译林牛津版高三英语M5U2-self-assessment拓展阅读

1 Title:___________________ 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 twenty-four 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 Concept English Book 3 Lesson 54） 5 10 15 20 25 30 2 New words and expressions： instinct [ˈɪnstɪŋkt] n.本能；天性 insect[ˈɪnsekt] n.昆虫 wage [weɪdʒ] v.进行(斗争) contaminate[kənˈtæmɪneɪt] v.弄脏 devour[dɪˈvaʊə] v.吞食 sting-stung-stung [stɪŋ] v. 叮；刺 provocation [ˌprɒvəˈkeɪʃn]n.惹怒 dread [dred] v./n. 恐惧 wasp [wɒsp] n.黄蜂 moth [mɒθ]n.飞蛾 industrious [ɪn'dʌstrɪəs]勤劳的，勤奋的 ant[ænt] n.蚂蚁 dispel [dɪˈspel]v. 驱散，驱逐 revulsion[rɪˈvʌlʃn] n.厌恶；强烈的反感 horde[hɔ:d] n.群 uncanny [ʌnˈkæni] adj.神秘的，不可思 议的 praying mantis [ˈpreɪɪŋ][ˈmæntɪs]螳螂 entranced [en'trɑ:nst]adj.出神的 triumphantly [traɪ'ʌmfəntlɪ] adv. 胜利 beetle [ˈbi:tl] n.甲虫 trunk [trʌŋk] n. 树干，躯干 luscious [ˈlʌʃəs] adj.甘美的 wither[ˈwɪðə]v. 枯萎 cluster [ˈklʌstə] n. 群，簇 colony [ˈkɒləni] n. 群体；殖民地 embark[ɪmˈbɑ:k] v. 从事，开始 aphid [ˈeɪfɪd]n.蚜虫 bind-bound-bound [baɪnd] (使)粘合 scurry[ˈskʌri] v.小步跑 bewilderment[bɪˈwɪldəmənt] n. 迷惘； 困惑 swarm [swɔ:m] v.聚集 ingenuity[ˌɪndʒəˈnju:əti] n.机灵 Assignment 1. We may learn more about the behaviour of insects _____. a. and become so fascinated by them that we are no longer moved by them b. but we are no less likely to lose our irrational fear of them c. provided they remain unaware of our presence while we observe them d. as long as they only harm each other and not us 2. The ant is an insect which _____ . a. will eat its way through anything from picnic lunches to aphids b. lives in a highly organized society which we find disgusting c. once it has killed its prey, will bear it Home in a triumphal column d. shows great ingenuity at finding its way round any obstacle in its path 3. Had the peach tree been planted on the opposite side of the house _____ . a. it might not have survived the severe winters b. the writer would not have spent days looking at it c. the ants would have had further to go before reaching it d. the ants would not have found another route of access to the leaves 4. The reason for the ants’ swarming up and down the tree was that _____ . a. they collected a kind of honey from the leaves b. they fed on a kind of honey contained in the sap of the tree c. they were milking a kind of honey from the aphids on the leaves d. they needed to go back to their nest in the branches of the tree