Chimps 'have a taste for alcohol' 黑猩猩也喜欢喝酒
A taste for alcohol: one more thing chimps have in common with us
科学家在对几内亚的黑猩猩进行多年跟踪观察后找到了这些人类近亲喝酒的证据。长达17年的研究发现猩猩喜欢喝棕榈树分泌的树液在自然发酵后形成的棕榈酒，它们用棕榈树叶来盛酒喝，并且也会醉酒。此研究报告发表在《皇家学会开放科学》期刊上。以下是 Victoria Gill 的报道。
These chimps黑猩猩 show impressive skill. After climbing the trees, they make drinking sponges from crushed leaves, repeatedly dunking them in liquid and sucking out the contents. What is not immediately apparent from this display is that the chimps are drinking wine.
It's palm wine, produced when sugars in the tree sap树液 naturally ferment. In Guinea locals tap the trees to harvest it in plastic containers.
These scientists recorded opportunistic chimpanzees taking their share of the alcoholic spoils. Some of the animals repeatedly drank the equivalent of a bottle of wine and showed visible signs of inebriation, falling asleep soon afterwards.
Earlier this year US researchers discovered that some African apes, including chimps, share the genetic mutation基因突变 that allows humans to metabolise ethanol ['ɛθənɔl]酒精. That, and these willingly intoxicated chimps, demonstrates示范 that a taste for drinking alcohol emerged even earlier than we did.
Questions
1. How do chimps collect the palm sap?
2. Who collects the tree sap in plastic containers?
3. True or false? After having the sap, the animals drank a bottle of wine.
4. Which three words are related to consuming too much alcohol?
Vocabulary and definitions
dunking 蘸，浸泡
sucking out 吸出来
ferment[fɚ'mɛnt]发酵
tap 拍，敲击
harvest 收成，收割
opportunistic [,ɑpɚtu'nɪstɪk] 投机取巧的
spoils 战利品
inebriation [ɪn,ibrɪ'eʃən]陶醉
to metabolise [mɛ'tæbəlaɪz]新陈代谢
intoxicated[ɪn'tɑksɪketɪd] 喝醉的
Answers to the questions:
1. How do chimps collect the palm sap?
Answer: They make sponges out of crushed leaves and dunk them into the sap.
2. Who collects the tree sap in plastic containers?
Answer: Local people in Guinea.
3. True or false? After having the sap, the animals drank a bottle of wine.
Answer: False. The sap some of them drank was the equivalent of a bottle of wine, but there was no bottle involved.
4. Which three words are related to consuming too much alcohol?
Answer: Drunk, intoxicated, inebriation.
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