L2 Spare that spider
Why, you may wonder, should spiders be ourfriends ? Because they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of thegreatest enemies of the human race. Insects would make it impossible.for us tolive in the world; they would devour all our crops and kill our flocks andherds, if it were not for the protection we get from insect-eating animals. Weowe a lot to the birds and beasts who eat insects but all of them put togetherkill only a fraction of the number destroyed by spiders. Moreover, unlike someof the other insect eaters, spiders never do the least harm to us or our
belongings.
Spiders are not insects, as many people think,nor even nearly related to them. One can tell the difference almost at a glancefor a spider always has eight legs and an insect never more than six.
How many spiders are engaged in this work onour behalf ? One authority on spiders made a census of the spiders in a grassfield 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 ofdifferent kinds on a football pitch. Spiders are busy for at least half theyear in killing insects. It is impossible to make more than the wildest guessat how many they kill, but they are hungry creatures, not content with onlythree meals a day. It has been estimated that the weight of all the insectsdestroyed by spiders in
Britain
in one year would be greater than the total weight of all the human beings inthe country.
T. H. GILLESPIE Spare that Spider from TheListener
Notes on the text
New words and expressions flocks and herds
牛群和羊群
／
flCk/ the birds of the same feather flock together.
物以类聚，人以群分
you are the same flock.
也可指人
herd
多指牛群
cowherd cowboy
throng and crowd swarm
owe vt.
感激欠
i owe you. i owe you a big favor.
欠
issue
oblige indebt appreciate----
常用口语词正式：
grateful thankful
beast n
兽形容人野蛮无比，不能用
animal
形容
creature
可以指小孩，女人，不用于男性．
Fraction
小部分分数，小数
a fraction of rice will suffice
on one
＇
s behalf
代表．．．利益
I beat you on your behalf.
我打你是为你好
on behalf of somebody /something
e.g on behalf of chinese government on behalf of
＝
repre
sent
authority /C:
＇
WCriti/ n.
权威
authorize
批准
authoritative
权威性的
authoritarian
独裁的
－
tarian
带有这种词缀的词都是坏词
dictator
独裁者
dictatorial
独裁的
authorities
１．权威（可单数可复数）
２．当局（复数）
census /sens[s/ n.
统计数据
the fifth national population census. censor
审查
censorious
