一只會唱歌的老鼠

編者注：

你聽說過老鼠會唱歌嗎？你對此可能并不相信，但是我們知道，大自然是神奇的，大自然造物的同時，也為我們帶來許許多多意想不到的事物。那么今天就讓我們一起走進《探索與發現》來看看這只會唱歌的老鼠吧！

Clarke found a very special mouse in his house. This mouse could shriek (尖叫) with melody (旋律). It seemed that it was the sound of a bird; meanwhile， it also seemed that the mouse was singing. But the fact was that it was a mouse who could sing. Clarke never heard that before.

一個名叫克拉克的人在自家房子里發現了一只非常特殊的老鼠，這只老鼠能發出有旋律的尖叫聲，好像鳥的叫聲，又好像在唱歌。但事實上它是一只會唱歌的老鼠，克拉克從未聽說過。

As a result， Clarke did something that all the people would do. He caught the mouse with effort. He kept the mouse in the cage because he wanted to get some extra (額外的) money by such a special animal. Then he took the mouse to the market to earn money. Soon the mouse and its master(主人) became very famous. Many people who didn’t believe such a story would come and many people also lost their money because of the bet (打賭) on this.

于是克拉克做了所有人都會做的事情，千辛萬苦把老鼠捉住，然后養在籠子里。克拉克想利用這只奇特的小動物賺點外快，就把它帶到集市上表演賺錢。很快，老鼠和它的主人一起聲名遠揚，不相信老鼠會唱歌的人都慕名前來，為此賭輸的人也不少。

The famous musician Marta Grimm also came to Clarke’s house and saw this special mouse. In Clarke’s house， he listened to the mouse’s song. Later he made his comment: The mouse’s singing was very pure and it had a very high music talent.

“聞風而動”的還有著名音樂家瑪塔·格里姆，他在克拉克的家中看到這只神奇的老鼠并聆聽了它的歌聲。之后，他評論道：老鼠的歌聲非常純凈，音樂造詣很高。

After the musician confirmed(肯定)， Clarke thought that the mouse he caught was really unique(罕見的). It seemed that it was the fairy(精靈) among animals. He thought that it was not proper to take it to the market to earn money， so he sent it to the lab in University of Michigan. He believed that the scientists there could use scientific(科學的) methods to find out the mystery.

得到音樂家的肯定后，克拉克覺得自己抓到的老鼠真的非同一般，有點像動物界里的“精靈”。他覺得把這只老鼠帶到集市上賺錢有點不妥，于是他把老鼠送到了密歇根大學的實驗室，他相信那里的科學家能用科學手段研究它的神奇之處。

More than one scientist was sure that this mouse could sing. They were surprised that it was the only mouse that had such a talent for music. But no scientist could explain the reasons and no scientific methods could be used to analyze (分析) its physiological structure (生理構造).

不止一個科學家確認這只老鼠會唱歌，他們驚奇地發現這是唯一一只具有如此音樂天賦的老鼠，但是沒有科學家知道這是為什么，也沒有任何科學手段能分析它的生理構造。

It was a problem that was hard to solve at that time. But it is very simple to explain it with scientific views now. In fact， every animal lives on the earth in its unique way. Their perceptions (感知能力) are very strong and they have their own methods to communicate with each other. Of course， they possess many different kinds of sounds. We shouldn’t ignore the existence(存在) and beauty of these sounds because of the limitations (局限) of human beings’ hearing.

這在當時可能是個難解之謎，但是用我們現在的科學觀點來解釋就很簡單了。事實上，每個動物都以一種獨特的方式存在于地球上，它們有非常敏銳的感知能力，有屬于自己的獨特交流方式，更有千奇百怪的聲音，不能因為人類聽覺的能力有限，而忽略這些聲音的存在和美感。

Many animals could send supersonic waves(超聲波). But only bats and dolphins use this wave in their lives. The purpose of sending supersonic waves is mainly to prey (捕食) and bats and dolphins are typical(典型的). The supersonic waves that dolphins send could be back after they hit the fish. After dolphins receive the waves， they could catch their food by directions of the waves. Bat is also using the supersonic waves to find the insects (昆蟲) and barriers (障礙).

很多動物能發出超聲波，但是在生活中利用超聲波的目前僅有蝙蝠和一些海豚。這些動物發射超生波的目的多半是用于捕食——蝙蝠和海豚就是典型。海豚發出的超聲波打到魚身上后返回來，海豚收到反射回來的聲波之后，再根據聲波的方向去捕食。蝙蝠也是通過超聲波來發現昆蟲和障礙物。