Lesson 23 在决定什么能吃而什么不能吃的时候，人们往往变得不合情理。比如，如果你住在地中海地区，你会把章鱼视作 是美味佳肴，同时不能理解为什么有人一见章鱼就恶心。另一方面，你一想到动物油炸土豆就会反胃，但这在北方许多 国家却是一种普通的烹饪方法。不无遗憾的是，我们中的大部分人，生来就只吃某几种食品，而且一辈子都这样。 没有一种生物所受到的赞美和厌恶会超过花园里常见的蜗牛了。蜗牛加酒烧煮后，便成了世界上许多地方的一道 珍奇的名菜。有不计其数的人们从小就知道蜗牛可做菜。但我的朋友罗伯特却住在一个厌恶蜗牛的国家中。他住在 大城市里的一所公寓里，没有自己的花园。多年来，他一直让我把园子里的蜗牛收集起来给他捎去。一开始，他的 这一想法没有引起我多大兴趣。后来有一天，一场大雨后，我在花园里漫无目的的散步，突然注意到许许多多蜗牛在我的 一些心爱的花木上慢悠悠的蠕动着。我一时冲动，逮了几十只，装进一只纸袋里，带着去找罗伯特。罗伯特见到我很高兴， 对我的薄礼也感到满意。我把纸袋放在门厅里，与罗伯特一起进了起居室，在那里聊了好几个钟头。我把蜗牛 的事已忘得一干二净，罗伯特突然提出一定要我留下来吃晚饭，这才提醒了我。蜗牛当然是到主菜。我并不喜欢这个主意， 所以我勉强跟着罗伯特走进了起居室。使我们惊愕的是门厅里到处爬满了蜗牛：它们从纸袋里逃了出来，爬得满厅都是！ 从那以后，我再也不能看一眼蜗牛了。 People become quite illogical when they try to decide what can be eaten and what cannot be eaten. If you lived in the Mediterranean, for instance, you would consider octopus a great delicacy. You would not be able to understand why some people find it repulsive. On the other hand, your stomach would turn at the idea of frying potatoes in animal fat -- the normally accepted practice in many northern countries. The sad truth is that most of us have been brought up to eat certain foods and we stick to them all our lives. No creature has received more praise and abuse than the common garden snail. Cooked in wine, snails are a great luxury in various parts of the world. There are countless people who, ever since their early years, have learned to associate snails with food. My friend, Robert, lives in a country where snails are despised. As his flat is in a large town, he has no garden of his own. For years he has been asking me to collect snails from my garden and take them to him. The idea never appealed to me very much, but one day, after heavy shower, I happened to be walking in my garden when I notice a huge number of snails taking a stroll on some of my prize plants. Actingg on a sudden impulse, I coolected serveral dozen, put them in a paper bag, and took them to Robert. Robert was delighted to see me and equally pleased with my little gift. I left the bag in the hall and Robert and I went into the living room where we talked for a couple of hours. I had forgotten all about the snails when Robert suddenly said that I must stay to dinner. Snails would, of course, be the main dish. I did not fancy the idea and I reluctantly followed Robert out of the room. To our dismay, we saw that there were snails everywhere:they had escaped from the paper bag and had taken complete possession of the hall! I have never been able to look at a snail since then. Lesson 24 在小说中，我们经常读到一个表面上受人尊敬的人物或家庭，却有着某种多年不为人所知的骇人听闻的秘密。英语中 有一个生动的说法来形容这种情况。惊人的秘密称作柜中骷髅。在小说的某个戏剧性时刻，可怕的秘密泄露出来， 接着便是某人的声誉扫地。当读者到小说最后几页了解到书中女主人公，那位待大家很好的可爱的老妇人 年轻时一连毒死了她的5个丈夫时，不禁会毛骨悚然。 这种事情发生在小说中是无可非议的。尽管我们人人都有各种大小秘密。连最亲密的朋友都不愿让他们知道，但我们 当中极少有人有柜中骷髅。我所认识的唯一的在柜中藏骷髅的人便是乔治，他甚至引以为豪。乔治年轻时 学过医，然而，他后来没当上医生，却成了一位成功的侦探小说作家。有一次，我在他家里度周末，过得很不愉快。 这事我永远不会忘记。乔治把我领进客房，说这间很少使用。他让我打开行装后下楼吃饭。我将衬衫、内衣放进 两个空抽屉里，然后我想把随身带来的两套西服中的一套挂到大衣柜里去。我打开柜门，站在柜门前一下惊呆了。 一具骷髅悬挂在眼前，由于柜门突然打开，它也随之轻微摇晃起来，让我觉得它好像马上要跳出柜门朝我扑过来似的。 我扔下西服冲下楼去告诉乔治。这是比骇人听闻的秘密更加惊人的东西，这是一具真正的骷髅啊！但乔治却无动于衷。 他笑着说道，俨然在谈论一位老朋友，那是。你忘了我以前是学医的了。 We often read in novels how a seemingly respectable person or family has some terrible secret which has been concealed from strangers for years. The English language possesses a vivid saying to describe this ort of situation. The terrible secret is called a skeleton in the cupboard. At some dramatic moment in the story, the terrible secret becomes known and a reputation is ruined. The reader's hair stands on end when he reads in the final pages of the novel that the heroine a dear old lady who had always been so kind to everybody, had, in her youth, poisoned very one of her five husband. It is all very