Only vertebrates, or animals with backbones, have ears. Invertebrate animals, such as jellyfish and insects, lack ears, but have other structures or organs that serve similar functions. Human ears are capable of perceiving an extraordinarily wide range of changes in loudness, the tiniest audible sound being about 1 trillion times less intense than a sound loud enough to cause the ear pain. Besides loudness, the human ear can detect a sound’s pitch, which is related to a sound’s vibration frequency, and of course, tone. Another sonic phenomenon, known as masking, occurs because lower-pitched sounds tend to deafen the ear to higher-pitched sounds.
- jellyfish [ˈdʒelifiʃ] n.水母
- lack [læk] v.缺乏; 缺少
- perceive [pəˈsi:v] v. 察觉
- extraordinarily [ikˈstrɔ:dθnərili] adv.格外地
- loudness [ˈlaudnis] n.响度
- audible [ˈɔ:dəbl] adj.听得见的
- detect [diˈtekt] v. 察觉到
- pitch [pitʃ] n. 音高
- vibration consequence [vaiˈbreiʃən - ˈkɔnsikwəns] n. 振动频率
- sonic [ˈsɔnik] adj. 声音的
- masking [ˈmɑ:skiŋ] n. 遮蔽
- deafen [ˈdefn] v.使聋
