Smart horse

The world is full of wonders. Don't think that only people have the ability to observe words and emotions. With such an extremely smart horse, in some aspects, it is even better than some people. Maybe you don't believe it, but this strange thing happened in Berlin, the capital of Germany.

One day in 1903, some of the most famous professors and scholars in Berlin received a letter with the same content, which read:

At 9 a.m. on Sunday, please Your Excellency comes to the humble house to see a most amazing show.

Sincerely, Duke Austin

Duke Austin is a well-known nobleman in Berlin. It is an honor to be invited by him. These professors and scholars cannot guess it. What kind of show is "The Most Amazing Show".

The Duke's home has a large lawn with rows of chairs. The guests arrived one after another with curiosity, but Austin did not show up for a long time. 'Dang..." The church bell rang nine times. As the guests waited anxiously, Duke Austin finally appeared in front of the hall. He was in his forties, tall, with blond hair and gray He wore a pair of wide-rimmed glasses over his blue eyes and a well-fitted high-end suit. The morning sun shone warmly on his face, making him look even more energetic.

The guests were puzzled. What's more, Duke Austin is holding a well-proportioned, strong white horse with a mane as shiny as silk. The white horse's nostrils are wide open, its head is raised, and its hooves are stepping on the stone steps, making a ". "Tap" sound, as if it could not speak, just because the structure of its mouth did not allow it to do so.

Austin quickly glanced at the guests and waved to everyone: "Thank you. Dear distinguished guests, your presence brings glory to our house. Today, I invite you here because I want you to join me in confirming the strangest and most incredible thing in the world. No one would believe such a thing unless they witnessed it with their own eyes. With a proud smile on his face, he patted the white horse beside him and introduced loudly: "His name is Hans. Please watch his wonderful performance." Then, Austin turned his face and said to the white horse like he usually spoke to people: "Are you ready? Hans." ”

The guests’ eyes were fixed on the white horse, and they could clearly see that the white horse named Hans nodded as if in agreement. So, a strange question and answer began.

"Hans, please do the math, what is 3 plus 5?" Austin asked the white horse loudly.

In the silence, Hans tilted his head as if. The naughty child made a strange gesture, and then raised his front hooves solemnly: "Tuk, Tuk..." It knocked 8 times in a row before stopping.

Austen's face showed satisfaction. With a smile, he took out a pocket watch from his coat pocket and said to Hans: "It's half past nine now, so how many more minutes will it be until 10 o'clock?"

Regarding this question, Hans didn't hesitate at all. He raised his front hooves decisively and knocked on the stone steps 30 times.

Oh my god, Hans's answer was absolutely correct.

< p> Austin hung six strips of cloth of different colors on a long rope. The strips of cloth of various colors were about one meter apart. He then said to Hans: "Go and get the green cloth. ”

Hans looked up at his master, as if to say: I understand, master, don’t worry.

Hans slowly passed by the red, black, and The white and three colors of cloth finally stopped in front of the green cloth, and he gently picked it up with his teeth and sent it to Austin.

Although everyone was excited, There was a lot of whispering and admiration. Austin glanced at the guests and said to Hans: "There is a girl on the lawn now with a rose in her hat. Can you know where she is?" /p>

Hans immediately walked down the steps briskly and walked towards the guests. Although the girl was very short and was sitting in the outer circle, Hans walked straight towards her and stood in front of the girl. < /p>

The girl took the rose from her hat and placed it on Hans' head, which caused a burst of laughter from the guests.

Austin asked one question after another. Hans could answer accurately.

The guests who witnessed Hans' performance couldn't believe it was true. Could this white horse be as spiritual as a human being? One guest even excitedly clasped his hands in front of his chest, shrugged his shoulders, and said: "Ah , My God, what a miracle, what a miracle!”

This strange thing happened in the early 20th century. At that time, not to mention television, even the radio had not been invented yet. However, this news seems to be long. The wings were electrified and soon spread throughout the city of Berlin.

The more bizarre things are, the faster they spread. At the request of many distinguished people, Hans performed in public for the second time. This time, the audience increased more than ten times. Hans performed extremely well. Not only did he not disappoint the audience, but he also captivated the audience with his unique skills.

After Hans did a few addition questions, an audience member asked a multiplication question: What is 9 × 68?

Even with such a complicated multiplication problem, Hans got it right. "Tuk, Tuk, Tuk... Tuk, Tuk, Tuk..." It knocked on the stone steps with its hooves for 18 minutes, 612 times in one go.

Austin pulled a long rope again. This time it was different from the one he performed last time. Last time, he hung strips of cloth of various colors. This time, he hung dozens of strips with various words written on them. pieces of paper. Austin asked Hans to find the piece of paper with "Berlin" written on it.

Hans walked past the pieces of paper calmly, looking up at the pieces of paper from time to time, and then passed one by one, and found the word "Berlin" written on it. In front of the piece of paper, it stood motionless, looking at its owner with its big intelligent eyes, its nostrils twitching, and the piece of paper with "Berlin" written on it also swayed with its breathing.

Austen then asked: "Hans, which piece of paper has your name written on it?"

Hans quickly found the paper with the word "Hans" written on it. piece.

Next, Hans became more and more amazing. During the performance, even when Austin had just thought of an arithmetic problem, Hans could knock out the answer with his hoof as soon as he said it. .

A professor wrote 3×8 on a piece of paper, and the professor asked Austin to look at it. Before Austin could say this question, Hans knocked on the stone steps 24 times before stopping. Tried it several times and it was the same.

In this way, the audience present had to admit that Hans was not only as smart as anyone else, but he could even guess people's thoughts.

