超有才“猩爸”：會做飯會網聊

He’s just had to sit through his offspring’s fourth birthday party, with the youngster tearing open his presents and jumping all over daddy’s head in his excitement. So I can understand the expression of weariness on Kanzi’s face when I ask him what he wants for lunch.
孩子的四歲生日派對，爸爸肯茲耐着性子坐着，看兒子撕扯着爸爸送的禮物包裝紙、興奮的在他腦邊跳來跳去。當我問這位猩爸午餐想吃什麼的時候，它臉上顯出倦怠的表情，對此我深表理解。

Then someone mentions the word ‘omelette’ — a Kanzi favourite, not just to eat but even to cook — and he’s off. He clambers on to a ledge in the viewing room of his concrete, steel and glass home and positions himself in front of a large, touch-sensitive computer screen showing a grid of some 400 symbols, or ‘lexigrams’, each representing a particular object or idea.
這時有人說了“煎蛋卷”這樣一個詞——這是肯茲的最愛，不僅是它最愛吃的，甚至也是最擅長做的——然後它就起身去做飯了。它爬進自己鋼筋玻璃構造的小屋，走到觀賞室內的一個平臺前，這裏擺放着一臺大型的，帶有觸感功能的電腦顯示器，顯示器上顯示的符號網格中包括了400個象徵符號，或者說圖像符號，每個符號都代表了一個特定的東西或概念。

A huge forefinger skims dextrously over the icons, pressing the ones he wants. The computer voices his selections with an American accent.
肯茲用大大的食指靈巧的掠過這些按鍵，按下他想按的符號。電腦用帶有美式英語腔調的聲音讀出他按下的鍵所組成的語句。

This remarkable creature is a superstar. For years he has been changing the way we humans think about our relatives in the animal world, and challenging our assumed superiority to them.
這隻令人驚歎的猩猩是一位超級巨星。數年來，它一直促使我們改變自己對人類的動物界親屬的理解，促使我們反思自己是否比它們優越。

The bonobo is a more gentle and intelligent cousin of the chimpanzee. Its only natural homeland is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bonobos are our closest animal relative (sharing about 99 per cent of our DNA) and physically resemble our distant ancestors.
倭黑猩猩比它們的近親、黑猩猩性情更加溫和，智商也更高。剛果民主共和國是它們僅存的自然棲息地。倭黑猩猩是我們最親近的動物親屬（與我們的DNA有99%相同），在行爲舉止上與我們的遠祖十分相似。

Kanzi, now 33, has been fully immersed in the human world, and the English language, since birth. Scientists who have studied Kanzi all his life say he possesses a vocabulary big enough to follow and contribute to simple conversations.
現年33歲的肯茲自從出生以來就完全融入了人類世界，也熟諳英語。畢生都在研究肯茲的科學家認爲，肯茲掌握的詞彙量足以組織簡短的對話，回答問題乃至提出問題。

He can cook, make knives out of stone and play the arcade game Pac-Man (he can get past the first round — a feat beyond many humans). He and his similarly talented late sister, Panbanisha, once even jammed with British rock star Peter Gabriel, playing along on a keyboard as the former Genesis man played a synthesizer.
他會做飯，用石頭打磨刀具，會玩遊戲廳裏的“吃豆人”遊戲（他能過遊戲第一關——這已經比很多人都厲害啦）。他和他那位同樣十分聰明的妹妹、潘班尼莎甚至與彼得·蓋布瑞爾組織過虛擬樂隊、“同臺演出”。兄妹倆在鍵盤上演奏，那位前吉妮西絲樂隊主唱在電子合成器上演奏。

小編注：吉妮西絲是七十年代、八十年代乃至九十年代最成功的搖滾樂隊之一，彼得·蓋布瑞爾曾是該樂隊的主唱。

Kanzi loves chatting on the video-calling service Skype. Two days later, I hear from him. Kanzi wants to see my home and particularly the contents of the fridge.
肯茲喜歡用視頻聊天軟件Skype與人交談。在我拜訪他兩天之後，我收到肯茲的訊息。他很想拜訪一下我家，尤其像看看我家冰箱裏有什麼好吃的。

In Swahili, Kanzi means ‘buried treasure’ — a quality this creature has in buckets.
在斯瓦希里語中，肯茲這個名字意爲“深藏不漏的珍寶”——這正是這隻倭黑猩猩具有的特質。