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0Episode: The Crow and the Bottle: Genius or Training?
Duration: approximately 6 minutes
Level: B1 (Intermediate)
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[Mike]: Welcome back to Learn English with Podcasts! Sarah, do you remember the crow and the water bottle story we all learned as kids?
zh:欢迎回到 Learn English with Podcasts！Sarah，你还记得小时候学的乌鸦和水瓶的故事吗？
[Sarah]: "Once there was a very thirsty crow..." Of course I do. First-grade classic. Drop stones in, water rises, the crow gets a drink.
zh:"一只乌鸦口渴了……"当然记得。一年级经典课文。丢石头进去，水位上升，乌鸦喝到水。
[Mike]: Well, a video of a real crow doing exactly that just went viral — tens of millions of views. Real bird, real bottle, stones going in one by one.
zh:最近一段真乌鸦做同样事情的视频火了——好几百万播放。真鸟，真瓶子，石子一块块丢进去。
[Sarah]: People went wild. "The textbook was real all along!" Some said crows are the smartest birds out there — they even make tools.
zh:网友炸锅了。"课文居然是真的！"还有人说乌鸦是鸟类里最聪明的——它们连工具都会做。
[Mike]: And then someone said, "I think this is AI, but I have no proof." Instant debate.
zh:然后有人说："我觉得这是 AI，但我没有证据。"争论瞬间开始。
[Sarah]: Okay, fair skepticism. But here is the thing — the video is not even new. It was filmed in March 2023, at an eco park in Huizhou, Guangdong.
zh:好吧，怀疑精神可以理解。但重点是——这视频根本不新。它是2023年3月在广东惠州一家生态园拍的。
[Mike]: The staff said both crows there can do this. They set out the bottle and the stones, and the birds just go to work.
zh:工作人员说园里两只乌鸦都会。他们摆好瓶子和石子，鸟儿就开工了。
[Sarah]: So wait — is the crow a genius, or is it just trained? That question is actually 2600 years old.
zh:等等——乌鸦到底是天才，还是只是被训练出来的？这个问题其实已经有2600年历史了。
[Mike]: The fable comes from Aesop, a Greek writer from the 6th century BC. And in the year 77, Pliny the Elder wrote in his Natural History that the story reflects real crow behavior.
zh:这个寓言出自伊索，一位公元前6世纪的希腊作家。公元77年，老普林尼在《自然史》里写道，这个故事反映的是鸦科鸟类的真实行为。
[Sarah]: So people have been arguing about this for centuries. Luckily, science finally stepped in.
zh:也就是说，几个世纪以来人们一直在争论。好在科学终于出手了。
[Mike]: In 2014, a team at the University of Auckland ran experiments with New Caledonian crows.
zh:2014年，奥克兰大学的团队用新喀鸦做了实验。
[Sarah]: The setup: food at the bottom of a tall tube of water. The crow cannot reach it with its beak.
zh:实验设置是：食物放在一根高水柱底部。乌鸦的喙够不着。
[Mike]: So the crow starts dropping stones in — just like the fable. But then it gets smarter.
zh:于是乌鸦开始往里丢石头——和寓言里一样。但它更进一步。
[Sarah]: These crows know that big stones raise the water faster than small ones. Solid stones beat hollow ones. Things that sink beat things that float.
zh:这些乌鸦知道大石头比小石头升水快。实心的比有洞的好。能沉下去的比浮着的好。
[Mike]: And if the cup is full of sand, or there is not enough water to rise, the crow just walks away.
zh:如果杯子里装的是沙子，或者水太少升不上去，乌鸦直接走人。
[Sarah]: It knows when the trick will not work. That is not blind trial and error.
zh:它知道什么时候这招没用。这可不是瞎试错。
[Mike]: Oh wait — humans tested orangutans on the same puzzle. The orangutan's solution? Sip some water, spit it into the cup, and the food floats up.
zh:哦等等——人类还用同样的难题考过红毛猩猩。它的解法？喝一口水吐进杯子里，食物就浮上来了。
[Sarah]: That is both smarter and a little grosser than dropping stones.
zh:这比丢石头聪明，也稍微恶心一点。
[Mike]: Now, closer to home — a dad in Hangzhou actually raised a crow to test the textbook story with his kids.
