Bat 1（蝙蝠）

Not all sounds made by animals serve as language, and we have only to turn to that extraordinary discovery of echo-location in bats to see a case in which the voice plays a strictly utilitarian role.
动物发出的声音不都是用作语言交际。我们只要看一看蝙蝠回声定位这一极不寻常的发现，就可以探究一下声音在什么情况下有绝对的实用价值。
To get a full appreciation of what this means we must turn first to some recent human inventions. Everyone knows that if he shouts in the vicinity of a wall or a mountainside, an echo will come back. The further off this solid obstruction, the longer time will elapse for the return of the echo. A sound made by tapping on the hull of a ship will be reflected from the sea bottom, and by measuring the time interval between the taps and the receipt of the echoes, the depth of the sea at that point can be calculated.
要透彻理解这句话的意义，我们应先回顾一下人类最近的几项发明。大家都知道，在墙壁或山腰附近发出的喊声，就会听到回声。固体障碍物越远。回声返回所用时间就越长。敲打船体所发了的声音会从海底传回来，测出回声间隔的时间，便可算出该处海洋的深度。

New words and expressions生词和短语

bat
n. 蝙蝠
strictly
adv. 明确地
utilitarian
adj.实用的
appreciation
n. 理解
elapse
v. 障碍物
hull
n. 消逝
interval
n. 船体
receipt
n. 间隔