(1). Why, you may wonder, should spiders be our friends?
你可能感到惊讶,为什么蜘蛛应该是我们的朋友呢?
(2). Because they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race.
这是因为蜘蛛消灭那么多的昆虫,而昆虫中有的是人类最大的敌人。
(3). Insects would make it impossible for us to live in the world; they would devour all our crops and kill our flocks and herds, if it were not for the protection we get from insect-eating animals.
要不是我们从食虫动物那里得到保护,这些昆虫会让我们无法在这个世界上生活下去,它们会吞食我们所有的谷物,杀死我们成群的牛羊。
(4). We owe a lot to the birds and beasts that eat insects but all of them put together kill only a fraction of the number destroyed by spiders. Moreover, unlike some of the other insect eaters, spiders never do the least harm to us or our belongings.
我们得大大感谢那些食虫的飞禽走兽,但它们全部加在一起所杀死的昆虫数只及蜘蛛所消灭的一小部分,而且蜘蛛不像其他一些食虫者,决不会对我们或我们的财物造成丝毫伤害。
(5). Spiders are not insects, as many people think, nor even nearly related to them.
与很多人认为的相反,蜘蛛不是昆虫,甚至也不是昆虫的近亲。
(6). Why, you may wonder, should spiders be our friends?
你可能感到惊讶,为什么蜘蛛应该是我们的朋友呢?
(7). Because they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race.
这是因为蜘蛛消灭那么多的昆虫,而昆虫中有的是人类最大的敌人。
(8). Insects would make it impossible for us to live in the world; they would devour all our crops and kill our flocks and herds, if it were not for the protection we get from insect-eating animals.
要不是我们从食虫动物那里得到保护,这些昆虫会让我们无法在这个世界上生活下去,它们会吞食我们所有的谷物,杀死我们成群的牛羊。
(9). We owe a lot to the birds and beasts that eat insects but all of them put together kill only a fraction of the number destroyed by spiders. Moreover, unlike some of the other insect eaters, spiders never do the least harm to us or our belongings.
我们得大大感谢那些食虫的飞禽走兽,但它们全部加在一起所杀死的昆虫数只及蜘蛛所消灭的一小部分,而且蜘蛛不像其他一些食虫者,决不会对我们或我们的财物造成丝毫伤害。
(10). Spiders are not insects, as many people think, nor even nearly related to them.
与很多人认为的相反,蜘蛛不是昆虫,甚至也不是昆虫的近亲。
(11). One can tell the difference almost at a glance for a spider always has eight legs and an insect never more than six.
人们几乎一眼就可看出这种差别,因为蜘蛛总是有8条腿,而昆虫从未超出6条腿。
(12). How many spiders are engaged in this work on our behalf?
有多少蜘蛛为我们的利益从事这项工作呢?
(13). One authority on spiders made a census of the spiders in a grass field in the south of England, and he estimated that there were more than 2,250,000 in one acre, that is something like 6,000,000 spiders of different kinds on a football pitch.
一位蜘蛛专家在英格兰南方的草原上对蜘蛛作了一番普查,他估计每一英亩有2,250,000以上只蜘蛛,也就是在一个足球场的方圆内,不同种类的蜘蛛大约有6,000,000只。
(14). Spiders are busy for at least half the year in killing insects.
蜘蛛至少有半年时间忙于杀虫。
(15). It is impossible to make more than the wildest guess at how many they kill, but they are hungry creatures, not content with only three meals a day.
蜘蛛究竟杀死多少昆虫,也只能瞎猜,但蜘蛛是吃不饱的生物,不满足于一日只吃三餐这一点是肯定的。