Lesson 54 Instinct or cleverness? 是本能还是机智
We have been brought up to fear insects. We regard them asunnecessary creatures that do more harm than good. We continually wage war onthem, for they contaminate our food, carry diseases, or devour our crops. Theysting or bite without provocation; they fly uninvited into our rooms on summernights, or beat ageist our lighted windows. We live in dread not only ofunpleasant 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 doesnothing to prevent us from being filled with revulsion when we find hordes ofthem crawling over a carefully prepared picnic lunch. No matter how much welike honey, or how much we have read about the uncanny sense of direction whichbees possess, we have a horror of being stung. Most of our fears areunreasonable, but they are impossible to erase. At the same time, however,insects are strangely fascinating. We enjoy reading about them, especially whenwe find that, like the praying mantis, they lead perfectly horrible lives. Weenjoy staring at them, entranced as they go about their business, unaware of our presence. Who has not stood in awe at the sight of a spiderpouncing on a fly, or a column of ants triumphantly bearing home an enormousdead beetle?
Last summer I spent days in the garden watching thousands of antscrawling up the trunk of my prize peach tree. The tree has grown against a warmwall on a sheltered side of the house. I am especially proud of it, not onlybecause it has survived several severe winters, but because it occasionallyproduces luscious peaches. During the summer, I noticed that the leaves of thetree were beginning to wither. Clusters of tiny insects called aphides were tobe found on the underside of the leaves. They were visited by a large colony ofants which obtained a sort of honey from them. I immediately embarked on anexperiment which, even though if failed to get rid of the ants, kept mefascinated for twenty-four hours. I bound the base of the tree with stickytape, making it impossible for the ants to reach the aphides. The tape was sostick that they did not dare to cross it. For a long time. I watched themscurrying around the base of the tree in bewilderment. I even went out atmidnight with a torch and noted with satisfaction that the antswere still swarming around the sticky tape without being able to do anythingabout it. I got up early next morning hoping to find that the ants had given upin despair. Instead, I saw that they had discovered a new route. They wereclimbing up the wall of the house and then on to the leaves of the tree. Irealized sadly that I had been completely defeated by their ingenuity. The antshad been quick to find an answer to my thoroughly unscientific methods!
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