well for such things to occur in fiction. To varing degrees, we all have secrets which we do not want even our closest friends to learn, but few of us have skeletons in the cupboard. The only person I know who has a skeleton in the cupboard is George, and he is very pound of the fact. George studied medicine in his youth. Instead of becoming a doctor, however, he became a successful writer of detective stories. I once spend an uncomfortable weekend which I share never forget at his house. George showed me to the guestroom wihch, he said, was rarely used. He told me to unpack mythings and then come down to dinner. After I had stacked my shirts and underclothes in two empty drawers, I decided to hang one of the tow suits I had brought with me in the cupboard. I opened the cupboard door and then stood in front of it petrified. A skeleton was dangling before my eyes. The sudden movement of the door made it sway slightly and it gave me the impression that it was about to leap out at me. Dropping my suit, I dashed downstairs to tell George. This was worse than a terrible secret; this was a real skeleton! But George was unsympathetic. Oh, that, he said with a smile as if he were talking about and old friend. That's Sebastian. You forget that I was a medical student once upon a time. Lesson 26 没有人能避免受广告的影响。尽管我们还可以自夸自己的鉴赏力如何敏锐，但我们已经无法独立自主地选购自己所需 的东西了。这是因为广告在我们身上施加着一种潜移默化的影响。做广告的人在力图劝说我们买下这种产品或那种 产品之前，已经仔细研究了人的本性，并把人的弱点进行了分类。 做广告的人们多年前就发现我们大家都喜欢免费得到东西。凡是用免费这个神奇的词开头的广告很少会失败的。 目前，做广告的人不仅提供免费样品，而且还提供免费汽车、免费住房、免费周游世界。他们设计数以百计的竞赛， 竞赛中有人可赢得巨额奖金。电台、电视使做广告的人可以用这种手段吸引百万人的注意力。 有一次，在电台播放的节目里，一个生产饼干的公司请听众烘制饼干送到他们的工厂去。他们愿意以每磅10美元 的价钱买下由听众烘制的最大的饼干。这次竞赛在听众中引起极其热烈的反响。不久，形状各异，大小不一的饼干陆续 送到工厂。一位女士用手推车运来一个饼干，重达500磅左右。相隔不一会儿，一个男子也带来一个大饼干，那个 饼干把汽车的行李箱挤得满满的。凡送来的饼干都仔细地称量。最重的一个达713磅，看来这个饼干获奖无疑了。 No one can avoid being influenced by advertisements. Much as we may pride ourselves on our good taste, we are no longer free to choose the things we want, for advertising exert a sublt influence on us. In their efforts to persuade us to buy this or that product, advertises have made a close study of human nature and have classified all our little weaknesses. Advertisers discovered years ago that all of us love to get something for nothing. An advertisement which begins with the magic word FREE can rarely go wrong. These days, advertisers not only offer free samples, but free cars, free houses, and free trips round the world as well. They devise hundreds of competitions which will enable us to win huge sums of money. Radio and television have made it possible for advertisers to capture the attention of millions of people in this way. During a radio programme, a company of biscuit manufacturers once asked listeners to bake biscuits and send them to their factory. They offered to pay $10 a pound for the biggest biscuit baked by a listener. The response to this competition was tremendous. Before long, biscuits of all shapes and sizes began arriving at the factory. One lady brought in a biscuit on a wheelbarrow. It weighted nearly 500 pounds. A little later, a man came along with a biscuit which occupied the whole boot of his car. All the biscuits that were sent were carefully weighed. The largest was 713 pounds. It seemed certain that this would win the prize. But just before the competition closed, a lorry arrived at the factory with a truly colossal biscuit which weighed 2,4000 pounds. It had been baked by a college student who had used over 1,000 pounds of flour, 800 pounds of sugar, 200 pounds of fat, and 400 pounds of various other ingredients. It was so heavy that a crane had to be used to remove it from the lorry. The manufacturers had to pay more money than they had anticipated, for they bought the biscuit from the student for $24,000. Lesson 27 据说每个人都靠出售某种东西来维持生活。