Cat Chat 养猫经
- 详细资料
- 创建于 2003年4月14日
- 最后更新于 2024年5月25日
- 发布于 2011年5月25日
- 作者：Mike Lee
- 点击数：742
课文朗读
课文讲解
Cat owners Sylvester and Felicity are having coffee at Sylvester’s place: 席维斯特和菲莉丝蒂两位猫主人正在席维斯特家喝咖啡。
F: Your cat Oscar is a real talker, isn’t he?
你的猫奥斯卡真爱叫，不是吗？
S: Indeed. I’ve no doubt that he possesses the full cat repertoire of over a hundred distinct sounds.
没错，猫能发出一百多种不同的声音，奥斯卡全都会，我可一点都不怀疑。
F: Amazing animals, aren’t they? All those meows and other sounds they make differ in pitch, rhythm, tone, and pronunciation.
猫真是神奇的动物，不是吗？牠们发出的喵喵声和其他的声音，都有不同的音调、节奏、音色或发音。
S: Yes. With different vocalization they greet, whine, protest, express frustration, irritation or excitement, or tell us to leave them alone.
是啊，猫在打招呼、抱怨、抗议、表现挫折感、生气、兴奋、或告诉我们不要理牠的时候，都有不同的发音方式。
F: Did you know that studies suggest that cat-lovers like us are simply anthropomorphizing cat sounds?
你知道吗？研究报告说，像我们这种爱猫一族不过只是将猫发出的声音赋予了人的情绪去解读罢了。
S: Yes – and to some extent, I agree. We definitely ascribe more meaning to feline utterance than they actually carry.
就某种程度而言，我同意这个说法。我们以人类的观点解读猫的叫声，绝对将其声音赋予比原来更多的意义。
F: But cats are so loveable and funny that it’s hard not to.
猫那么可爱又好玩，很难不这样吧。
S: You’ll get no argument from me here.
这一点我非常赞同。
F: And my cats not only communicate, they also seem to understand things like “no,” “in,” “out,” and “off” – even if it’s mostly just my tone of voice they understand, rather than the actual words used.
而且我的猫不但能和我沟通，牠们似乎还懂得我说「不行」、「进来」、「出去」、「走开」的意思──虽然牠们听懂的大多只是我的音调，而不是这些话真正的意思。
S: Yeah. They’ve probably figured out that people use a slightly raised tone of voice to indicate happiness or friendliness and a lowered one for displeasure.
是啊，牠们可能懂得人会用稍微高昂的音调表示快乐或友善，语调较低则表示不高兴。
F: As do cats, which may partly explain why humans and cats get along so well together.
猫也是一样，或许这多少解释了为什么人和猫可以处得这么好了。
－by Roland Leghorn
Vocabulary
单词发音
possess [pəˋzɛs] v. 拥有，持有；具有
repertoire [ˋrɛpɚ͵twɑr] n.〔演员﹑剧团的〕全部剧目﹐ 常备节目
pitch [pɪtʃ] n.【语】【音】音高
tone [ton] n. 音色，音调
vocalization [͵vokələˋzeʃən] n. 发声；有声化
greet [grit] v. 问候，迎接，招呼
whine [hwaɪn] v. 嘀咕，发牢骚;（狗等）发哀鸣声
irritation [͵ɪrəˋteʃən] n. 激怒，恼怒，生气
anthropomorphize [͵ænθrəpəˋmɔrfaɪz] v. 人格化；赋与人性
ascribe [əˋskraɪb] v. 把…归（因）于
utterance [ˋʌtərəns] n. 发声；表达
displeasure [dɪsˋplɛʒɚ] n. 不快；不满；生气
get along 和睦相处
Sentence of the Day
This stuff is the cat's meow.
这东西真是太棒了！
cat's meow 抢手/梦寐以求 a highly admired person or thing