第 2 课 · Spare That Spider

Because they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race.

因为它们消灭了大量的昆虫，而昆虫之中就包括人类的一些最凶恶的敌人。

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.

要是没有食虫动物给我们的保护，昆虫就会使我们无法在世界上生存：它们会吃光我们全部的庄稼，杀死我们的成群牛羊。

We owe a lot to the birds and beasts who eat insects but all of them put together kill only a fraction of the number destroyed by spiders.

我们非常感激那些捕食昆虫的鸟兽，但它们全部加在一起，杀死的昆虫也只是蜘蛛消灭数量的零头。

Moreover, unlike some of the other insect eaters, spiders never do the least harm to us or our belongings.

而且，跟某些其他食虫动物不同，蜘蛛从来不曾对我们或我们的财物造成哪怕最轻微的伤害。

Spiders are not insects, as many people think, nor even nearly related to them.

蜘蛛并不像许多人以为的那样是昆虫，它甚至和昆虫几乎没有亲缘关系。

One can tell the difference almost at a glance, for a spider always has eight legs and an insect never more than six.

几乎一眼就能看出两者的区别：蜘蛛总有八条腿，而昆虫绝不会超过六条。

How many spiders are engaged in this work on our behalf?

有多少蜘蛛在替我们从事这项工作呢？

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.

一位研究蜘蛛的权威曾在英格兰南部的一片草地上清点蜘蛛的数量；他估计一英亩地里有超过 225 万只，也就是说，一块足球场上大约有 600 万只不同种类的蜘蛛。

Spiders are busy for at least half the year in killing insects.

蜘蛛一年里至少有一半时间都在忙着捕杀昆虫。

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.

它们到底杀死了多少昆虫，最多只能作最粗略的猜测；不过这些家伙总是饥肠辘辘，一天三顿饭是满足不了的。

It has been estimated that the weight of all the insects destroyed by spiders in Britain in one year would be greater than the total weight of all the human beings in the country.

据估计，英国的蜘蛛一年里消灭的昆虫总重量，会超过这个国家全部人口的体重之和。