科学美国人60秒:老鼠用唱歌吸引异性-托福听力下载

　　科学美国人60秒中文翻译：

　　How do you attract a mate? 你会怎样吸引异性?

　　If you're a male mouse, you take the Frank Sinatra approach—you sing. 如果你是一只公老鼠，你可以采用弗兰克?辛纳屈的方法—通过唱歌打动异性芳心。

　　Scientists have known about crooning male mice for years. 多年以来，科学家们就已经知晓公老鼠会通过叫声吸引异性。

　　And past experiments showed that if you leave male mice alone with an unconscious female or even with just a trace of her urine, the males will sing. 而过往的研究表明，如果让一只公老鼠与一只无意识的母老鼠独处，或仅留下对方的尿液痕迹，公老鼠就会唱歌。

　　If you reverse roles, the females do not sing. 如果角色互换，母老鼠则不会唱歌。

　　So scientists believed that in courtship, males made all the noise. 因此科学家们认为处于求偶阶段的公老鼠会发出声音吸引异性。

　　Until now. 直到现在为止是这样。

　　The problem with the field is that we've never had a way to figure out who's vocalizing. 这个领域的问题是我们从没有搞清楚是谁在唱歌。

　　Neuroscientist Josh Neunuebel at University of Delaware. 特拉华大学的神经科学家约什纽贝尔说道。

　　He realized that researchers needed better listening tools. 他意识到研究人员需要更好的听力工具。

　　So Neunuebel built a mouse sized recording studio. 于是纽贝尔依照老鼠的体型大小建造了一间录音室。

　　His team lined a small closet with nylon mesh and foam, which absorb sound rather than reflect it. 他的团队用尼龙网和泡沫制做了一个小柜子。这个小柜子不会反弹声音，而会将其吸收。

　　And they installed ultrasonic microphones, because mice make sounds at a frequency that's above the range of human hearing. 而且他们在里面放置了超声波麦克风，因为老鼠的声音频率超出了人类的听觉范围。

　　That's some mouse singing slowed down so we can hear it. 这样我们就能听到老鼠的声音。

　　Neunuebel's set-up made it possible for the researchers to determine that some songs were in fact coming from female mice. 纽贝尔这样的设置让研究人员能够确定一些声音实际上是母老鼠发出。

　　The gals that sang back to the males pursuing them also slowed down their pace, as if to say: 对于雄性配偶的追求，母老鼠会用歌声回应，同时也会放缓自己的脚步，似乎是在说：

　　Hey! I'm interested in you. Catch me if you can. 嘿!我很中意你。来追我啊!

　　The study is in the journal eLife. 这项研究已经在《eLife》杂志上发表。

　　Neunuebel still wants to work out more details about how these interactions occur. 纽贝尔仍想要研究更多关于这些交流的细节。

　　But with improved technology, maybe the researchers can pick out pick-up lines. 但是随着技术进步，也许研究人员会找出老鼠间搭讪的话语。

　　At least the ones that sound nice…to mice. 至少，那些对于老鼠来说是甜言蜜语。

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