-
PLAY IS A SERIOUS BUSINESS
玩耍是件严肃的事。
Children
engrossed
in
a
make-believe
world,
fox
cubs
play-fighting
or
kittens
teasing
a
ball
of
string
aren't just having fun.
孩子们
沉溺在假想的世界中，
狐狸幼崽儿嬉戏打闹，
小猫玩线球，
这些行为都不只是取乐而
已。
Play
may
look
like
a
carefree
and
exuberant
way
to
pass
the
time
before
the
hard
work
of
adulthood comes along, but there's much
more to it than that.
看上去玩耍
时成人世界的辛苦工作到来之前，
无忧无虑、
精力充沛的消磨时
光的方式，
其实
远非如此。
For a start, play can even
cost animals their lives.
首先，玩耍可能使动物们送命。
Eighty
per
cent
of
deaths
among
juvenile
fur
seals
occur
because
playing
pups
fail
to
spot
predators approaching.
比如，百分之八十的小海狗死亡都是因为玩耍中的小海狗没能看到接近的捕食者。
It is also
extremely expensive in terms of energy.
玩耍也是相当消耗精力的。
Playful young animals use
around two or three per cent of their energy
cavorting, and in children
that figure
can be closer to fifteen per cent.
顽皮的小动物要花上百分之二三的精力来嬉戏打闹，
而对于儿童而言，
这个数字可以高达百
分之十五。
'
Even
two
or
three
per cent
is
huge,'
says
John
Byers
of
Idaho
University.
'You
just
don't
find
animals wasting energy like that,' he
adds. There must be a reason.
即使只有百分之二三
也是个不小的数目了。
Idaho
大学的
JB
说道，你很难发现动物们如此
消耗精力。
Byers
补充说。总有一定的原因使他们这么做。
But if play is
not simply a developmental hiccup, as biologists
once thought, why did it evolve?
但是，
如果玩耍不像生物学家们过去认为的那样，
只是发育过程总的小插曲的
话，
那么到底
是什么促使了玩耍的发展呢？
The latest idea suggests
that play has evolved to build big brains.
最新的观点认为玩耍可以促进大脑的发育。
In
other
words,
playing
makes
you
intelligent.
Playfulness,
it
seems,
is
common
only
among
mammals, although a few of the larger-
brained birds also indulge.
换句话说，
玩耍使你变得聪明。
尽管一些脑子比较大的鸟类也
沉溺其中，
但玩耍还是只在哺
乳动物中普遍存在
Animals at play often
use unique signs - tailwagging in dogs, for
example - to indicate that activity
superficially resembling adult
behaviour is not really in earnest.
玩耍中的动物会用一些独特的标志——比如狗摇尾巴——来表明这种简单模仿大动物行为
的举动并不是玩真的。
A popular explanation of play has been
that it helps juveniles develop the skills they
will need to
hunt, mate and socialise
as adults.
一种有关玩耍的普遍观点说，
玩耍能帮助小动物发展成年之后捕猎、
交配以及社交所需的技
能。
Another has been
that it allows
young animals to get in
shape for adult life by
improving their
respiratory endurance. Both these ideas
have been questioned in recent years.
另
一个理论认为，
通过增强小动物的呼吸耐力，
玩耍可以帮助他们
在体力上更适应成年生活。
但是这两个理论近年来都遭到了质疑。
Take the exercise theory. If play
evolved to build muscle or as a kind of endurance
training,
then you would expect to see
permanent benefits.
就拿锻炼理论来
说吧。
如果玩耍是为了增强肌肉，
或是进行某种耐力训练，
那我们应该能够
看到一些终生的效果。
But Byers points out that
the benefits of increased exercise disappear
rapidly after training stops,
so any
improvement in endurance resulting from juvenile
play would be lost by adulthood.
但是
Byers
指出，训练一结束，由增强训练所
带来的好处就随之消失了，所以，任何通过小
时候的玩耍增强的耐力到了成年阶段就会消
失殆尽了。
' If the
function of play was to get into shape,' says
Byers, 'the optimum time for playing would
depend on when it was most advantageous
for the young of a particular species to do so.
如果玩耍的作用就是使身体健康的话，
Byers
说道，那么玩耍的最佳时间就应该是对于某种
小动
物身体发展最有利的时间。
But
it
doesn't
work
like
that.'
Across
species,
play
tends
to
peak
about
halfway
through
the
suckling stage and then
decline.
但是，实际情况并非如此。无论什么种群的动物，玩耍都倾向于在哺
乳期的中期达到顶峰，
然后则开始走小坡路。
Then
there's
the
skills-training
hypothesis.
At
first
glance,
playing
animals
do
appear
to
be
practising the complex
manoeuvres they will need in adulthood.
接着，
我们又有了技能训练假说。<
/p>
乍看上去，
玩耍的小动物好像是在练习那些成年时必须的
复杂动作。
But
a closer inspection reveals this interpretation as
too simplistic.
但是，更为仔细的观察表明，这种解释把问题简单化了。
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
上一篇：新概念英语第二册课后练习题答案详解(第64课).doc
下一篇：出师表及英文翻译