资料简介
1
Title:___________________
We have been brought up to fear insects. We regard them as unnecessary creatures that do more
harm than good. We continually wage war on them, for they contaminate our food, carry diseases, or
devour our crops. They sting or bite without provocation; they fly uninvited into our rooms on
summer nights, or beat against our lighted windows. We live in dread not only of unpleasant insects
like spiders or wasps, but of quite harmless one like moths. Reading about them increases our
understanding without dispelling our fears. Knowing that the industrious ant lives in a highly
organized society does nothing to prevent us from being filled with revulsion when we find hordes of
them crawling over a carefully prepared picnic lunch. No matter how much we like honey, or how
much we have read about the uncanny sense of direction which bees possess, we have a horror of
being stung. Most of our fears are unreasonable, but they are impossible to erase. At the same time,
however, insects are strangely fascinating. We enjoy reading about them, especially when we find that,
like the praying mantis, they lead perfectly horrible lives. We enjoy staring at them, entranced as
they go about their business, unaware (we hope) of our presence. Who has not stood in awe at the sight
of a spider pouncing on a fly, or a column of ants triumphantly bearing home an enormous dead
beetle?
Last summer I spent days in the garden watching thousands of ants crawling up the trunk of my
prize peach tree. The tree has grown against a warm wall on a sheltered side of the house. I am
especially proud of it, not only because it has survived several severe winters, but because it
occasionally produces luscious peaches. During the summer, I noticed that the leaves of the tree were
beginning to wither. Clusters of tiny insects called aphids were to be found on the underside of the
leaves. They were visited by a large colony of ants which obtained a sort of honey from them. I
immediately embarked on an experiment which, even though it failed to get rid of the ants, kept me
fascinated for twenty-four hours. I bound the base of the tree with sticky tape, making it impossible for
the ants to reach the aphids. The tape was so sticky that they did not dare to cross it. For a long time. I
watched them scurrying around the base of the tree in bewilderment. I even went out at midnight with
a torch and noted with satisfaction (and surprise) that the ants were still swarming around the sticky
tape without being able to do anything about it. I got up early next morning hoping to find that the ants
had given up in despair. Instead, I saw that they had discovered a new route. They were climbing up the
wall of the house and then on to the leaves of the tree. I realized sadly that I had been completely
defeated by their ingenuity. The ants had been quick to find an answer to my thoroughly unscientific
methods!（New Concept English Book 3 Lesson 54）
5
10
15
20
25
30
2
New words and expressions：
instinct [ˈɪnstɪŋkt] n.本能；天性
insect[ˈɪnsekt] n.昆虫
wage [weɪdʒ] v.进行(斗争)
contaminate[kənˈtæmɪneɪt] v.弄脏
devour[dɪˈvaʊə] v.吞食
sting-stung-stung [stɪŋ] v. 叮；刺
provocation [ˌprɒvəˈkeɪʃn]n.惹怒
dread [dred] v./n. 恐惧
wasp [wɒsp] n.黄蜂
moth [mɒθ]n.飞蛾
industrious [ɪn'dʌstrɪəs]勤劳的，勤奋的
ant[ænt] n.蚂蚁
dispel [dɪˈspel]v. 驱散，驱逐
revulsion[rɪˈvʌlʃn] n.厌恶；强烈的反感
horde[hɔ:d] n.群
uncanny [ʌnˈkæni] adj.神秘的，不可思
议的
praying mantis [ˈpreɪɪŋ][ˈmæntɪs]螳螂
entranced [en'trɑ:nst]adj.出神的
triumphantly [traɪ'ʌmfəntlɪ] adv. 胜利
beetle [ˈbi:tl] n.甲虫
trunk [trʌŋk] n. 树干，躯干
luscious [ˈlʌʃəs] adj.甘美的
wither[ˈwɪðə]v. 枯萎
cluster [ˈklʌstə] n. 群，簇
colony [ˈkɒləni] n. 群体；殖民地
embark[ɪmˈbɑ:k] v. 从事，开始
aphid [ˈeɪfɪd]n.蚜虫
bind-bound-bound [baɪnd] (使)粘合
scurry[ˈskʌri] v.小步跑
bewilderment[bɪˈwɪldəmənt] n. 迷惘；
困惑
swarm [swɔ:m] v.聚集
ingenuity[ˌɪndʒəˈnju:əti] n.机灵
Assignment
1. We may learn more about the behaviour of insects _____.
a. and become so fascinated by them that we are no longer moved by them
b. but we are no less likely to lose our irrational fear of them
c. provided they remain unaware of our presence while we observe them
d. as long as they only harm each other and not us
2. The ant is an insect which _____ .
a. will eat its way through anything from picnic lunches to aphids
b. lives in a highly organized society which we find disgusting
c. once it has killed its prey, will bear it Home in a triumphal column
d. shows great ingenuity at finding its way round any obstacle in its path
3. Had the peach tree been planted on the opposite side of the house _____ .
a. it might not have survived the severe winters
b. the writer would not have spent days looking at it
c. the ants would have had further to go before reaching it
d. the ants would not have found another route of access to the leaves
4. The reason for the ants’ swarming up and down the tree was that _____ .
a. they collected a kind of honey from the leaves
b. they fed on a kind of honey contained in the sap of the tree
c. they were milking a kind of honey from the aphids on the leaves
d. they needed to go back to their nest in the branches of the tree
查看更多
Copyright 2004-2019 ttzyw.com All Rights Reserved 闽ICP备18023965号-4
天天资源网声明：本站点发布的文章作品均来自用户投稿或网络整理，部分作品未联系到知识产权人或未发现有相关的知识产权登记