They are often considered to be more aloof than their canine counterparts, but cats really can understand their owners' voices, a study has claimed. Japanese researchers have found that cats can distinguish their owners' voices from those of other people - implying that they do pay attention when spoken to.
和犬科同伴相比，喵星人總是顯得清高冷淡。但最近研究證明，貓咪的確能聽懂主人在說什么。日本研究者發(fā)現(xiàn)貓可以從許多人中分辨出自己主人的聲音，這說明主人和貓說話時它們確實注意聽了。

The study, from the University of Tokyo, examined felines in their home environment. It involved recordings of strangers, as well as of the cats' owners, but that cats could not see who was speaking to them.
東京大學在貓咪生活的家庭環(huán)境中進行了這項研究。研究者分別把陌生人和主人講話時的錄音放給貓聽，此時貓咪只能聽到聲音而見不到說話的人。

The researchers found that cats responded to voices by moving their heads and/or ears nearer the person who was speaking to them.
研究結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)，當有人和貓咪講話時，貓會做出回應(yīng)，將它的腦袋或耳朵朝著說話人方向稍作移動。

Or, when the cats detected a familiar voice, they also had dilated pupils, which can signal emotions such as excitement, Discovery News reported.
探索新聞報道，當貓咪發(fā)現(xiàn)自己熟悉的嗓音時，它們的瞳孔會變大，這是興奮、喜悅等情緒的表現(xiàn)。

These reactions were more likely to occur when the cats heard their owners voices or when they became increasingly familiar with strangers' voices.
當貓咪聽到自己主人的聲音，或?qū)δ吧寺曇糇兊梅浅Ｊ煜r，就更容易出現(xiàn)上述反應(yīng)。

Study co-author Atsuko Saito explained to the website that dogs have evolved, and are bred, 'to follow their owner's orders, but cats have not been. So sometimes cats appear aloof, but they have special relationships with their owners.'
該項研究合作者前田齊藤（音譯）對該網(wǎng)站解釋說，狗在進化繁殖過程中學會“要聽從主人的命令，但是貓卻不會這樣。所以有時貓咪顯得很冷淡，但實際它們也和主人有著特殊的情感關(guān)系?！?/div>

She added that cats have evolved not to show their emotions in order to survive. One example is illness, which they tend to hide because 'in the wild, no one can rescue them and predators pay attention to such weak individual,' she said.
她還補充道，在進化過程中，貓咪為了生存下去不得不掩飾真實情感。比如說它們常常掩飾疾病，“因為在野外沒人會給它們看病，而獵食者會盯上這些老弱病殘個體?！?/div>

The researchers added that after 10,000 years of living with humans, domestic cats have the ability to communicate with us, and, generally speaking, we seem to understand them.
研究者稱，貓已經(jīng)和人類共同生活了1萬多年，家貓有能力和我們交流，而且大體來說，我們好像也能懂得它們在想什么。

The study, which will be published in the July issue of Animal Cognition, comes just weeks after an expert in animal behaviour claimed we will one day be able to talk to animals using mobile phone-sized gadgets.
這項研究將會發(fā)表在7月份的《動物認知》上。而幾個星期之前還有另一位研究動物行為的專家說，未來我們將使用手機大小的電子產(chǎn)品和動物進行語言交流。

Professor Con Slobodchikoff, of Northern Arizona University, is developing technology that interprets the calls of the prairie dog and says the technology could eventually be used to interpret other animals.
北亞利桑那大學斯波科諾夫教授正在研發(fā)一項新科技產(chǎn)品，能把土撥鼠的叫聲翻譯成人類語言，他說這項研究最終還能應(yīng)用于其他動物身上。

He also believes the technology could one day be fine-tuned to enable humans to talk back to animals and engage in conversation.
這位生物學教授還相信，這項不斷改進的技術(shù)終有一天能使人類同動物進行語言溝通，從而使雙方交流對話成為可能。

The professor, who has spent the past 30 years analysing the behaviour of animals, added: ‘I think we have the technology now to be able to develop the devices that are, say, the size of a cellphone, that would allow us to talk to our dogs and cats.
斯波科諾夫教授過去三十多年來都在研究動物行為，他說：“我認為將來這項技術(shù)會變得只有手機大小，我們可以直接和貓狗對話。”

‘So the dog says "bark!" and the device analyses it and says, "I want to eat chicken tonight."
“所以當狗叫時，這個設(shè)備會分析叫聲并進行翻譯：‘今晚我想吃雞肉’。”

'Or the cat can say "meow," and it can say, "You haven't cleaned my litterbox recently".'
“或者當貓喵喵叫時，翻譯機器會說：‘最近你都沒給我清理貓砂盆’?！?/div>