Rob:Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English with me, Rob, and a very beautiful sound…
大家好，歡迎收聽本期BBC六分鐘英語，欣賞這優美的聲音。我是Rob。
Jen:Ahhh, the sound of birdsong. Hello, I’m Jennifer and that’s what we’re talking about today – birdsong.
啊，鳥叫聲~大家好，我是Jennifer。今天我們討論的主題是鳥鳴。
Rob:In Britain, this is the sound of summer – lots of different species – or types – of birds tweeting .
在英國，這是夏天的聲音。多種小鳥，各種鳴叫。
Jen:Tweeting? You mean they are using Twitter – the social media site?!
Tweeting？你是說它們用社交媒體網站Twitter？
Rob:Of course not! Tweeting is a way of describing the sounds birds make.We sometimes say they chirp or trill too – making short, high- pitched sounds.
當然不是！Tweeting是種描述鳥叫的方法。有時我們也會說chirp（唧唧）或trill（囀鳴），就是短促、高調的聲音。
Jen:Yes, I knew that really. But a BBC radio station in the UK is playing a different birdsong every day. They’re calling it 』Tweet of the Day』 – which is a clever title.
沒錯，這個我知道。但英國BBC廣播電臺每天都在播放不同的鳥鳴聲。它叫做『鳥語時光』，我覺得這個標題很棒。
Rob:Yes, it is and we』ll talk more about that soon. But first I need to see if you are a twitcher – another name for a person who watches birds for a hobby.Do you know how many species of birds there are on Britain’s official bird list? a) 396 b) 496 c) 596
是啊，的確很好。稍後我們再詳細談一談。現在我要看看你是不是觀鳥迷（即把觀鳥當作業餘愛好的人）。請問，英國官方鳥名單上有多少種鳥？
A.396 B.496 C.596
Jen:Wow, there are lots but I have no idea so I will guess a) 396
哇，這麼多啊~但我不知道答案，蒙一個吧，A.396
Rob:That is quite a lot, isn’t it? We』ll find out if you are right at the end of the programme. So, let’s talk more about tweeting – of the bird kind.Where I live, there are many fields and trees and there is nothing more beautiful – and noisy - than the sound of the dawn chorus.
的確很好。節目最後我會揭曉答案。現在咱們聊聊鳥鳴吧。我住的地方有很多田地和樹木，當然也有噪音。但是最美好的，莫過於清晨的鳥鳴聲。
Jen:That’s when all the birds start singing at sunrise – so first thing in the morning. It’s not so beautiful if you are trying to sleep!But I know what you mean about birdsong – it makes you think about different places. Listen to this birdsong , for example…
那時所有小鳥開始鳴叫，這可是清晨的第一件事。倘若你一直睡著，那就錯過好聽聲音了！我知道你什麼意思。鳥鳴會讓人想起很多地方。先來聽聽下面這段鳥叫聲。
Rob:Yes, the seagull - a scavenger which eats food scraps or other dead animals.
啊，是海鷗，一種進食雜碎或其他動物屍體的食腐動物。
Jen:Yes, it reminds me of the seaside, although I wouldn’t describe that as a beautiful sound – more of a screech.Let’s hear another sound from one of our feathered friends – or in other words, birds…
沒錯，雖然其聲音談不上動聽，更多是尖叫，但讓我想起了海邊。下面我們再來聽一段鳥叫聲。
Rob:That’s the call of a blackbird – something I hear in my back garden.It’s a very distinctive song – easy to recognise and something you hear a lot of in the British summer.
啊，是畫眉！我家後花園裡就能聽到。它的聲音非常獨特，容易辨識，夏天常能聽見。
Jen:And how about this bird – what does it make you think of?
那這種鳥呢？它讓你想起了什麼？
Rob:That has to be a cuckoo – its call sounds like its name – 『cuckoo』.It reminds me of springtime because that’s when you first hear them. It’s incredible that there are so many different birdsongs.
這肯定是布穀鳥，它的叫聲就如其名，『布穀』。這讓我想起了春天，因為那時能首次聽到它們的叫聲。哇，真是難以置信，竟然有這麼多不同鳥鳴聲。
Jen:Well, that’s why BBC Radio 4’s Tweet of the Day features 265 different birdsongs.Sound engineers have been outside and captured – or recorded - the sounds of birds with strange names like the wood warbler, night jar, lesser whitethroat and yellowhammer.
是啊，所以BBC第四廣播臺的『鳥語時光』節目裡有265種聲音。錄音師們走到室外，捕捉記錄鳥叫聲，並起些奇怪名字，如林柳鶯，歐夜鷹，白喉林鶯，金翼啄木鳥。
Rob:Great names. But listening to these strange- named birds may be enjoyable but their tweeting could also be useful.
好名字。它們或許會讓人心情愉悅，但鳥叫聲更可能起作用。
Jen:That’s right. Sound experts say some birdsongs can help you concentrate when you’re studying.
沒錯。聲音專家表示，某些鳥叫聲有助於大家學習時集中注意力。
Rob:Yes, a writer called Julian Treasure says birdsong can relax the body and make your mind more alert.He thinks the dawn chorus is like nature’s alarm clock – 『it stimulates us cognitively』 – so gets our brains working and thinking.
是的，作家Julian Treasure稱鳥鳴聲可放鬆身體，讓大腦更清醒。他認為清晨鳥鳴就像自然鬧鐘，刺激我們的認知性，並讓大腦思考工作。
Jen:Another study found the natural sounds of birdsong might stop you getting tired and sleepy after eating a meal.An experiment found playing birdsong to school children after lunch made them more alert. We should try it here Rob.
另一項研究表明，鳥鳴聲或可阻止大家飯後疲乏睏倦。實驗發現，午餐後給學生放鳥鳴聲可讓其更清醒。Rob，咱倆應該試試哈。
Rob:We should. There’s even a smartphone app that plays birdsong and claims to help you work better. But there’s no need for an app, all I need to do is open the window and listen to the birds outside……but are they all of the bird species I asked you about earlier? My question was how many species of birds are there on Britain’s official bird list?
恩。你知道嗎，智慧型手機上還有播放鳥鳴的應用，聲稱有助於更好工作。但應用也沒必要啊，我只需打開窗戶，聽聽外面的鳥叫就行了。可那不是所有鳥叫吧？對了，我之前問你，英國官方鳥名單上有多少種鳥？
Jen:And I said a) 396 .
我選的A.396
Rob:Sorry Jen, you’re wrong. Incredibly there are 596 types of species in Britain. 286 of them are rare – so not many of them left.OK Jen, there’s just time to remind us of some of the vocabulary that we heard today:
抱歉，Jen，回答錯誤。實際上，英國有596種鳥，其中286種是稀有品種。好了，Jen，該帶大家回顧下今天所聽詞彙了。
Jen:We heard
species（物種、品種） ，tweeting（啁啾、鳥叫）， chirp（唧唧）， twitcher（觀鳥迷） ，dawn chorus（清晨鳥叫聲）， scavenger（食腐動物），screech（尖叫），feathered friends（鳥）， captured（捕捉）， nature’s alarm clock（生物鐘）， rare（稀有、罕見）
Rob:Thanks. Time, now, for some more tweeting. Join us again soon for 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English .
謝謝你。好了，想聽更多鳥鳴聲，敬請收聽BBC六分鐘英語。
Both:Bye.
拜拜~
來自微信公眾號BBC-每日更新（lww9949）,這裡可以學習到更多哦，輕鬆關注吧~^_^，喜歡幫我們擴散哦~ 謝謝親。