33.High School English Listening

Humans may be one of the smartest animals on the planet, butwhen it comes to remembering where things are, Clark'snutcrackers have us beat.
A relative of jays and crows, nutcrackers hide pine seeds in theground each autumn so they have a source of food during the Colorado Rocky Mountain winter.
They cache as many as 30,000 seeds in 5,000 different locations over a fifteen square mile area.
Since they cannot smell the seeds buried in the soil very well, they must use their remarkable spatial memory to find them.
Nutcrackers are not the only animals that cache food.
Caching behavior is seen in birds,mammals and even insects.
Chickadees store collections of seeds, insects and spiders in the barkof trees or under leaves.
Red squirrels cut conifer cones from trees and bury them in plant litteron the forest floor.
Harvester ants bring seeds back to their nests and store them in chambers,while honey bees save nectar and pollen in their hive.
Because nutcrackers are one of the best at remembering cache locations, researchers arestudying them to find out why they have such great memories.
Scientists know that thenutcracker's abilities evolved because of environmental pressure.
Nutcrackers with poor memoriesdid not likely survive the harsh mountain winters.
Now researchers want to find out how the brainsof nutcrackers are different from other brains.They are particularly interested in the hippocampus,a small area of the brain that helps form memories.
Finding out how the nutcracker's brain isdifferent from other species may give us clues to why humans have memory problems.
It may even lead to a cure for Alzheimer's disease.
译文：
人类可能是地球上最聪明的动物之一，但在记住东西的位置方面，克拉克的果夹子比我们强。
作为松鸦的亲戚，果子鸡每年秋天都会把松树种子藏在地下，这样它们在科罗拉多州落基山脉的冬天就有了食物来源。
它们在15平方英里的范围内，在5000个不同的地点藏匿多达30,000颗种子。
由于它们不能很好地闻到埋在土壤中的种子，它们必须利用其非凡的空间记忆来找到它们。
胡桃夹子并不是唯一会藏匿食物的动物。
鸟类、哺乳动物甚至昆虫都有贮藏行为。
雏鹰把收集的种子、昆虫和蜘蛛放在树皮里或树叶下。
红松鼠从树上切下针叶树的果实，把它们埋在森林地面上的植物垃圾中。
收割蚂蚁把种子带回它们的巢穴，并把它们储存在房间里，而蜜蜂则把花蜜和花粉保存在它们的蜂巢里。
由于果夹子是最善于记住藏匿地点的动物之一，研究人员正在研究它们，以找出它们为什么有这么好的记忆。
科学家们知道，胡桃夹子的能力是由于环境压力而进化的。
记忆力差的胡桃夹子不可能在严酷的山区冬季生存。
现在，研究人员想找出胡桃夹子的大脑与其他大脑有什么不同。
他们对海马体特别感兴趣，海马体是大脑的一个小区域，有助于形成记忆。
找出胡桃夹子的大脑与其他物种的不同之处可能会给我们提供线索，让我们了解为什么人类有记忆问题。
它甚至可能导致阿尔茨海默病的治愈。
重点词汇：
may be 多半
one of …之一
they have 他们有 ; 他们刚点了吃的 ; 他们在家吃早餐
as many as 多达…
very well 非常好 ; 非常健康
conifer 针叶树