音樂是藝術門類的一脈，也是作爲人類的一種社會現象，是伴隨着人類的出現而產生的，是人類社會發展到一定階段的產物。但是，除了人類之外，動物可以欣賞音樂嗎?答案盡在下面的普特英語聽力材料裏。
Musical Mammals
Think humans are the only creatures capable of grooving to a beat? Think again. Turns out a growing number of animals are just as musically inclined.
Beyond Parrots
Now, you may already know that parrots and other birds that mimic human speech are also good at keeping time to a musical beat. Scientists think it’s a side effect of repeating human speech sounds.
But researchers have found that both sea lions and bonobos are also capable of bopping to a beat. Researchers beat a drum at around 280 beats per minute and found that bonobos were able to pick up the beat and play it on a specially designed drum.
Now, given that bonobos are closely related to humans, their rhythmic ability might not sound very surprising. In the wild, bonobos are known to beat on hollow trees. But sea lions are a different story they’re not known to follow or pick up a beat.
So it was surprising when researchers working with a sea lion they named Ronan were able to train her to bob her head in time to different tempos.
More Widespread
Beyond the fact that teaching a sea lion to groove to a beat is pretty cool, it also suggests that the ability may be much more widespread in the animal kingdom than we’ve assumed, and that keeping time to a beat is not limited to animals able to mimic human speech.
So we may not yet be at the point where we’ll see rock bands with seals or apes on drums, but when it comes to music, humans and other animals appear to have more in common than meets the eye.
懂音樂的動物有哪些?
人類是唯一能夠隨着節拍起舞的生物嗎?不是。事實上，越來越多的動物顯示出音樂天賦。
除鸚鵡之外
你可能已經知道鸚鵡和其他一些能夠模仿人類語言的鳥類也擅於把握音樂節拍。科學家認爲這是它們重複人類語言聲音而產生的副作用。
但是，研究人員發現，海獅和倭黑猩猩也有樂感。研究人員以每分鐘約280次的速度擊鼓，發現倭黑猩猩能夠跟上節奏，並在一個特製的鼓上演奏出來。
由於倭黑猩猩是人類的“近親”，它們具有節奏感也許並不稀奇。在野外，倭黑猩猩以能在中空的樹上擊打出節奏而聞名。但海獅卻不一樣，人們可從不知道它們能跟上節拍。
因此當研究人員同一只名叫羅南的.海獅共同協作，訓練它能夠隨着不同的節拍搖頭晃腦就十分令人驚奇了。
更多有樂感的動物
訓練海獅“聞拍起舞”十分有範兒，但也這表明動物王國中有樂感的動物也許要比我們想象的多，能跟上節拍的動物也不僅限於能夠“學舌”的動物。
也許目前我們還看不到一個由海豹或猩猩組成的搖滾樂隊，但是，在音樂方面，人類和其他動物似乎比表面上看起來有更多共同點。