根据这种说法，教师靠卖知识为生，哲学家靠卖智慧为生，牧师靠卖 精神安慰为生。虽然物质产品的价值可以用金钱来衡量，但要估算别人为我们所提供的服务的价值却是极其困难的。 有时，我们为了挽救生命，愿意付出我们所占有的一切。但就在外科大夫给我们提供了这种服务后，我们却可能 为所支付的昂贵的费用而抱怨。社会上的情况就是如此，技术是必须付钱去买的，就像在商店里要花钱买商品一样。 人人都有东西可以出售。 在这条普遍的规律前面，好像只有流浪汉是个例外，乞丐出售的几乎是他本人，以引起路人的怜悯。但真正的 流浪汉不是乞丐。他们既不出售任何东西，也不需要从别人那儿得到任何东西，在追求独立自由的同时，他们并不牺牲 为人的尊严。流浪汉可能会向你讨钱，但他从来不要你可怜他。他是故意在选择过那种生活的，并完全清楚以这种 方式生活的后果。他可能从不知道下顿饭有无着落，但他不像有人那样被千万愁事所折磨。他几乎没有什么财产， 这使他能够轻松自如地在各地奔波。由于被迫在露天睡觉，他比我们中许多人都离大自然近得多。为了生存，他可能 会去打猎、乞讨，偶尔偷上一两回；确实需要的时候，他甚至可能干一点儿活，但他绝不会牺牲自由。说起流浪汉， 我们常常带有轻蔑并把他们与乞丐归为一类。但是，我们中有多少人能够坦率地说我们对流浪汉的简朴生活与无忧无虑 的情况不感到有些羡慕呢？ It has been said that everyone lives by selling something. In the light of this statement, teachers live by selling knowledge, philosophers by selling wisdom and priests by selling spiritual comfort. Though it may be possible to measure the value of material good in terms of money, it is extremely difficult to estimate the true value of the services which people perform for us. There are times when we would willingly give everything we possess to save our lives, yet we might grudge paying a surgeon a high fee for offering us precisely this service. The conditions of society are such that skills have to be paid for in the same way that goods are paid for at a shop. Everyone has something to sell. Tramps seem to be the only exception to this general rule. Beggars almost sell themselves as human being to arouse the pity of passers-by. But real tramps are not beggars. They have nothing to sell and require nothing from others. In seeking independence, they do not sacrifice their human dignity. A tramp may ask you for money, but he will never ask you to fell sorry for him. He has deliberately chosen to lead the life he leads and is fully aware of the consequences. He may never be sure where the next meal is coming from, but he is free from the thousands of anxieties which afflict other people. His few material possessions make it possible for him to move from place to place with ease. By having to sleep in the open, he gets far closer to the world of nature than most of us ever do. He may hunt, beg, or steal occasionally to keep himself alive; he may even, in times of real need, do a little work; but he will never scrifice his freedom. We often speak of tramps with contempt and put them in the same class as beggars, but how many of us can honestly say that we have not felt a little envious of their simple way of life and their freedom from care? Lesson 28 当一艘大型班船进港的时候，许多小船载着各种杂货快速向客轮驶来。大船还未下锚，小船上的人就纷纷爬上客轮。 一会儿工夫，甲板上就摆满了色彩斑斓的波斯地毯、印度丝绸、铜咖啡壶以及手工制作的漂亮的银器。要想不为这些 东西所动心是很困难的。船上许多游客开始同商贩讨价还价起来，但我打定主意上岸之前什么也不买。 我刚下船，就被一个人截住，他向我兜售一枚钻石戒指。我根本不想买，但我不能掩饰这样一个事实：其钻石之大给 我留下了深刻的印象。有的钻石像玻璃球那么大。那人竭力想证明那钻石是真货。我们路过一家商店时，他将一颗 钻石使劲往橱窗上一按，在玻璃上留下一道深痕。我花了半个多小时才摆脱了他的纠缠。 向我兜售的第二个人是卖名贵钢笔和手表的。我仔细查看了一支钢笔，那看上去确实不假。金笔帽下方整齐地刻有 美国制造字样。那人说那支笔值50英镑，作为特别优惠，他愿意让我出30英镑成交。我摇摇头，伸出5根手指表示 我只愿意出5磅钱。那人激动地打着手势，仿佛我的出价使他不能容忍。但他终于把价钱降到了10英镑。我耸耸肩膀 掉头走开了。一会儿，他突然从后追了上来，把笔塞到我手里。虽然他绝望地举起双手，但他毫不迟疑的收下了我付给 他的5磅钱。在回到船上之前，我一直为我的绝妙的讨价还价而洋洋得意。然而不管我如何摆弄，那支漂亮的钢笔 就是吸不进墨水来。直到今天，那支笔连一个字也没写过！ Small boats loaded with wares sped to the great liner as she was entering the harbour. Before she had anchored, the men from the boats had climbed on board and the decks were soon covered with colourful rugs from Persia, silks from India, cooper coffee pots, and beautiful handmade silverware. It was difficult not to be tempted. Many of the tourists on board had begun bargining with the tradesmen, but I decide not to buy anything until I had disembarked. I had no sooner got off the ship than I was assailed by a man who wanted to sell me a diamond ring. I had no intention of buying one, but I could not conceal the fact that I was impressed by the size of the diamonds. Some of them were as big as marbles. The man went to great lengths to prove that the diamonds were real. As we were walking past a shop, he held a diamond firmly against the window and made a deep impression in the glass. It took me over half an hour to get rid of him. The next man to approach me was selling expensive pens and watches. I examined one of the pens closely. It certainly looked genuine. At the base of the gold cap, the words made in the had been neatly inscribed. The man said that the pen was worth 10, but as a special favour, he would let me have it for 8. I shook my head and held up a finger indicating that I was willing to pay a pound. Gesticulating wildly, the man acted as if he found my offer out-rageous, but he eventually reduced the price to 3. Shrugging my shoulders, I began to walk away when, a moment later, he ran after me and thrust the pen into my hands. Though he kept throwing up his arms in despair, he readily accepted the pound I gave him. I felt especially pleased with my wouderful bargain--until I got back to the ship. No matter how hard I tried, it was im-possible to fill this beautiful pen with ink and to this day it has never written a signle word. Lesson 31 真正古怪的人从不有意引人注意。他们不顾社会习俗，意识不到自己所作所为有什么特殊之处。他们总能赢得别人 的喜爱与尊敬，因为他们给平淡单一的日常生活增添了色彩。 是我们镇上最有名望的人之一。他是个精明能干、有钱的商人，但镇上大部分人对他生活中的 这一个方面几乎一无所知。大家都管他叫。早在他去世前很久，他的古怪行为就成了传奇故事了。 痛恨势利小人。尽管他有一辆豪华小轿车，但却很少使用，常常喜欢以步代车。即使大雨倾盆，他也总是拒绝 带伞。一天，他遇上一场瓢泼大雨，淋得透湿。他走进一家高级商店，要为妻子买一块价值300英镑的手表，但店员 见他浑身泥水的样子，竟不肯接待他。二话没说就走了。一会儿，他带着一个大布口袋回到店里。布袋很沉， 他重重地把布袋扔在柜台上。店员让走开，他置之不理，并要求见经理。 True eccentrics never deliberately set out to draw attention to themselves. They disregard social conventions without being conscious that they are doing anything extraordinary. This invariably wins them the love and respect of others, for they add colour to the dull routine of everyday life. Up to the time of his death, Richard was one of the most notable figures in our town. He was a shrewd and wealthy businessman, but most people in the town hardly knew anything about this side of his life. He was known to us all as Dickie and his eccentricity had become legendary long before he died. Dickie disliked snobs intensely. Though he owned a large car, he hardly ever used it, preferring always to go on foot. Even when it was raining heavily, he refused to carry an umbrella. One day, he walked into an expensive shop after having been caught in a particularly heavy shower. He wanted to buy a $300 watch for his wife, but he was in such a bedraggled condition that an assistant refused to serve him. Dickie left the shop without a word and returned carrying a large cloth bag. As it was extremely heavy, he dumped it on the counter. the assistant asked him to leave, but Dickie paid no attention to him and requested to see the manager. Recognizing who the customer was, the manager was most apologetic and reprimanded the assistant serverely. When Dickie was given the watch, he presented the assistant with the cloth bag. It contained $300 in pennies. He insisted on the assistant's counting the money before he left -- 30,000 pennies in all! On another occasion, he invited a number of important critics to see his private collection of modern paintings. This exhibition received a great deal of attention in the press, for though the pictures were supposed to be the work of famous artists, they had in fact been painted by Dickie. It took him four years to stage this elaborate joke simply to prove that critics do not always know what they are talking about. Lesson 33 我们大家都有过事事不顺心的日子。