梁小明

Snakes might not have ears， but they can hear.

A study found that as well as ground vibrations2， snakes could hear and react3 to airborne4 sound.

Because snakes dont have external5 ears，people usually think theyre deaf and can only feelvibrations through the ground and into their bodies. But thisresearch found they did react to sound waves travelling through theair and possibly human voices.

The study also found the reactions mainly depended on the type of snake.Some types of snakes tended6 to move toward sound， while others were morelikely to move away from it.

The different reactions were likely because of the pressures to survival overmillions of years. For example， some large types of snakes with fewer predators7than smaller types probably dont need to be as careful， so they tended to movetoward sound. But some types of snakes may have to worry about predators andthey also actively hunt for food， so they seem to be much more sensitive8.

The findings challenged the assumption9 that snakes cant hear sound，such as humans talking or screaming， and could change the view on how theyreact to sound.

We know very little about how most snake species live around the world.

Snakes are very weak creatures that hide most of the time， and we still haveso much to learn about them.

蛇可能沒有耳朵，但它們可以聽到。

一項研究發(fā)現，除了地面振動外，蛇還能聽到空氣中傳播的聲音并對其做出反應。

由于蛇沒有外耳，人們通常認為它們是聾子，只能感覺到震動穿過地面進入它們的身體。但這項研究發(fā)現它們確實會對空氣中傳播的聲波以及可能對人類聲音做出反應。

這項研究還發(fā)現反應主要取決于蛇的類型。一些種類的蛇傾向于朝聲音移動，而另一些種類的蛇更傾向于遠離聲音。

這些不同的反應可能是因為數百萬年來的生存壓力。例如，比起體型更小的種類的蛇，一些天敵較少的大型蛇類可能不需要那樣小心翼翼，因此它們傾向于朝著聲音移動。但是，一些種類的蛇可能不得不擔心天敵，并且它們也會積極捕食，因此它們似乎更加小心謹慎。

這一發(fā)現質疑了蛇聽不到聲音（比如人類說話或尖叫）的假設，并可能改變人們對它們對聲音反應的看法。

我們對世界上大多數蛇類是如何生存的知之甚少。

蛇是非常弱小的生物，它們大多數時候都會躲藏起來，而我們還有很多關于它們的知識要學習。

Notes

1. scream. 尖叫. 尖叫聲

2. vibration.震動；顫動

3. react . 作出反應

4. airborne . 空氣傳播的

5. external .外部的；外面的

6. tend . 傾向于；往往會

7. predator . 捕食性動物

8. sensitive?.小心謹慎的

9. assumption . 假定；假設