公鸡能从镜子里认出自己吗?

A new study shows that roosters can recognize themselves in a mirror. The newscame after roosters did not pass scientists’usual test for this.

一项新的研究表明，公鸡可以从镜子里认出自己。这一消息是在公鸡没有通过科学家的常规测试之后发布的。

The “mark3 test” （or “mirror test”） is a way to test whether an animal canrecognize itself. Some scientists believe the mark test doesn’t work well for allanimals. Roosters are a good example. Scientists in Germany recently ran the marktest on roosters. They put a mark on the chest4 of the roosters. But when the roosterslooked in a mirror， they didn’t seem to notice the mark. The scientists needed adifferent way to test whether the roosters could recognize themselves.

“标记测试”（或“镜像测试”）是一种测试动物是否能识别自己的方法。一些科学家认为，标记测试并非对所有动物都有效。公鸡就是一个很好的例子。德国科学家们最近对公鸡进行了标记测试。他们在公鸡的胸脯上做了一个标记。但当公鸡照镜子时，它们似乎没有注意到这个标记。科学家们需要一种不同的方法来测试公鸡是否能认出自己。

First， the scientists let the roosters spend time getting used tobeing in a closed-in room and having a mirror around. Then， theyran several tests by making a hawk5 shadow6 over the bird andwatching what the rooster did.

首先，科学家们让公鸡花点时间习惯待在一个封闭的房间里，周围有一面镜子。然后，他们进行了几次测试，在这只公鸡上方放了一个老鹰的影子，并观察了公鸡的行为。

When there was no mirror， the roosters did things as usual. They called outwhen they were near another rooster， but kept quiet when they were alone.

没有镜子的时候，公鸡们表现如常。在靠近另一只公鸡时它们会发出鸣叫，但在它们独自待着时，就会保持沉默。

But when a rooster was in a room where it could see itself in the mirror， itwasn’t fooled7 into thinking there was another rooster. It kept quiet althoughthere was the hawk shadow. It did this even if there was a rooster hidden8 behindthe mirror.

不过，当一只公鸡待在一个可以从镜子里看到它自己的房间里时，它并没有被愚弄，以为还有另一只公鸡。尽管有鹰的影子，它还是保持着安静。即使镜子后面藏着一只公鸡，它也会这么做。

The scientists say the results show that the roosters knew they were seeingthemselves in the mirror， and not other roosters. That shows that the mark test maynot be a good test of whether an animal can recognize itself.

科学家们说，研究结果表明，这些公鸡知道从镜子里看到的是自己，而不是其他公鸡。这表明，标记测试可能无法很好地测试出动物是否能认出自己。

The scientists hope their results will encourage9 other scientists to look forbetter ways of testing self-recognition10 in animals. It may turn out that some kindsof animals are smarter than people thought.

科学家们希望他们的研究结果能鼓励其他科学家寻找更好的方法来测试动物的自我识别能力。结果可能会是，有些动物比人们想象的更聪明。