特别广播英语第 30 课：Do animals Think? 动物也会思考吗？-3

The shepherd dog does not know as much about most things as some other dogs, and yet he understands very well how to take care of sheep. 虽然牧羊犬不懂得基他种狗所懂的绝大部分事物，可是牧羊犬却精通于怎样看护好羊群。

Though animals think and learn, they do not make any real improvement in their ways of doing things, as men do. 虽然动物会思考也会学习，可是却不能像人那样，对学会的事物作出任何真正的改革。

Each kind of bird has its own way of building a nest, and it is always the same way. And so of other animals. They have no new fashions, and learn none from each other. 每种鸟都有自己的筑巢方法，但总是用的同样的方式，互相之间也不学习。

But men, as you know, are always finding new ways of building houses, and improved methods of doing almost all kinds of labor. 可是，你知道，人类就不是这样，人类总是要寻求新的盖房子的方式，人类总是要改进作一些事情的方式方法。

Many of the things that animals know how to do they seem to know either without learning, or in some way which we cannot understand. 有许多事情，似乎是动物都知道怎么做。它们秘书科不用学就会或者是用我们还没了解到的方法就掌握了。

They are said to do such things by instinct; but no one can tell what instinct is. 据说它们都是凭着本能去做这类事情，

It is by this instinct that birds build their nests and beavers their dams and huts.

If these things were all planned and thought out just as men plan new houses, there would be some changes in the fashions of them, and some improvements. 都能像人类设计新房子那样，动物也能有周密的计划和仔细的考虑，那么动物的巢穴在式样上也会有所变化和改进的。

I have spoken of the building instinct of beavers. 我提到了河狸的建筑上的本能。

An English gentleman caught a young one and put him at first in a cage. 一位英国先生抓到了只小河狸，起先把它放到一只笼子里了，