馬成華

人有方言，鳥兒也有自己的方言嗎？如果有，二者會有相似之處嗎？

1. chaffinch /tfnt/ n. 蒼頭燕雀

2. transcribe /trnskrab/ v. 記錄

3. sonagram /snɡrm/ n. 聲譜圖

4. babble /bbl/ n. （幼兒）咿呀學(xué)語聲

5. innate /net/ adj. 天生的

Laura Molles is so familiar with birds that she can tell where birds of some species are from just by listening to their song. She's an ecologist in Christchurch， New Zealand， who specializes in a littleknown area of science： bird dialects.

While some birds are born singers， many need to be taught how to sing by adults just like humans. Those birds can develop regional dialects， meaning their songs sound slightly different depending on where they live.

Just as speaking the local language can make it easier for humans to fit in， speaking the local bird dialect can increase a bird's chances of finding a mate. And just as human dialects can sometimes disappear as the world globalizes， bird dialects can be shaped or lost as cities grow.

The similarities between human language and bird song aren't lost on Molles—or on her fellow bird dialect experts.

“They are amazingly alike，” said American ornithologist Donald Kroodsma， the author of Birdsong for the Curious Naturalist： Your Guide to Listening. “Culture， oral traditions—it's all the same.”

For centuries， bird song has inspired poets and musicians， but it wasn't until the 1950s that scientists really started paying attention to bird dialects.

One of the pioneers of the field was a Britishborn behaviorist named Peter Marler， who became interested in the subject when he noticed that chaffinches in the United Kingdom sounded different from valley to valley.

At first， he transcribed bird songs by hand， according to a profile of him in a Rockefeller University publication. Later， he used a sonagram， which Kroodsma describes on his website as “a musical score for bird song”. “You really need to see these songs to believe them， our eyes are so much better than our ears，” Kroodsma said.

In the 1960s and 1970s， scientists put baby birds into sound isolation chambers to see if they would be able to sing their songs. They found some birds that learn their songs couldn't sing at all. “They just continued like a baby babble for their entire life”， he said. Those birds are known as “true song birds”. In other birds， singing was innate. “When they came of age they could just sing a perfect song.”

When birds are copying adults， scientists have discovered， they sometimes make a mistake. That mistake in turn is copied by other birds， and a local dialect develops. “That means that dialects can only exist in true song birds because they have a learned oral tradition，” says Kroodsma.

1. What is the main factor in the formation of young birds' dialects according to Para. 2？

A. Inheritance.

B. The climate.

C. Their habitats.

D. Adult birds' instruction.

2. What does paragraph 3 mainly talk about？

A. The advantage of birds' dialects.

B. The development of birds' dialects.

C. The environmental influence on birds' dialects.

D. The resemblances between birds' dialects and human's.

3. What does the underlined word “ornithologist”

in Para. 5 probably mean？

A. A modern novelist.

B. An expert on environment.

C. A person who studies birds.

D. A scholar of diverse cultures.

4. What kind of birds can use dialects？

A. Birds in nature.

B. True song birds.

C. Birds in isolation.

D. Birds learning to sing.

Sentence for writing

For centuries， bird song has inspired poets and musicians， but it wasn't until the 1950s that scientists really started paying attention to bird dialects.

【信息提取】It is/was not until...that...意為“直到……才……”，為not...until...句型的強(qiáng)調(diào)句形式。

【句式仿寫】直到我讀了這篇文章，我才意識到鳥類也有方言。