zh:再说个身边的——杭州有位爸爸真的养了一只乌鸦，带着孩子验证课文里的故事。
[Sarah]: The crow lived with them for four or five months. It is a protected species, so it belongs to a breeding center — the dad was just fostering it and training it for shows.
zh:这只乌鸦在他们家住了四五个月。它是保护动物，属于一家养殖机构——爸爸只是寄养并训练它，以后参加演出。
[Mike]: First thing they did: set up the bottle and a pile of stones.
zh:他们做的第一件事：摆好水瓶和一堆石子。
[Sarah]: And the crow's first move? Knock the bottle over. Spill the water. Drink from the puddle.
zh:乌鸦的第一反应是什么？把瓶子掀翻。水洒出来，直接喝。
[Mike]: "In the crow's first logic, just get the water — simple, wild, a little rude."
zh:"在乌鸦最初的逻辑里，只要喝到水就行——简单、野蛮、还有点粗暴。"
[Sarah]: So they taught it. One lesson in the morning — more than 10 minutes. Another lesson that evening. One more the next morning.
zh:于是他们开始教。早上教了一次——10多分钟。晚上回来又教一次。第二天早上再教一次。
[Mike]: Three lessons over a day and a half. After that, the crow had it — no more knocking over the bottle, just stone after stone until the water rose.
zh:一天半，三次传授。之后乌鸦学会了——不再打翻瓶子，而是一块接一块丢石头，直到水位上升。
[Sarah]: And here is a funny detail. At first, it only dropped stones until the water just barely reached its beak.
zh:有个细节很有意思。刚开始，它只丢到水面刚好够得着喙的位置。
[Mike]: Then it discovered — wait, more stones means more water. Bigger sips.
zh:后来它偶然发现——等等，石头丢得越多，水越多。能大口喝。
[Sarah]: Now when the kids throw stones, the crow drops every single one into the bottle.
zh:现在孩子们丢多少石子，乌鸦都会一块不留全丢进瓶子里。
[Mike]: The dad says a crow's thinking can reach a 3 to 5 year old human. To learn one action, some parrots need 100 or more tries.
zh:爸爸说乌鸦的思考能力能达到人类3到5岁。学一个动作，有的鹦鹉要练100多次。
[Sarah]: The smartest parrot, the Amazon parrot, needs about 20. A crow? Two or three.
zh:最聪明的亚马逊鹦鹉，大约20多次。乌鸦呢？两三次。
[Mike]: Okay, but surely this is just trained behavior, right? Not some natural gift?
zh:好吧，但这肯定只是训练出来的行为，对吧？不是什么天生本领？
[Sarah]: A bird expert in Zhejiang says the same thing — it is a conditioned reflex, not a natural gift.
zh:浙江一位鸟类专家也这么说——这是条件反射，不是天生的。
[Mike]: He points to the old bird trainers in Hangzhou. They open the cage on the mountain, give a whistle, and every bird flies back.
zh:他举了杭州老养鸟人的例子。上山打开笼子，口哨一吹，鸟全飞回来。
[Sarah]: It looks like magic — but they release the birds on an empty stomach. Come back, get a worm. That is the whole trick.
zh:看着神奇——但放飞时鸟是饿着肚子的。飞回来，喂一条虫。全部诀窍就这些。
[Mike]: The dad also thinks the crow in the viral video was probably trained.
zh:那位爸爸也觉得，视频里的乌鸦应该是经过驯养的。
[Sarah]: The park staff prepares the bottle and stones every morning. The bird just does the part it was taught.
zh:生态园工作人员每天早上都摆好瓶子和石子。鸟只是在做它被教过的那部分。
[Mike]: So who do you think is smarter — the crow, or the people setting up the bottle every morning?
zh:那你觉得谁更聪明——乌鸦，还是每天早上摆瓶子的人？
[Sarah]: We all watched it and said "wow, nature!" while a staff member was putting the props in place.
zh:我们看完都喊"哇，大自然好神奇！"而工作人员正在后台放道具。
[Mike]: The crow gets the credit, the intern gets nothing.
zh:乌鸦拿了功劳，实习生什么都没拿到。
[Sarah]: Sounds like most group projects. Thanks for listening to Learn English with Podcasts — see you next time!
zh:听起来像大多数小组作业。感谢收听 Learn English with Podcasts——下期再见！
