Exercise 11 9 . Ask questions to the text. D iscuss the topic with your classmates.

 

Text C

It is interesting to know

 Part II

VOCABULARY LIST TO TEXT C

p roperties n	[ ˈprɒpətɪ ]	свойство
c ortex n	[ ˈkɔːteks ]	кора головного мозга
s ubmerge v	[ səbˈmɜːdʒ ]	погружать в воду
p erception n	[ pəˈsepʃ(ə)n ]	восприятие
i mprint n	[ ˈɪmprɪnt ]	след, отпечаток
f ibre n	[ ˈfaɪbə ]	волокно

 

Exercise 120. Read and translate the following word s and word combinations from English into Russian.

Gound -breaking experiment, acoustic physics researcher, weight belt, speculate, perception, unfamiliar environment, “sono-pictorial” form of language, visual cortex, audio equipment, quasiholographic properties, water membrane.

The Holographic Experiment

For the ground-breaking experiment, a man wearing a weight belt was submerged underwater and a trained dolphin then used a series of clicks to identify the man through echolocation. The dolphin’s echo signal was recorded using high specification audio equipment and the recording was then sent to the CymaScope laboratory in the UK.

There, acoustic physics researcher John Stuart Reid, used the CymaScope to transcribe the sound sample by imprinting it onto a water membrane by using the quasiholographic properties of sound and its relationship with water. The holographic image that emerged was the mirror image of the submerged man complete with details such as the weight belt.

This demonstrated that the CymaScope can capture what-the-dolphin-saw images and suggested that dolphins can also see surface features, such as the weight belt. Kassewitz, Reid and their team are now speculating that dolphins may employ a “sono-pictorial” form of language, a language of pictures that they share with each other. As Kassewitz explains:

How Dolphins Speak to Each Other

It can be speculated that dolphins use auditory information to perceive the world similarly to how humans use vision. Though perhaps they would have an even greater degree of perception as the auditory centres of their brains are highly developed, with auditory nerves containing as many fibres as human optic nerves.

It’s likely that dolphins integrate information from all their senses to create a complete and complex interpretation of their surroundings. What the scientists have found most exciting is the probability that these sound images are shared with other dolphins as part of their communication.

Sending Visual Images

Some humans who are blind are also able to use echolocation to identify their surroundings. They make their way safely through an unfamiliar environment by using clicking sounds and listening for the reflected echoes from the objects they encounter. Studies conducted on these people show that their visual cortex is also activated as they echolocate through an environment, demonstrating that brain areas usually reserved for vision can be activated by other sensory modes.

Because of the similarity between human and dolphin brains, this suggests that dolphins may also be creating visual images through echolocation, which they then communicate to other dolphins.

The success of the experiment translating echolocation clicks into a holographic image of a man makes this speculation a reality. This is what has excited scientists and dolphin lovers alike, as humans take one step closer to being able to communicate with our playful friends in the sea.

Exercise 121. Translate the following sentences from Russian into English.

Новаторский эксперимент, исследователь акустической физики, весовой пояс, спекуляция, восприятие, незнакомая среда, зрительная кора, аудиооборудование, квазихологографические свойства, водяная мембрана.

Exercise 122. Make up collocations using words from both columns.

weight	cortex
unfamiliar	properties
water	belt
visual	image
audio	membrane
quasiholographic	environment
mirror	equipment