Virtual connection improves parrots' well-being

重慶 田 甜

研究表明，寵物鸚鵡通過虛連接可以減少孤獨感，從而改善心理問題。在研究中，18 只寵物鸚鵡學會了通過視頻通話與其他鳥類交流，這對它們來說是一種新的互動方式。這項研究為提升寵物鸚鵡的幸福感提供了新途徑。

主題語境：科研 篇幅：338詞 建議用時：7分鐘

1 When humans are feeling lonely, we can call or video chat with friends and family who live far away.But, scientists asked, what about pet parrots? New research suggests that these chatty creatures may also benefit from virtually connecting with their peers.

2 The idea for this study was not random: In the wild, parrots tend to live in large groups.But when kept as pets, these social birds are often on their own.Feeling bored and lonely, they may develop psychological issues and can even turn to self-harming behaviors like pulling out their feathers.

3 In the study, researchers wanted to see whether 18 pet parrots could learn to make and receive video calls when they needed to help reduce loneliness.In the initial stage, the birds learnt to ring a bell and then touch a photo of another bird on a tablet screen to start a call to that bird.Calls would only work when caregivers were able to assist at both ends.In the second stage, the parrots could choose to call other birds at their own will by ringing the bell and then selected the bird they wanted to call.During a two-month study period, owners said they recorded 147 deliberate calls between birds.

4 “We saw some really encouraging results from the study,” said researchers.The parrots seemed to grasp that they were truly engaging with other birds on-screen and their behaviour often mirrored what we would expect from real-life interactions between these types of birds.“She came alive during the calls,” one pet owner said about her bird,according to a statement from Northeastern University.

5 The team has previously designed similar technology such as DogPhone, which allowed pet dogs to shake a ball to communicate with their owners.“The animal Internet is already here—there are hundreds of products on the market that let pet owners interact with their animals remotely over the Internet, but their design is primarily focused on what humans want, not what their pets need,” Hirskyj-Douglas from the University of Glasgow added.

Reading Check

Detail1.Why did researchers want to teach pet parrots to make video calls?

A.To assess the effects of video calls on pet parrots.

B.To train pet parrots' communication skills.

C.To help get pet parrots out of bad moods.

D.To improve the relationship between pet parrots.

Gist2.What does paragraph 3 mainly talk about?

A.The subject of the experiment.

B.The procedures of the experiment.

C.Caregivers' role in the experiment.

D.The significance of the experiment.

Inference3.Why is a pet owner's statement mentioned in the text?

A.To indicate video calls saved her parrot's life.

B.To show pet parrots like video calls very much.

C.To show pet owners are satisfied with the study.

D.To illustrate the study produced positive results.

Detail 4.What is the difference between this study and previous ones?

A.It uses the Internet technology.

B.It enhances human-animal interaction.

C.It satisfies pet owners' needs.

D.It focuses on animals' needs.

Language Study

Ⅰ.Difficult sentence in the text

The parrots seemed to grasp that they were truly engaging with other birds on-screen and their behaviour often mirrored what we would expect from real-life interactions between these types of birds.這些鸚鵡似乎明白它們確實在與屏幕上的其他鳥類進行互動，并且它們的行為經常反映了我們對這些鳥類之間真實互動的預期。

【點石成金】本句中，that they were...of birds 是一個由that 引導的賓語從句，句中and連接的是兩個并列的分句；what引導的從句作動詞mirrored的賓語。

Ⅱ.Text-centered chunks

on one's own 獨立地

turn to 轉向

expect from 對……的期望

come alive （使）變得生動

allow sb to do 允許某人做……

communicate with 與……交流

interact with 與……互動

be focused on 聚焦于