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Was the writer successful in protecting his peach tree? Why not?
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 24
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 words and expressions 生词与短语
insect
n. 昆虫
wage
v. 进行(斗争)
contaminate
v. 弄脏
provocation
n. 惹怒
spider
n. 蜘蛛
wasp
n. 黄蜂
moth
n. 飞蛾
ant
n. 蚂蚁
revulsion
n. 厌恶
horde
n. 群
uncanny
adj. 神秘的，不可思议的
erase
v. 擦，抹去
praying mantis
螳螂
entranced
adj. 出神的
beetle
n. 甲虫
sheltered
adj. 伤不着的，无危险的
luscious
adj. 甘美的
cluster
n. 一簇
aphid
n. 蚜虫
underside
n. 底面，下侧
colony
n. 一群
sticky
adj. 粘的
scurry
v. 小步跑
swarm
v. 聚集
ingenuity
n. 机灵
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发表于 2016-7-11 23:04:35