cambridge4test2passage3.pdf

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。

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In one study, behavioural ecologist Tim Caro , from the University of California, looked at the predatory play of kittens and their predatory behaviour when they reached adulthood. 在某项研究中， California 大学的行为生态学家 Tim Caro 观察了小猫的捕食游戏以及它们成年之后的捕猎行为He found that the way the cats played had no significant effect on their hunting prowess in later life. 他发现，小猫玩耍的方式对成年后的捕猎技能并没有太大的影响。

Earlier this year, Sergio Pellis of Lethbridge University, Canada, reported that there is a strong positive link between brain size and playfulness among mammals in general. 今年早些时候，加拿大 Lethbridge 大学的 SP 公布说，哺乳动物的玩耍量与他们大脑的大小往往成正比Comparing measurements for fifteen orders of mammal, he and his team found larger brains (for a given body size) are linked to greater playfulness. The converse was also found to be true. 在比较了十五种哺乳动物的测量数据之后， SP 和他的研究小组发现，更多的玩耍会造就大一些的脑子（与身体大小比较而言） ，而且这个理论反过来也成立Robert Barton of Durham University believes that, because large brains are more sensitive to developmental stimuli than smaller brains, they require more play to help mould them for adulthood. Durham 大学的 RB 认为，由于大一些的脑子比小一些的脑子对发育刺激更敏感，因此它们需要更多的玩耍来促进它们发育至成年期。

' I concluded it's to do with learning, and with the importance of environmental data to the brain during development,' he says. 他说： “我的结论是，玩耍与学习有关，也与大脑发育过程中环境资料的重要性有关” According to Byers, the timing of the playful stage in young animals provides an important clue to what's going on. 根据 Byers,的理论，对于小动物而言，玩耍其的时机对未来的发展至关重要If you plot the amount of time a juvenile devotes to play each day over the course of its development, you discover a pattern typically associated with a ' sensitive pe。