The rumors about Hans were learned by Mr. Bash, the director of the London Circus. As a circus expert, he said contemptuously: "Huh, that's all a well-designed scam. I will definitely kill the peep show and make Duke Austin look embarrassed in public." So, he selected five assistants from the circus and made a special trip.

Austin met with Bash and his party of 6 people.

Bash politely stretched out his hand to Austin: "Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Bash, Jinol Bash, the director of the Huadun Circus. I am very familiar with circus and circus. There is a unique study in equestrianism."

"Welcome! Welcome!" Austin warmly stepped forward to shake hands, and suddenly he guessed the true purpose of the visitor.

Bash said bluntly: "I have personally trained all kinds of animals and know all the secrets of making animals perform." His tone seemed so confident that his voice could not help but rise a lot, " That all relies on the conductor to use some codes that are not easily detectable by the audience. I think the same is true for your and Hans's performances. Do you agree?"

An assistant winked directly at Bash. After speaking, Bash also felt that the words were too rough and direct. If it hurt the Duke's self-esteem, wouldn't the trip be in vain?

Austin looked. Lai didn't mind these words. He just glanced at Bash and nodded calmly: "Of course, but I warn you in advance that you may be disappointed. But I don't understand why you bring so many assistants. ”

“These five assistants each have their own tasks. One looks at your head and facial expressions and eyes, one looks at your left hand, one looks at your right hand, one looks at your left leg, and the other "Look at your right leg." Bash said bluntly, "I will observe your whole body and listen for any unusual sounds." In front of the lawn, the "conversation" between Austin and Hans began. , the six observers opened their eyes wide and stared intently at Austin's every movement and expression. Bash didn't even blink, and even held his breath.

For nearly an hour, Hans performed on literacy, color identification, arithmetic and other projects. Bash and the five assistants exchanged glances, and each one shook his head in frustration.

Bash blushed with embarrassment, spread his hands, and said in an altered voice: "I'm so sorry, Duke. Although I can't believe it, I have to admit that I was wrong."

Austin looked a little proud and asked with a smile: "Did you notice any hints?"

Bash fell into deep confusion and said feebly: "No, not at all. !Hans’ performance is not a scam.”

At this time, Austin couldn’t restrain his inner joy and laughed.

A month later, Germany's most famous detective Schilling also came to Austin's home. He also did not believe Hans' performance and was confident that he could solve the mystery. Silin said to Austin: "I have never seen Hans, and Hans has never seen me, so he can't get any hints from me. Can you let me ask him questions?"

Austin heard Mr. Silin's name for a long time and said, "Of course, I'll just leave and let you be alone with him." Austin led Hans to the lawn and walked away, leaving only Next came Mr. Silin and Hans. Hans held his head high and looked very confident.

Xilin felt that Hans seemed to be despising him. He opened his mouth to say how many difficult cases he had solved in the past, so that Hans could understand that he, a famous detective, was not easy to deceive. But when he saw Hans's With such a dismissive look, it's not a big joke to speak human words to a horse. Let's start asking questions. For the first few questions Xilin asked, Hans seemed a little nervous and flustered, and there were mistakes in his answers from time to time. Xilin seemed happy, but Hans soon got used to it. His answers to Xilin's questions became calmer and more correct.

More than an hour later, Austin came to the lawn and asked half-jokingly: "Mr. Xilin, have you discovered anything? How was Hans' performance? Do you believe it now?" This question The words were like a challenge to Xilin, but also like a mockery of Xilin.

As a professional detective who had never been troubled, Xilin felt ashamed and at a loss. He murmured to Austin: "Hans can answer a stranger's questions correctly. There is no way this is a prearranged fake show.”

After these several tests, there are very few people who don’t believe that Hans can think. Among these few people was Professor Vonster of Zoology. He took why Hans had this extraordinary ability as the subject of his scientific research. With Austin's consent, he often "dialogued" with Hans.

At first, Hans had no difficulty in answering the simple questions posed by Vonster. Later, the professor had a new idea. He asked Hans a question that even he didn't know: "How many kilometers is it from London to New York?"

This question stupefied Hans. His big eyes stared blankly at the professor, and he instinctively raised his front hooves, put them down, put them down, and raised them again, always at a loss.

Hans failed. After this question, Fonster became enlightened. He asked some questions one after another, and finally found that Hans could basically answer correctly all the questions he knew the answer to; and Hans could not answer the questions he did not know the answer at all. In the final analysis, all this shows that it is indeed not a scam, but it was the questioner who hinted the answer to Hans.

It turns out that Hans got his hint from the changes in the natural expression of the questioner's face. Whenever the questioner waited for Hans's answer, there would be some subtle changes in the facial expression: the muscles unconsciously It was a little nervous, and the eyelids would be loose... The questioner didn't realize it, but Hans noticed it, so he raised his front hooves and started knocking on the stone steps. For example, what is 5 + 7? Hans looked at the face of the questioner while knocking on the stone steps. 1, 2, 3...the closer to the answer, the more nervous the questioner will appear. When the 12th beat was struck, the questioner's nerves suddenly relaxed, the tense muscles on his face relaxed, and his breathing became deeper... Hans got the hint from these subtle changes: It's time to stop.

What if Hans is asked to find colored cloth or writing paper? The eyes of the questioner and bystanders will move towards the target unconsciously, and Hans will follow the direction of the gaze. Find. This is the secret of its ability to "do arithmetic", "distinguish colors" and "read".

This mystery has finally been solved, but people who have watched Hans' performance still think that this is an extremely smart horse.