【正文】 他們在一些基本科學知識上的誤區(qū)。而環(huán)保教育正是為這些能力的養(yǎng)成提供舞臺，這一點對于孩子們成為未來的政策制定者是至關重要的。同樣，盡管有些鯨魚也有味蕾，但這些味覺器官要么已經退化，要么就根本沒有發(fā)育。這種接觸有助于維護同一種群內部的秩序，而且對大多數(shù)鯨魚而言，撫摸和觸碰也是求偶儀式的一部分。但是眼睛的位置如此嚴重地限制了須鯨的視野，以致于它們可能不具備立體視覺。盡管之前的實驗證據(jù)表明，海豚在露 天環(huán)境中可能是睜眼瞎，然而，它們能夠從水中躍起很髙，并且能夠準確地吃到訓練員手中的小魚，這就有趣地證明了上述觀點是錯誤的。盡管鯨魚們的味覺和嗅覺嚴重衰退，在水中的視覺又不那么確定，然而這些缺陷完全可以被它們那高度發(fā)迖的聽覺系統(tǒng)所彌補。 令人難以忘懷的低語。 the wavy spokes, they thought, suggested that the wheel was wobbling。為了展示這樣一個動作，她在圓圈中畫了一條曲線。當我要其他接受研究的盲人對象畫出轉動中的車輪時，一種特別聰明的畫法反復出現(xiàn)了：幾個人把車條畫成了曲線。所以我決定測試一下，不同的運動線是否就是表現(xiàn)運動的恰當方式，而或它們只是一些特殊的符號而已。參照組則是由來自于多倫多大學的18名普通大學生組成的。另外，在每種情況下，普通人喜愛的表達與盲人喜愛的基本一致。我們還發(fā)現(xiàn)盲人同樣可以理解其他的視覺隱喻。舉個例子，我們會問：“哪個形狀和柔軟有關？圓形還是 方形？哪個形狀表示堅硬？ ”所有的受試者都認為圓形代表柔軟，方形代表堅硬。當我們用同樣的單子去測試四個完全失明的人時，他們的選擇幾乎與普通受試者的一模一樣，有個先天失明的人做得極好。劍4T2P1Lost for wordsIn the Native American Navajo nation which sprawls across four states in the American southwest, the native language is dying. Most of its speakers are middleage or elderly. Although many students take classes in Navajo, the schools are run in English. Street sign, supermarket goods and even their own newspaper are all in English. Not surprisingly, linguists doubt that any native speakers of Navajo will remain in a hundred years’ time. Navajo is far from alone. Half the world’s 6,800 languages are likely to vanish within two generations that’s one language lost every ten days. Never before has the planet’s linguistic diversity shrunk at such a pace. “At the moment, we are heading for about three or four languages dominating the world”, says Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading. “It’s a mass extinction, and whether we will ever rebound from the lost is difficult to know.Isolation breeds linguistic diversity as a result, the world is peppered with languages spoken by only a few people. Only 250 language have more than a million speaker, and at least 3,000 have fewer than 2,500. It is not necessarily these small languages that are about to disappear. Navajo is considered endangered despite having 150,000 speakers. What makes a language endangered is not that the number of speakers, but how old they are. If it is spoken by children it is relatively safe. The critically endangered languages are those that are only spoken by the elderly, according to Michael Krauss, director of the Alassk Native Language Center, in Fairblanks.Why do people reject the language of their parent? It begins with a crisis of confidence, when a small munity find itself alongside a larger, wealthier society, says Nicholas Ostler of Britain’s Foundation for Endangered Languages, in Bath. ‘People lose faith in their culture’ he say. ‘When the next generation reaches their teens, they might not want to be induced into the old tradition.’The change is not always voluntary. Quite often, governments try to kill off a minority language by banning its use in public or discouraging its use in school, all to promote national unity. The former US policy of running Indian reservation in English, for example, effectively put languages such as Navajo on the danger list. But Salikoko Mufwene, who chairs the Linguistics Department at the University of Chicago, argues that the deadliest weapon is not government policy but economic globalisation. ‘Native Americans have not lost pride in their language, but they have had to adapt to socioeconomic pressures’ he say. ‘They cannot refuse to speak English if most mercial activity is in English. But are languages worth saving? At the very least, there is a loss of data for the study of languages and their evolution, which relies on parisons between languages, both living and dead. When an unwritten and unrecorded language disappears, it is lost to science.Language is also intimately bond up with culture, so it may be difficult to reserve one without the other. ‘If a person shifts from Navajo to English, they lose something39。講土著語的大都是中年或老年人。并非只有納瓦霍語才如此?！迸c外界的隔絕帶來了語言的多樣性，這導致世界上有很多語言只有很少數(shù)量的人會講。如果這種語言的使用者很年輕，那么該語言也相對安全。”這種變化并不總是自發(fā)的。“土著美國人并沒失去對自己語言的自豪感，但是他們不得不強迫自己適應社會經濟壓力。語言與文化的聯(lián)系也是密不可分的，所以只保留二者之一是很難做到的?！澳阄业拇竽X與講法語的人的大腦是不同的”，這種不同會影響我們的思維和看法?！疤嵘鄻有缘年P鍵就在于，人們要學習長輩的語言，同時也要學習主流語言。在加州，“學徒”計劃為某些土著語提供了生存支持。他說，“保存語言更像用罐子保存水果”。劍4T2P2ALTANERTIVE MEDICINE IN AUSTRALIAThe first students to study alternative medicine at university level in Australia began their four years, full time course at the University of Technology, Sydney, in early 1994. Their course covered, among other therapies, acupuncture. The theory they learnt is based on the traditional Chinese explanation of this ancient, healing art that it can regulate the flow of ‘Qi’ or energy through pathways in the body. This course reflects how far some alternative therapies have e in their struggle for acceptance by the medical establishment.Australia has been unusual in the Western world in having a very conservative attitude to natural or alternative therapies, according to Dr. Paul Laver a lecturer in Public Health at the University of Sydney. ‘We’ve had a tradition of doctors being fairly powerful and I guess they are pretty loath to allow any pretenders to their position to e into it.’ In many other industrialised countries orthodox and alternative medicines have worked ‘hand in glove’ for years. In Europe only orthodox doctors can prescribe herbal medicine. In German, plant remedies account for 10% of the national turnover of pharmaceuticals. Americans made more visit to alternative therapists than to orthodox doctors in 1990, and each year they spent about $US12 billion on therapies that have not been scientifically tested.Disenchantment with orthodox medicine has seen the popularity of alternative therapies in Australia climb steadily during the past 20 years. In a 1983 national health survey, % of people said they had contacted a chiropractor, naturopath, osteopath, acupuncturist or herbalist in the two weeks prior to the survey. By 1990, this figure had risen to % of the population. The 550,000 consultations with alternative therapists reported in the