Chimps 'have a taste for alcohol'

　　黑猩猩也喜欢喝酒

双语研究：黑猩猩也喜欢喝酒

　　科学家在对几内亚的黑猩猩进行多年跟踪观察后找到了这些人类近亲喝酒的证据。长达17年的研究发现猩猩喜欢喝棕榈树分泌的树液在自然发酵后形成的棕榈酒，它们用棕榈树叶来盛酒喝，并且也会醉酒。此研究报告发表在《皇家学会开放科学》期刊上。以下是 Victoria Gill 的报道。

　　These chimps show impressive skill. After climbing the trees, they make drinking sponges from crushed leaves, repeatedly dunking them in liquid and sucking out the contents. What is not immediately apparent from this display is that the chimps are drinking wine。

　　It's palm wine, produced when sugars in the tree sap naturally ferment. In Guinea locals tap the trees to harvest it in plastic containers。

　　These scientists recorded opportunistic chimpanzees taking their share of the alcoholic spoils. Some of the animals repeatedly drank the equivalent of a bottle of wine and showed visible signs of inebriation, falling asleep soon afterwards。

　　Earlier this year US researchers discovered that some African apes, including chimps, share the genetic mutation that allows humans to metabolise ethanol. That, and these willingly intoxicated chimps, demonstrates that a taste for drinking alcohol emerged even earlier than we did。

　　Questions

　　1. How do chimps collect the palm sap?

　　2. Who collects the tree sap in plastic containers?

　　3. True or false? After having the sap, the animals drank a bottle of wine。

　　4. Which three words are related to consuming too much alcohol?

　　Vocabulary and definitions

　　dunking 蘸，浸泡

　　sucking out 吸出来

　　ferment 发酵

　　tap 拍，敲击

　　harvest 收成，收割

　　opportunistic 投机取巧的

　　spoils 战利品

　　inebriation 陶醉

　　to metabolise 代谢

　　intoxicated 喝醉的

　　Media English © British Broadcasting Corporation 2015

　　bbcukchina.com/learningenglish Page 3 of 3

　　Answers to the questions:

　　1. How do chimps collect the palm sap? Answer: They make sponges out of crushed leaves and dunk them into the sap。

　　2. Who collects the tree sap in plastic containers? Answer: Local people in Guinea。

　　3. True or false? After having the sap, the animals drank a bottle of wine。

　　Answer: False. The sap some of them drank was the equivalent of a bottle of wine, but there was no bottle involved。

　　4. Which three words are related to consuming too much alcohol?

　　Answer: Drunk, intoxicated, inebriation。

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