, and we found out that they can teach each other. 它们很聪明,还懂得相互间分享生存的秘诀。
And when all this became clear to me, 当我知道这一切以后,
I realized the only obvious thing to do is build a vending machine. 我决定要专门为它们做一台自动售货机。
obvious:adj.明显的;显著的;平淡无奇的;
So that's what we did. 并且还做成功了。
This is a vending machine for crows. 这就是乌鸦专用自动售货机:
And it uses Skinnerian training to shape their behavior over four stages. 我们用斯金纳(操作性条件反射)理论,分四阶段训练法来训练乌鸦。
It's pretty simple. 其实也很简单。
Basically , what happens is that we put this out in a field, or someplace where there's lots of crows, and we put coins and peanuts all around the base of the machine. 首先,我们把这样的机器放到田野 或者乌鸦经常出没的地方。 在机器的底部放上一大堆的硬币和花生。
Basically:adv.主要地,基本上; peanuts:花生(peanut的复数)
And crows eventually come by and eat the peanuts and get used to the machine being there. 乌鸦来了,吃掉机器上的花生, 并且也习惯了机器的存在。
get used to:开始习惯于
And eventually, they eat up all the peanuts. 吃光了地面的花生以后,
And then they see that there are peanuts here on the feeder tray , and they hop up and help themselves. 它们发现在售货机的出货口那里也有很多花生, 于是就跳到上面,也同样尽享美味。
feeder:n.支线;喂食器;奶瓶;饲养员;支流; tray:n.盘;托盘;碟;(各种用途的)浅塑料盒; hop:n.啤酒花;单足短距离跳跃;;v.单脚跳行;齐足(或双足)跳行;突然快速去某处;
And then they leave, and the machine spits up more coins and peanuts, and life is really dandy if you're a crow. 每一天,那机器上都会放满了硬币和花生。 嘿,要是当那样的一只乌鸦也不错哟,
dandy:adj.上等的,极好的(口语);服装华丽的;n.花花公子;好打扮的人;
Then you can come back anytime and get yourself a peanut. 每天都不愁吃的。
So when they get really used to that, we move on to the crows coming back. 当它们都习惯这样的生活或,我们继续下一步
Now, they're used to the sound of the machine, and they keep coming back, and digging out these peanuts from amongst the pile of coins that's there. 我们等到乌鸦都习惯于机器的声音,就把花生盖在硬币底下, 它们飞过来,掀开硬币,
amongst:prep.在…之中;在…当中(等于among); pile:n.桩;堆;摞;桩柱;v.堆放;摞起;叠放;放置;
And when they get really happy about this, we go ahead and stymie them. 就能吃得到花生,它们也挺开心的。 这时,我们决定给它们制造一些困难。
stymie:vt.从中作梗,阻挠;妨碍;n.妨碍球;
And we move to the third stage, where we only give them a coin. 我们开始了第三阶段的训练。只把一枚硬币留在机器上,
Now, like most of us who have gotten used to a good thing, this really pisses them off. 此时乌鸦飞过来,看到没有食物, 自然觉得很泄气——我们人也一样嘛。
pisses:v.撒尿;n.撒尿;(piss的第三人称单数和复数)
So they do what they do in nature when they're looking for something -- they sweep things out of the way with their beak . 所以它们出于寻找食物的本能—— 用它的喙在机器上扫来扫去,
beak:n.[鸟]鸟嘴;鹰钩鼻子;地方执法官;男教师;
And they do that here, and that knocks the coins down the slot , and when that happens, they get a peanut. 不经意的把硬币碰到硬币口里去了, 于是它获得了一颗花生。
slot:n.位置;狭槽;水沟;硬币投币口;v.跟踪;开槽于;
And so this goes on for some time. 于是它们也学会了,
The crows learn that all they have to do is show up, wait for the coin to come out, put the coin in the slot, and then they get their peanut. 每次都来这里, 只要把机器上的硬币丢到硬币口,就能吃得到花生,
And when they're really good and comfortable with that, we move to the final stage, in which they show up and nothing happens. 当他们对此过程非常熟练及满足以后, 我们进入训练的最后一个阶段,它们来到机器旁边,却发现什么也没有。
