Birds read human eyes

湖南华容二中 张明波

难词探意

1.jackdaw n.寒鸦

2.pupil n.瞳孔

3.irise n.虹膜

4.predator n.捕食性动物

5.goshawk n.苍鹰

6.sophistication n.复杂巧妙；高水平

预 读 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

阅读检测

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

探究视角① 语篇分析

阅读研究报告时，要关注研究报告的结构。研究报告的结构是整个报告谋篇布局的整体设计，其主要组成部分是：研究发现—方法及步骤—呼吁。研究发现部分通常是研究所产生的新的结论，是读者关注的焦点；主体部分是研究的方法、研究的过程，或者是该研究具体数据的呈现和影响；呼吁部分通常是研究的结果所带来的相关影响或未来所应该采取的措施。撰写研究报告时，要根据实验的事实采用合理的结构去灵活多样地表述研究内容。

本文的篇章结构如下：

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.

探究视角② 语言学习

Ⅰ.文本填空

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

2.That sensitivity to human eye signals（与……形成对比）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（看见）a predator's subtler eye movements.

Ⅱ.词汇总结

在英语中，很多短语都以to结尾，但是有的to是不定式符号，而有的to却是一个介词。本文就出现了以介词to结尾的短语。

短语 意义 举例point to 指向 The finger of the clock points to twelve.钟的指针指向十二点。be sensitive to 对……敏感 Donna is sensitive to strong smells.唐娜对强烈的气味很敏感。pay attention to 注意；留心 The teacher told the student to pay attention to his spelling.老师提醒那个学生要注意拼写。have a response to 对……的反应 Millions of people had a direct response to the famine appeal.千百万人响应救灾呼吁而慷慨解囊。compare to 把……比作 He compared the girl to the moon in the poem.他在诗中把那姑娘比作月亮。其他以介词to 结尾的常见短语：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.写作推荐

It's probably too late for any unlucky jackdaws close enough to see a predator's subtler eye movements.对于任何不幸的寒鸦来说，当靠捕食者过近，能看见其微妙的眼神变化时，就可能一切都太迟了。

【信息提取】句中It's+adj.+for sb to do sth 意为“对某人来说做某事怎样”，是一个固定句型，其中It是形式主语，真正的主语是后面的动词不定式。

【句式仿写】我们继续做下去也无用。

探究视角③文化拓展

在鸟类世界中，乌鸦、渡鸦、樫鸟，以及鸦科家族的其他成员，并不是“没有智力的笨鸟儿”，相反，它们一般被视为聪明的动物。而人类对于乌鸦“笨”的这种印象，似乎由来已久，甚至在《伊索寓言》里，也编织了一个“乌鸦喝水”的故事。 今天，科学家的研究证明，乌鸦比人类所想象的要聪明许多。一项新的研究证明，乌鸦的感知能力可与灵长类动物相媲美，与黑猩猩、大猩猩相比，它们的智力也毫不逊色。这份研究报告是由英国剑桥大学动物行为与实验心理学系的两位研究人员共同完成的，发表在《科学》杂志上。