《新版新概念英语第三册(英音)Lesson (54)》歌词

[00:00:01] --- lesson 54 instinct or cleverness?

[00:00:07] --- listen to the tape then answer the question below.

[00:00:12] --- was the writer successful in protecting his peach tree? why not?

[00:00:20] we have been brought up to fear insects.

[00:00:23] we regard them as unnecessary creatures that do more harm than good.

[00:00:28] we continually wage war on them, for they contaminate our food, carry diseases, or devour our crops.

[00:00:36] they sting or bite without provocation;

[00:00:39] they fly uninvited into our rooms on summer nights, or beat against our lighted windows.

[00:00:46] we live in dread not only of unpleasant insects like spiders or wasps, but of quite harmless ones like moths.

[00:00:55] reading about them increases our understanding without dispelling our fears.

[00:01:00] knowing that the industrious ant lives in a highly organized society does nothing to prevent us from being filled with revulsion

[00:01:09] when we find hordes of them crawling over a carefully prepared picnic lunch.^(.. ..

[00:01:14] no matter how much we like honey, or how much we have read about the uncanny sense of direction which bees possess,

[00:01:23] we have a horror of being stung.

[00:01:25] most of our fears are unreasonable, but they are impossible to erase.

[00:01:31] at the same time, however, insects are strangely fascinating.

[00:01:36] we enjoy reading about them, especially when we find that, like the praying mantis, they lead perfectly horrible lives.

[00:01:45] we enjoy staring at them, entranced as they go about their business, unaware (we hope) of our presence.

[00:01:53] 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?

[00:02:03] last summer i spent days in the garden watching thousands of ants crawling up the trunk of my prize peach tree.

[00:02:12] the tree has grown against a warm wall on a sheltered side of the house.

[00:02:16] i am especially proud of it, not only because it has survived several severe winters, but because it occasionally produces luscious peaches.

[00:02:26] during the summer, i noticed that the leaves of the tree were beginning to wither.

[00:02:32] clusters of tiny insects called aphids were to be found on the underside of the leaves.

[00:02:38] they were visited by a large colony of ants which obtained a sort of honey from them.

[00:02:44] i immediately embarked on an experiment which, even though it failed to get rid of the ants, kept me fascinated for twenty-four hours.

[00:02:53] i bound the base of the tree with sticky tape, making it impossible for the ants to reach the aphids.

[00:03:00] the tape was so sticky that they did not dare to cross it.

[00:03:03] for a long time. i watched them scurrying around the base of the tree in bewilderment.

[00:03:09] 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.

[00:03:21] i got up early next morning hoping to find that the ants had given up in despair.

[00:03:27] instead, i saw that they had discovered a new route.

[00:03:31] they were climbing up the wall of the house and then on to the leaves of the tree.

[00:03:37] i realized sadly that i had been completely defeated by their ingenuity.

[00:03:42] the ants had been quick to find an answer to my thoroughly unscientific methods!