Birds read human eyes

湖南華容二中 張明波

難詞探意

1.jackdaw n.寒鴉

2.pupil n.瞳孔

3.irise n.虹膜

4.predator n.捕食性動物

5.goshawk n.蒼鷹

6.sophistication n.復雜巧妙；高水平

預 讀 思 考

1.How do other birds understand humans except jackdaws?

2.List the phrases ending with the preposition“to”.

Jackdawspossess human-like eyes with darkpupilsand light blue or silveryirises.And that may give the social birds an edge in understanding signals from friendly humans.

Hand-raised birds in a study could find food in a “cooperative”situation when a familiar person's eyes looked back and forth from the food to the bird.They also responded when the person pointed to the food's location,but did not react when the person turned their head toward the food.That sensitivity to human eye signals contrasts with the lesser sensitivity of birds such as chickens.Many birds are sensitive to eye-like patterns without showing much understanding of more subtle eye signals that communicate information.

However,the jackdaws took longer time to approach food when an unfamiliar person was watching,and in this case paid attention to where a person's head was turned.A similar delayed reaction occurred when the person kept an eye closed or was glancing away with one eye on the food,even when the researchers replaced the person with images of a person's face.The response to unfamiliar humans may reflect an evolved response to potentialpredatorsor other threats,when subtle eye signals are less important than head direction.Predator birds such as owls andgoshawkstend to turn their entire head when looking—and besides,it's probably too late for any unlucky jackdaws close enough to see a predator's subtler eye movements.

Jackdaws may have evolved a response to more subtle eye signals not from threat of predation,according to the study,but instead from cooperation as social animals.The birds often form lifelong partnerships with mates,and their survival success depends on close communication.This fits with the theory that socialsophisticationmay select for intelligence in evolution.Jackdaws are among the most intelligent birds along with parrots.If you compare them to apes,our closest relatives,they've got exactly the same brain size relative to body size and weight.Even chimpanzees have shown themselves less responsive to eye signals,possibly because their darker eyes lack the contrast between white human eyeballs and darker pupils.

—From LiveScience

閱讀檢測

1.What contributes to the jackdaws'ability to read communicative signals?

A.Human friendliness from familiar people.

B.Their excellent social ability and big brain.

C.Their dark pupils and light blue or silvery irises.

D.The cooperative situation and close communication.

2.The example of potential predators mainly intends to show us .

A.subtle eye cues are less important than head direction for owls and goshawks

B.jackdaws evolved a response to subtle eye signals from cooperation as social animals

C.jackdaws can interpret human eye cues and even follow human gestures like pointing

D.jackdaws tend to turn their entire head when looking as well as owls and goshawks

3.The study compares jackdaws to apes and chimpanzees possibly to explain .

A.some crow cousins have demonstrated tool-usage on par with that of apes

B.jackdaws have relatively big brain and they are the most intelligent birds

C.jackdaws have exactly the same brain size as the apes'and chimpanzees'

D.the social sophistication which may select for intelligence in evolution

文本探究

探究視角① 語篇分析

閱讀研究報告時，要關注研究報告的結構。研究報告的結構是整個報告謀篇布局的整體設計，其主要組成部分是：研究發現—方法及步驟—呼吁。研究發現部分通常是研究所產生的新的結論，是讀者關注的焦點；主體部分是研究的方法、研究的過程，或者是該研究具體數據的呈現和影響；呼吁部分通常是研究的結果所帶來的相關影響或未來所應該采取的措施。撰寫研究報告時，要根據實驗的事實采用合理的結構去靈活多樣地表述研究內容。

本文的篇章結構如下：

Structure Paragraph（s） Main idea（s）Finding Para.1 Jackdaws can understand signals from friendly humans.●Jackdaws can find food quickly with the help of a familiar Method＆Procedure Para.2～3●p Te or s ao nn 's u ne fy ae ms il c io an r ta p c et r sa on nd, r Je as cp ko dn ad w st o rt eh ae c tp e s l r os wo n ly's a g ne ds t u t a re k.e longer time to find food.Reasons Para.4 ●●T Ja h ce k dr e as wp so n as r e e m am ay o n c go m t h e e f mr o om s t c i o no t e p le l i r ga et i no tn b,i n rd ot s .from threat.

探究視角② 語言學習

Ⅰ.文本填空

1.And that may give the social birds（優勢）in understanding signals from friendly humans.

2.That sensitivity to human eye signals（與……形成對比）the lesser sensitivity of birds such as chickens.

3.Predator birds such as owls and goshawks（往往）turn their entire head and besides,it's probably too late for any unlucky jackdaws close enough（看見）a predator's subtler eye movements.

Ⅱ.詞匯總結

在英語中，很多短語都以to結尾，但是有的to是不定式符號，而有的to卻是一個介詞。本文就出現了以介詞to結尾的短語。

短語 意義 舉例point to 指向 The finger of the clock points to twelve.鐘的指針指向十二點。be sensitive to 對……敏感 Donna is sensitive to strong smells.唐娜對強烈的氣味很敏感。pay attention to 注意；留心 The teacher told the student to pay attention to his spelling.老師提醒那個學生要注意拼寫。have a response to 對……的反應 Millions of people had a direct response to the famine appeal.千百萬人響應救災呼吁而慷慨解囊。compare to 把……比作 He compared the girl to the moon in the poem.他在詩中把那姑娘比作月亮。其他以介詞to 結尾的常見短語：be related to/be addicted to/be opposed to/devote oneself to/be devoted to/be admitted to/be reduced to/be attached to/adapt oneself to/be exposed to/get accustomed to/be engaged to/get down to/lead to/object to/look forward to 等。

Ⅲ.寫作推薦

It's probably too late for any unlucky jackdaws close enough to see a predator's subtler eye movements.對于任何不幸的寒鴉來說，當靠捕食者過近，能看見其微妙的眼神變化時，就可能一切都太遲了。

【信息提取】句中It's+adj.+for sb to do sth 意為“對某人來說做某事怎樣”，是一個固定句型，其中It是形式主語，真正的主語是后面的動詞不定式。

【句式仿寫】我們繼續做下去也無用。

探究視角③文化拓展

在鳥類世界中，烏鴉、渡鴉、樫鳥，以及鴉科家族的其他成員，并不是“沒有智力的笨鳥兒”，相反，它們一般被視為聰明的動物。而人類對于烏鴉“笨”的這種印象，似乎由來已久，甚至在《伊索寓言》里，也編織了一個“烏鴉喝水”的故事。 今天，科學家的研究證明，烏鴉比人類所想象的要聰明許多。一項新的研究證明，烏鴉的感知能力可與靈長類動物相媲美，與黑猩猩、大猩猩相比，它們的智力也毫不遜色。這份研究報告是由英國劍橋大學動物行為與實驗心理學系的兩位研究人員共同完成的，發表在《科學》雜志上。