鳥中之Alex,最聰明的鸚鵡辭世

Alex, a Parrot Who Had a Way With Words, Dies

Alex, a 31-year-old African gray parrot, knew more than 100 words and could count and
recognize colors and shapes.


"He knew his colors and shapes, he learned more than 100 English words, and with his own brand of one-liners he established himself in TV shows, scientific reports, and news articles as perhaps the world’s most famous talking bird."

能分辨顏色跟形狀,會超過100個英文字,媒體上的一線巨星,世界最有名會說話的鳥.Alex享年31歲.

"Scientists have long debated whether any other species can develop the ability to learn human language. Alex’s language facility was, in some ways, more surprising than the feats of primates that have been taught American Sign Language, like ....."

科學家一直以來對於其他物種是否有學習人類語文的能力爭辯不休.Alex突出的表現比那些靈長類的實驗對象要更令人吃驚.我忽略了原文中提到的金剛跟黑猩猩.facility這裡的用法讓我們看看英英字典的解釋,"The ability to perform without apparent effort: ease, easiness, effortlessness, facileness, readiness." 強調它的語言學習能力是多麼突出.比原先大家覺得跟人類更近的靈長類遠親更好.

But by using novel methods of teaching, Dr. Pepperberg prompted Alex to learn about 150 words, which he could put into categories, and to count small numbers, as well as colors and shapes. “The work revolutionized the way we think of bird brains,” said Diana Reiss, a psychologist at Hunter College who works with dolphins and elephants. “That used to be a pejorative, but now we look at those brains — at least Alex’s — with some awe.”

這是很有趣的一段,Dr.Pepperberg用創新的教導方式,讓Alex學會了150個單字,讓他可以分類,可以數數,可以分辨顏色與形狀.這裡的novel當形容詞用,"Strikingly new, unusual, or different. See synonyms at new."

另一位實驗動物是海豚跟大象的心理學家打趣的說的話很有趣,“The work revolutionized the way we think of bird brains,” said Diana Reiss, a psychologist at Hunter College who works with dolphins and elephants. “That used to be a pejorative, but now we look at those brains — at least Alex’s — with some awe.”  這改變了我們對鳥類大腦的想法,pejorative的意思是"A pejorative word or expression is one that expresses criticism of someone or something."原本在英文裡面鳥的腦是用來形容人笨的,腦小的跟鳥的腦一樣是用來虧人的.下面有兩個有趣的記載.

birdbrain n. Slang
A person regarded as silly or stupid.

You Bird Brain!
( . . . well?)

If someone calls you a bird brain, they're trying to say you ain't too smart. Real bird brains are not very big. The brain of a songbird, for example, weighs just about 1 gram. A human brain weighs 1300 grams (about 3 pounds). Proportionate to the size of it's body, however, a bird's brain is just about the right size.

所以國語我們罵人豬頭,英文罵人鳥腦,不過介紹罵人英文不是我的出發點,請大家斟酌使用.


對於Alex有多厲害請大家用原文連結去看看,在這裡把Alex在這世上最後的一句話跟大家分享
“You be good, see you tomorrow. I love you.”