Do animals Think?
动物也会思考吗？
The question has often been asked, Do animals think? I believe that some of them think a great deal. Many of them are like children in their sports. We notice this to be true very often with dogs and cats; but it is true with other animals as well.
人们会经常问到这样的问题：动物会思考吗？我想有些动物很会动脑筋思考的。很多动物玩起来像小孩子们是一样的。我们注意到，这一点就猫狗说确实真是这样的，而对其他一些动物来说也是如此。
Some birds are very lively in their sports; and the same is true with some insects. The ants, hardworking as they are, have their times for play. They run races; they wrestle; and sometimes they have mock fights together. Very busy must be their thoughts while engaged in these sports.
有些鸟类在玩起来的时候是很活跃的，有些昆虫类也是如此。蚂蚁，虽然干起活来很勤奋，可是它们也能抽出时间来玩。蚂蚁参加各种赛跑，摔跤，有时还在一起模拟战斗。在蚂蚁从事这些活动的时候，他的思想肯定很活跃。
There are many animals, however, that never play; their thoughts seem to be of the more sober kind. We never see frogs engaged in sport. They all the time appear to be very grave. The same is true of the owl, who always looks as if he were considering some important question.
可是，也有些动物从来也不玩耍，它们的思想性格令人觉得好像是属于比较严肃冷静的那种类型。我们从来没见过蛙类在一起玩耍。蛙类总是令人觉得很严肃的样子。猫头鹰也是这样：总让人看起来好像猫头鹰老是在考虑很重要的问题的样子。
Animals think much while building their houses. The bird searches for what it can use in building its nest, and in doing this it thinks. The beavers think as they build their dams and their houses. They think in getting their materials, and also in arranging them, and in plastering them together with mud. Some spiders build houses which could scarcely have been made except by some thinking creature.
动物在筑巢或垒窝的时候就会考虑得比较多。鸟在筑巢时就要搜索它能用得上的材料，在做这类工作时，鸟儿就在动脑筋。河狸在修水坝或垒窝的时候也会动脑子。河狸在寻找建筑材料，在把撒谎到的材料考虑怎样安放以及用泥土把这些材料粘合到一起时都在动脑子思考。有些种类的蜘蛛所垒的窝，除了有些思想的动物以外，是很少有什么动物能垒成的。
As animals think, they learn. Some learn more than others. The parrot learns to talk, though in some other respects it is quite stupid. The mocking bird learns to imitate a great many different sounds. The horse is not long in learning many things connected with the word which he has to do. The shepherd dog does not know as much about most things as some other dogs, and yet he understands very well how to take care of sheep.
动物不但会思考，而且也会学习。有些动物比其他动物更关注学习。鹦鹉虽然在别的方面很蠢，可是会学说话。美国南方的模仿鸟会模仿很多不同的音响。马不用很长时间就能学会跟让它干的活儿有关的许多东西。虽然牧羊犬不懂得基他种狗所懂的绝大部分事物，可是牧羊犬却精通于怎样看护好羊群。
Though animals think and learn, they do not make any real improvement in their ways of doing things, as men do. Each kind of bird has its own way of building a nest, and it is always the same way. And so of other animals. They have no new fashions, and learn none from each other. But men, as you know, are always finding new ways of building houses, and improved methods of doing almost all kinds of labor.