And this is where we see the difference between crows and other animals. 注意,就是这个关键的地方可以看出乌鸦是多么聪明。
Squirrels , for example, would show up, look for the peanut, go away. 要是一只松鼠,它来到机器旁,寻找花生,找不到,就走了
Squirrels:n.松鼠;v.代理经营;把…分解成;(squirrel的第三人称单数和复数)
Come back, look for the peanut, go away. 隔天再来,又是没有,又跑回去。
They do this maybe half-a-dozen times before they get bored , and then they go off and play in traffic. 如此反复五六次, 它们也就觉得没意思了。
bored:adj.无聊的;厌倦的;烦闷的;v.使厌烦;钻,凿,挖;(bore的过去分词和过去式)
Crows, on the other hand , show up, and they try and figure it out. 而乌鸦则不一样,它们要寻找出一个究竟。
on the other hand:另一方面;
They know that this machine's been messing with them, through three different stages of behavior. 通过前面三个阶段, 并且这样的玩笑越开越大。
messing:v.使不整洁;弄脏;弄乱;随地便溺;(mess的现在分词)
(Laughter) (笑声)
They figure it's gotta have more to it. 它们觉得肯定还有更多方式获得花生。
So they poke at it and peck at it and whatnot. 它们又是用头撞,又是用嘴咬。
poke:v.刺,捅;戳;伸出;刺探;闲荡;n.戳;刺;袋子;懒汉; peck:vi.啄食; vt.啄食; n.许多;
And eventually some crow gets a bright idea that, "Hey, there's lots of coins lying around from the first stage, lying around on the ground," -- hops down, picks it up, drops it in the slot. 偶尔间有一些乌鸦想到了一个绝妙的主意: “嘿,大家还记得地面上放的那一大堆硬币么。 或许有用呢？”——于是它们飞过来,衔起硬币,扔进投币孔。
hops:n.啤酒花;
And then we're off to the races. 它们发现了怎么吃得上花生了！
That crow enjoys a temporary monopoly on peanuts until his friends figure out how to do it, and then there we go. 这样的技巧先是为第一批到来的乌鸦所垄断, 可慢慢的别的乌鸦也学会了……故事到此为止。
temporary:adj.暂时的,临时的;n.临时工,临时雇员; monopoly:n.垄断;垄断者;专卖权;
So what's significant about this to me isn't that we can train crows to pick up peanuts. 从这个故事我们得出结论: 我们可以训练乌鸦,让它们通过售货机吃上花生。
Mind you, there's 216 million dollars worth of change lost every year, but I'm not sure I can depend on that ROI from crows. 你知不知道,每一年都有价值2.16亿的硬币丢在大街上。 嘿,当然,我不是想靠乌鸦来赚钱。
Instead, I think we should look a little bit larger. 我们的眼光可以放远一点:
I think that crows can be trained to do other things. 我觉得我们可以训练乌鸦来做其他事。
For example, why not train them to pick up garbage after stadium events? 比如,为何不可以通过训练,让乌鸦给体育馆捡垃圾？
garbage:n.垃圾;废物; stadium:n.[体]露天大型体育场;[病]病期;[生]生长期;龄期;
Or find expensive components from discarded electronics ? 或者让它们帮助我们从大堆的废弃电子元件里头挑出有用的部件？
components:n.部件;组件;成份(component复数); discarded:v.丢弃;抛弃;垫(牌);打出(无用的牌);(discard的过去式和过去分词) electronics:n.电子学;电子工业;
Or maybe do search and rescue ? 又或者让它们参与搜救工作？
rescue:n.救援;抢救;营救;获救;v.抢救;营救;援救;
The main thing, the main point of all this for me is that we can find mutually beneficial systems for these species. 我这个演讲的主要的一个观点是 我们可以寻找到一种与此类动物共存的途径,
We can find ways to interact with these other species that doesn't involve exterminating them, but involves finding an equilibrium with them that's a useful balance. 我们能找到与其他族群共处的方式 而不仅仅是灭绝它们, 我们可以和它们实现共赢。
interact:v.互相影响;互相作用;n.幕间剧;幕间休息; exterminating:vt.消灭;根除; involves:v.包含;需要;牵涉;牵连;影响;(使)参加,加入(involve的第三人称单数) equilibrium:n.均衡;平静;保持平衡的能力;
Thanks very much. 非常感谢大家。
(Applause) (掌声)