People know animals do have feelings. Scientists have done research about the feelings of cows, frogs and pandas. A new study adds chickens to the list. We know that during a storm with thunder and lightning, these animals get shocked and stay close together near the bottom of the barn. But what do they say? It seems that humans can tell whether hens and roosters are happy or sad by listening to their calls, just like hearing other people say "hello" or "goodbye" with different tones.
人们知道动物确实是有情感的。科学家们已经对奶牛、青蛙和大熊猫的情感进行了研究。而一项新的研究将鸡也列入了研究范畴。我们知道，在雷电交加的暴风雨中，这些动物会受惊，并紧紧聚集在畜棚底部附近。但它们会说些什么呢？似乎人类可以通过听母鸡和公鸡的叫声来判断它们是高兴还是悲伤，就像听到其他人用不同语气说“你好”或“再见”一样。
The researchers put a bowl behind a door. Sometimes, there was something chickens love to eat in the bowl, such as rice, sweet porridge or insects. Sometimes, the bowl was empty. Chickens that saw food seemed happy and produced fast and loud sounds, which they also do when playing with a new toy. Chickens that saw an empty bowl made low and long noises to express disappointment. The researchers recorded all these sounds and studied their waves.
研究人员在门后放了一个碗。有时，碗里有鸡爱吃的东西，比如大米、甜粥或昆虫。而有时，碗里是空的。看到食物的鸡似乎很高兴，并发出快速而响亮的叫声，它们在玩新玩具时也会如此。而看到空碗的鸡，则会发出低沉而悠长的叫声来表达失望。研究人员录下了所有声音，并研究了它们的声波。
The researchers played 16 recordings of such chicken noises to 194 volunteers. Half were from the chickens seeing the food and half were from the chickens finding no food. Sixty-nine per cent of the volunteers correctly understood the chickens' emotions.
研究人员向 194 名志愿者播放了 16 段鸡叫声的录音。其中一半是鸡看到食物时发出的声音，另一半是鸡发现碗里没有食物时发出的声音。69% 的志愿者都正确理解了鸡的情绪。
The result shows that humans have the natural ability to understand the feelings of chickens. Hopefully, this finding can bring about new technology to help bosses of farms in raising chickens, a big industry in many countries. Scientists are working on a smart computer program that can identify chickens' feelings - good news for farmers who want to make the birds happier and healthier.
这个结果表明，人类天生有理解鸡的情感的能力。这一发现有望带来新技术，去帮助农场的主人养鸡，这在许多国家都是一个庞大的产业。科学家们正在研究一款可以识别鸡的情感的智能计算机程序，这对那些希望让鸡更快乐、更健康的农场主们来说是个好消息。