考研英語美文賞讀（33）：面對輪船噪音 海豚只能提高聲調(diào)去交流面對輪船噪音

　　摘要：考研英語作為一門考研公共課，雖然大家都學(xué)了英語十幾年，卻仍經(jīng)常有總分過線掛在英語上的情況，因此英語復(fù)習(xí)不單單是單詞、做題。閱讀作為考研英語的大頭，僅僅做考研真題或許沒法滿足你的閱讀量，因此幫幫之后會不定時推出一篇英文美文，這些文章都與考研英語閱讀同源，多讀必有好處。

　　?Bottlenose dolphins simplify and raise the pitch of their whistles to be heard above underwater shipping noise.

　　為了聽到彼此的聲音，當(dāng)輪船水下噪音很大時，寬吻海豚會簡化并提高它們的聲音的聲調(diào)。

　　The oceans are getting louder. And coastal areas are some of the noisiest， as in this underwater recording， captured 17 miles off the coast of Ocean City， Maryland.

　　海洋正變得越來越紛繁嘈雜。沿海地區(qū)則是最嘈雜的區(qū)域之一，正如這次水下錄音的區(qū)域，它距離馬里蘭州大洋城海岸17英里。

　　The noise could be a problem for marine mammals， which， like us， use sound to communicate.

　　這些船只產(chǎn)生的噪音可能對用聲音交流的哺乳動物（類似我們）產(chǎn)生阻礙。

　　"Just like if we’re in a noisy bar， we have to shout to each other， they might have to do that too." Helen Bailey is a marine biologist at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

　　“就像我們在一個嘈雜的酒吧，我們必須大聲喊叫才能聽到對方，它們可能也必須這樣做。” Helen Bailey說到，她是馬里蘭大學(xué)環(huán)境科學(xué)中心的海洋生物學(xué)家。

　　She and her colleagues recorded two months of underwater sounds， in that same area off the coast of Maryland.

　　她和她的同事在馬里蘭州海岸的同一地區(qū)錄制了兩個月內(nèi)的水下聲音。

　　They used automated software to fish out 200 bottlenose dolphin whistles from the noise， and visually compared the spectrograms. Here’s a normal whistle.

　　他們使用智能自動軟件從船只噪音中過濾捕獲出200只寬吻海豚聲音片段，并比較其視覺頻譜圖。聽這是正常的聲音。

　　But what they found was that dolphins dumbed down the complexity of their whistles and raised their pitch， when they were competing with shipping noise. Which apparently helps， but could also hurt， their ability to communicate.

　　他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，當(dāng)海豚聲音想要蓋過船只聲音時，海豚會降低它們的叫聲的復(fù)雜性并提高音調(diào)。顯然，這么做能起到作用，但也可能傷害它們的溝通能力。

　　"By using simpler calls， yes， there is a risk they’re not communicating as much information as they would if it was quieter. Also for younger dolphins they actually learn these sounds from hearing other dolphins. So they’re hearing this much simpler language."

　　“和安靜環(huán)境下交流相比，海豚使用簡單呼喊而傳遞信息量確實會減少。這同樣適用于年幼的海豚，它們實際上通過聽其它海豚的叫聲來學(xué)習(xí)這些聲音。所以它們聽到的聲音更簡單。”

　　The results—and a few of those spectrograms—are in the journal Biology Letters.

　　該項研究結(jié)果以及其中一些光譜圖，發(fā)表在《生物學(xué)快報》上。

　　The survey site is the proposed future home of a wind farm - which could mean lots of noise as the huge towers are installed.

　　調(diào)查地點在未來將會建造風(fēng)力發(fā)電廠，這意味著在建造時將會產(chǎn)生很多巨大噪音。

　　Until then， it’s the chronic roar of ships and boats that Bailey wants people to ponder. "I think people think about boats in terms of the emissions， just like with cars. And I think what we need to think about is sound is also an emission."

　　在那之前，我想人們應(yīng)該去思考下這片區(qū)域來往船只長期造成的噪音。“我認(rèn)為人們應(yīng)該像看待汽車尾氣排放一樣看待船只噪音，認(rèn)識到噪音也是一種排放。”

　　(全文共341個詞)

　　?幫幫提示：考研英語同源外刊美文賞讀匯總

　　（實習(xí)小編：咕咚）