20 THE LANGUAGE OF THE ANIMALS

CHAPTER 20 THE LANGUAGE OF THE ANIMALS It started with the birds. They had always been skittish when the robot was near. They would stare and screech and then scatter. But now that Roz was camouflaged, she could secretly observe their normal behavior, right up close. Roz noticed chickadees fluttering through the same flowers and singing the same song every morning. She noticed a lark who swooped down to the same rock and sang the same song every afternoon. She noticed the same two magpies singing to each other from across the same meadow every evening. After weeks of robotically studying the birds, Roz knew what each bird would sing, and when they would sing, and eventually, why they would sing. The robot was beginning to understand the birds. But she was also beginning to understand the porcupines and the salamanders and the beetles. She discovered that all the different animals shared one

第二十章动物的语言从鸟类说起。 当机器人靠近时，他们总是很不安。 他们盯着看，尖叫着，然后四散而去。 但现在罗兹被伪装起来了，她可以偷偷地近距离观察它们的正常行为。 罗兹注意到山雀每天早上都在同一片花丛中飞舞，唱着同一首歌。 她注意到一只百灵鸟每天下午都飞到同一块岩石上唱同一首歌。 她注意到每天晚上都有同样的两只喜鹊在同一片草地上互相唱歌。 经过几周的机械研究，罗兹知道了每只鸟会唱什么，什么时候唱，以及它们为什么会唱。 机器人开始了解鸟类了。 但她也开始了解豪猪、蝾螈和甲虫。 她发现所有不同的动物都有一个

common language; they just spoke the language in different ways. You might say each species spoke with its own unique accent. When Roz first listened to the chickadees, their songs had sounded like "TWEEE-tweedle! TWEEEtweedle!" But now when the chickadees sang, Roz heard "Oh, what a lovely day it is! Oh, what a lovely day it is!" Deer spoke mostly with their bodies. By simply turning her head, a doe could say to her family, "Let's look for clovers by the stream." Snakes often hissed to themselves, things like "I know there's a tasty mouse around here sssssomewhere." Bees said very little. They used their wings to buzz a few simple words, like nectar and sun and hive. Frogs spent much of their time searching for each other. One would croak, "Where are you? I can't see you!" And then another would reply, "I'm over here! Follow my voice!" When Roz first stomped across the island, the animal squawks and growls and chirps had sounded like nothing more than meaningless noises. But she no longer heard animal noises. Now she heard animal words.

共同的语言;他们只是用不同的方式说英语。 你可能会说每个物种都有自己独特的口音。 当罗兹第一次听到山雀的叫声时，它们的叫声听起来就像“TWEEE-tweedle!”TWEEEtweedle !”但现在，当山雀唱歌时，罗兹听到“哦，多么美好的一天！啊，多么美好的一天啊！”鹿主要用身体说话。 母鹿只要转一下头，就能对家人说：“我们去小溪边找三叶草吧。” 蛇经常对自己发出嘶嘶声，比如“我知道这附近有一只美味的老鼠，嘶嘶声。” 蜜蜂很少说话。它们用翅膀嗡嗡地叫着几个简单的词，比如花蜜、太阳和蜂巢。 青蛙花很多时间寻找彼此。 有人会嘶哑地说：“你在哪里？ 我看不见你！”然后另一个人会回答：“我在这里！跟着我的声音！”当罗兹第一次踏过小岛的时候，动物的叫声、咆哮和唧唧喳喳听起来只不过是毫无意义的噪音。 但是她再也听不到动物的声音了。 现在她听到了动物的话语。