Chimps chat like we do: BBC Learning English from the News - 双语字幕
from BBC Learning English.
This is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.
In this programme, how chimpanzees have conversations just like us?
Hello, I'm Phil and I'm Beth.
In this programme, we look at one big news story and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help you understand it.
You can find all the vocabulary and headlines from this episode as well as a worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.
So, let's hear more about this story, Phil.
Okay, so this story comes from a study that's been observing chimpanzees over many decades.
and they've seen that chimpanzees gesture with their hands to communicate.
Yeah, and chimpanzees or chimps, as we sometimes call them, take turns to do this and they even interrupt each other, just like humans.
So this turn taking and the time between these turns is actually very similar
to the way that we do it as humans when we're communicating.
And I have a headline here that's about the main finding.
Chimp's share human snappy conversational style and that's from BBC News in the UK.
Yep, again that headline, Chimp's share human's snappy conversational style and that is from BBC News in the UK.
Now this headline is all about the way that Chimp's community We have this adjective snappy, which means quick, concise and effective.
Yeah, and snap is one of these words that sounds like what it represents.
That's an onomatopoeia.
And it's a very quick sound.
You snap your fingers.
A can snap its mouth shut.
where it's describing the chimp's conversation is snappy, it means that it's quick, it's concise and each turn has impact.
Exactly.
Now we also have a phrase make it snappy which means Be quick.
Maybe you're in a hurry, someone's forgotten their keys, and you say, come on, make it snappy.
It be quick.
So we had snappy, which means quick, concise and effective.
For example, the writers managed to come up with a snappy three-word slogan for their advert.
This is learning English from the New York podcast all about the news headlines.
Today we're talking about a report and it says that Chimpanzees communicate in a similar way to us.
So, the average human response time in a conversation is 200 milliseconds, that's a fifth of a second.
And for chimps, it's 120 milliseconds, so a little bit quicker.
Now, actually, for humans, you do get variation between different cultures.
Sometimes turns are longer.
And actually that was also seen in different groups of chimps in this study.
So we've got another headline here which is talking about the speed of this turn taking.
This is from the Guardian in the UK.
Chimpanzees communicate in similar quick-fire fashion to humans study shows.
And that headline again, Chimpanzees communicate in similar quick-fire fashion to humans study shows and that is from the Guardian here in the UK.
Again, the two things in this headline are that chimps communication is similar to ours So we have another adjective here.
It's a compound adjective and that's quick fire and we usually write this with a hyphen between quick Now,
some of the earliest examples of quick fire are about guns, meaning that they can fire a lot of shots quickly.
And that is still one way that quick fire is used, but that's literal and of course here in the headline it's metaphorical.
And as a metaphor, quick fire just means that things come one after another quickly in a sequence.
In fact, a common way that we use quick fire is to describe things happening in quick fire success.
And it's often used to describe the way that people speak, particularly if someone is very talkative or if they speak very quickly.
I asked for directions the other day and the lady gave me a really quick-fire set of instructions.
She spoke very fast.
So we had quick-fire.
Very fast, one after another.
For example, the rapper is known for her quick-fire delivery of rhymes.
English.
We're talking about a study that says chimpanzees in a similar way to us.
So this study says that sometimes chimpanzees wait for the other chimp to stop speaking, but sometimes they interrupt them.
And in fact in this study up to seven turns in a row where Sometimes chimps communicate to avoid conflict and sometimes they do it to make plans to
organise activities with other chimps.
And this communication can also be used to say that they want but it can be the opposites.
They communicate to tell the other chimps to go away.
And we've got a headline here that refers to this communication.
Chimpanzees gesture back and forth quickly, like in human conversations.
And from the website Eureka Lert, which is from the US.
Again, that headline, chimpanzee's gesture back and forth quickly, like in human conversations.
And that's from the website Eureka Lerts in the US.
Okay, so here we have the idiom back and forth, which is being used to say how something happens, such like an adverb.
Now the word forth is a bit old fashioned, but it has survived in this phrase, but really it just means forward.
Yes, so if something literally goes back and forth, it goes backwards and forwards.
Think about a swing in a children's playground.
Now here in the headline it's not about literal movements,
like on a swing,
it's about the flow of conversation that goes in two directions,
so from one chimp to the other and back again and up to seven times.
Back and forth is also often used about conversation,
so if you want to talk about a really sick successful social event, you could say that the conversation flowed back and forth for hours.
So that's back and forth.
in one direction and then coming back again." The negotiations went back and forth until an agreement was reached.
That's it for this episode of Learning English from the news.
We'll be back next week with another news story.
If you've enjoyed this program, make sure you listen to Six Minute English.
English, and don't forget, we're on social media, so search for us under BBC Learning English.
Bye for now.
Goodbye.
解锁更多功能
安装 Trancy 扩展，可以解锁更多功能，包括AI字幕、AI单词释义、AI语法分析、AI口语等
兼容主流视频平台
Trancy 不仅提供对 YouTube, Netflix, Udemy, Disney+, TED, edX, Kehan, Coursera 等平台的双语字幕支持，还能实现对普通网页的 AI 划词/划句翻译、全文沉浸翻译等功能，真正的语言学习全能助手。
支持全平台浏览器
Trancy 支持全平台使用，包括iOS Safari浏览器扩展
多种观影模式
支持剧场、阅读、混合等多种观影模式，全方位双语体验
多种练习模式
支持句子精听、口语测评、选择填空、默写等多种练习方式
AI 视频总结
使用 OpenAI 对视频总结，快速视频概要，掌握关键内容
AI 字幕
只需3-5分钟，即可生成 YouTube AI 字幕，精准且快速
AI 单词释义
轻点字幕中的单词，即可查询释义，并有AI释义赋能
AI 语法分析
对句子进行语法分析，快速理解句子含义，掌握难点语法
更多网页功能
Trancy 支持视频双语字幕同时，还可提供网页的单词翻译和全文翻译功能