呀，会默写了，厉害！

第二课

why,you may wonder, should spiders be our friends? beccause they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race. 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. 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 destoyed by spiders. moreover, unlike some of 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 glance for a spider always has eight legs and an insect never more than six.

how many spiders are engaged in this work on our behalf? 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. spiders are busy for at least half the year in killing insects. it is impossible for us to make more than the widest guess at how many they kill, but they are hungry creatures , not content with only three meals a day. it has been estimated that the weight of all the insects destoyed by spiders in britain in one year would be greater than the total weight of all the human beings in the country.

modern alpinists try to climb mountains by a route which will give them good sports, and the more difficult it is, the more highly it is regarded. in the pioneering days, however, this was not the case at all. the early climbers were looking for the easiest way to the top because the summit was the prize they sought,especially if it had never been attained before. it is ture that during their explorations, they often faced difficulties and dengers of the most perilous nature, equipped in a manner which would make a modern climber shudder at the thought, but they did not go out of their way to court such excitements. they had a single aim, a solitary goal---the top!

it is hard for us to realize nowadays how difficult it was for the pioneers.except for one or two places such as zermatt and chamonix, which had rapidly become popular.alpine villages tended to be impoverished settlements cut off from civilization by the high mountains.such inns as there were were generally dirty and flea-ridden; the food simply local cheese accompanied by bread often twelve months old, all washed down with coarse wine. often a valley boasted no inns at all, and climbers found shelter wherever they could--sometimes with the local priest( who was usually as poor as his parishioners), sometimes with shepherd or cheese-makers. invariably the background was the same, dirt and poverty, and very uncomfortable.for men accustomed to eating seven-course dinners and sleeping between fine linen sheets at home, the change to the alps must have been very hard indeed.



[ 本帖最后由 christlulu 于 2007-2-14 12:32 编辑 ]

今晚读了一到三课，发现几天没复习，好像又遗忘了不少。。充分证明了学英语还是得坚持，多读多练。。。

哈楼，念念，念念不累，经神充沛，