Is Your Sheep Stressed? Just Ask It 

　　Stressed-out sheep bleat out their anguish, U.S. researchers reported. They found that,like humans, sheep communicate stress by changing the timbre of their voices. Mark Feinstein of Hampshire College in Amherst,Massachusetts, said his findings could help farmers and, of course, the sheep they herd. An expert in bioacoustics*, Feinstein did his work at Teagasc, an Irish government agricultural research organization. He isolated sheep and separated


　　lambs from their mothers as part of his experiments ?then recorded their bleats. His recordings suggest that sheep express stress by altering the timbre of their vocalizations, or the overall quality of sounds, rather than by changing pitch or loudness. Stress can be measured by taking an animal's blood, but it would be much easier, cheaper and, yes, less stressful to simply listen, Feinstein said. 


　　* bioacoustics：生物声学，研究对象为生物发出的声音及影响生物的声音，尤其是与生物间沟通有关的声音。





“听”羊羔诉苦 

　　美国研究人员说，不堪重负的绵羊会用叫声诉说苦闷。他们发现，绵羊和人一样会通过改变声音的音色来抒发压抑的情绪。马萨诸塞州阿姆赫斯特镇汉普郡学院的马克·费恩斯泰因宣称自己的发现可以助农夫们一臂之力，对他们放牧的羊群当然也有好处。费恩斯泰因是一位生物声学专家，在爱尔兰政府的农业研究机构Teagasc进行研究工作。他的实验内容之一是把绵羊隔离起来，并把母羊和小羊分开，然后记录它们的叫声。录音显示绵羊表达压抑感的方式是改变音色，亦即声音的整体性质，而不是改变音调或声音的大小。费恩斯泰因说，检测动物压力的方法之一是采血，但倾听是一种简便得多、成本也低得多的方法。还有，它也是最轻松的方法。


　　Remarks：看起来，“狼来了”的悲剧可以避免了——是真是假，听听音色就行了(狼对羊造成的压力想必不小)。

来源：《英语学习》