Crow“ employees” in French theme park法国主题公园里的乌鸦“雇员”

郑玉峰

法國的一个主题公园“聘用”了6只经过训练的乌鸦当“环卫工人”。当乌鸦把捡来的垃圾丢入特制的木箱时，木箱就会弹出鸟食作为奖励。

主题语境：动物 篇幅：325词 建议用时：6分钟

1 Corvids （鸦类） are known to be remarkably intelligentanimals. These birds are good at usingtools， can plan ahead， solve puzzles and evenhold grudges （怨恨）. Some corvids＇ brains havereally high neuronal densities and a brain regioncalled the nidopallium caudolaterale， or NCLwhich is believed to act like our prefrontalcortex—the problem?solving part of the human brain.

2 Rooks are members of the crow family. Six rooks—Boubou， Bamboo， Bill， Black， Bricoleand Baco—were trained to pick up litter after people. They are employees of thePuy du Fou park， a history?themed park located in Les Epesses， a four?hour drive fromParis， France.

3 The idea to train rooks originally came from the parks falconry （鹰猎） show， duringwhich trained corvids would pick up roses and bring them to a“ princess” in a castle.This got Christophe Gaborit， project manager at the park， thinking whether he＇d be ableto teach rooks to perform a similar task—like picking up cigarette butts and othersmall pieces of trash and putting them in a box.

4 When the birds placed a piece of trash in a box， their trainer would pull a board to reveala delicious snack for them. At last， the rooks started to associate tidying up withfood， and were happy to pick up small pieces of trash in order to get rewards. The birdswould sometimes try to trick Gaborit and instead of disposing of garbage， would insteaddrop pieces of wood into the box.

5 “We don＇t want to make them machines，” the president of the Puy du Fou park， Nicolasde Villiers， said“. They don＇t play the game if they work too much.”

6 The birds“ work” under supervision of a falconer， who makes sure that people dontthrow garbage around just to watch the rooks pick it up. Instead， Boubou， Bamboo， Bill，Black， Bricole and Baco are there to educate the park visitors about littering.“ Natureitself can teach us to take care of the environment，” Villiers said.

Detail

1. What is the function of NCL in the corvids brain？

A. Finding out directions.

B. Solving problems.

C. Keeping balance in flight.

D. Sensing dangers.

Inference

2. What did a trained corvid do at the falconry show？

A. It delivered food to a place.

B. It picked up litter on the ground.

C. It delivered an object to a person.

D. It escaped from its natural enemy.

Inference

3. Why did the trainer pull a board during the training？

A. To offer a reward.

B. To play a trick.

C. To give an order.

D. To send a signal.

Gist

4. What does the text mainly talk about？

A. Birds learn to use tools to obtain food.

B. Birds play tricks on their trainer for rewards.

C. Crows were taught to clean up trash at a French park.

D. Corvids proved themselves to be intelligent animals.

Language Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

This got Christophe Gaborit， project manager at the park， thinking whether hed beable to teach rooks to perform a similar task—like picking up cigarette butts and othersmall pieces of trash and putting them in a box. 这让公园的项目经理克里斯托夫·加博里特思考他是否能够教秃鼻乌鸦执行类似的任务——比如捡起烟头和其他小垃圾并将它们放入盒子中。

【点石成金】本句是一个主从复合句。project manager at the park是同位语，whether引导的是宾语從句。

Ⅱ. Text?centered chunks

be good at 擅长

perform a task 执行任务

associate...with 把……与……联系在一起

tidy up 整理；收拾