一天开始时，可能还不错，但突然间似乎一切都失去了控制。情况经常是这样的， 许许多多的事情都偏偏赶在同一时刻出问题，好像是一件无关紧要的小事引起了一连串的连锁反应。 We have all experienced days when everything goes wrong. A day may begin well enough, but suddenly everything seems to get out of control. What invariably happens is that a great number of things choose to go wrong at precisely the same moment. It is as if a single unimportant event set up a chain of reactions. Lesson 34 古玩店对许多人来说有一种特殊的魅力。高档一点的古玩店为了防尘，把文物漂亮地陈列在玻璃柜子里，那里往往 令人望而却步。而对不太装腔作势的古玩店，无论是谁都不用壮着胆子才敢往里进。人们还常常有希望在发霉、阴暗、 杂乱无章、迷宫般的店堂里，从杂乱地摆放在地面上的、一堆堆各式各样的破烂货里找到一件稀世珍品。 无论是谁都不会一下子就发现一件珍品。一个到处找便宜的人必须具有耐心，而且最重要的是看到珍品时要有鉴别 珍品的能力。要做到这一点，他至少要像古董商一样懂行。他必须像一个专心致志进行探索的科学家那样抱有这样的希望， 即终有一天，他的努力会取得丰硕的成果。 我的老朋友正是这样一个人。他多次向我详细讲他如何只花50英镑便买到一位名家的杰作。一个星期六 的上午，去了我家附近的一家古玩店。由于他从未去过那儿，结果他发现许多有趣的东西。上午很快过去了， 正准备离去，突然看见地板上放着一只体积很大的货箱。古董商告诉他那只货箱刚到不久，但他嫌麻烦不想 把它打开。经恳求，古董商才勉强把货箱撬开了。 Antique shops exert a peculiar fascination on a great many people. The more expensive kind of antique shop where rare objects are beautifully dispalyed in glass cases to keep them free from dust is usually a forbidding place. But no one had to muster up courage to enter a less pretentious antique shop. There is always hope that in its labyrinth of must, dark, disordered rooms a real rarity will be found amongst the piles of assorted junk that little the floors. No one discovers a rarity by chance. A truly dedicated bargain hunter must have patience, and above all, the ability to recognize the worth of something when he sees it. To do this, he must be at least as knowledgeable as the dealer. Like a scientist bent on making a discovery, he must cherish the hope that one day he will be amply rewarded. My old friend, Frank, is just such a person. He has often described to me how he picked up a masterpiece fore a mere $50. One Saturday morning, Frank visited an antique shop in my neighbourhood. As he had never been there before, he found a great deal to interest him. The morning passed rapidly and Frank was about to leave when he noticed a large packing case lying on the floor. The dealer told him that it had just come in but that he could not be bothered to open it. Frank begged him to do so and the dealer reluctantly prised it open. The contents were disappointing. Apart from an interesting-looking carved dagger, the box was full of crockery, much of it broken. Frank gently lifted the crockery out of the box an suddenly noticed a miniature painting at the bottom of the packing case. As its composition and line reminded him of an Italian painting he knew well, he decided to buy it. Glancing at it briefly, the dealer told him that it was worth $50. Frank could hardly conceal his excitement, for he knew that he had made a real discovery. The tiny painting proved to be an unknown masterpiece by Correggio and was worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. Lesson 53 各国实行开明的社会政策，受到全世界的推崇。在瑞典，已逐渐形成了一种完善的制度以保护 每个公民不受专横和不称职的政府官员的欺压。由于这种制度行之有效，已被其他国家采纳。 是瑞典人首先认识到政府工作人员如文职人员、警察、卫生稽查员、税务人员等等也会犯错误或者自以为在为公众服务 而把事情做过了头。早在1809年，瑞典论会就建立一个保护公民利益的制度。议会内有一个代表各政党利益 的委员会，由它委派一位称职的人选专门调查个人对国家的意见。此人官衔为 司法特派员， 但瑞典人一般管他 叫 J.O.，即 司法特派员。司法特派员不受任何政治压力的制约。他听取社会各阶层的各种大小意见，并进行调查。 由于意见均需用书面形式提出，司法特派员每年平均收到1，200封信。他有8位律师作为它的助手协助工作，每封信 都详细批阅。司法特派员的工作没什么秘密可言，他的信件是公开的，供公众监督。如果公民的意见正确，司法特派员 便为他伸张正义。司法特派员采取的行动因意见的性质不同而有所不同。他可以善意地批评某位官员，也可以甚至 向议会提议修改某项法律。下述事件是司法特派员工作的一个典型例子。 The Scandinavian countries are much admired all over the world for their enlightened social policies. Sweden has evolved an excellent system for protecting the individual citizen from highhanded or incompetent public officers. The system has worked so well, that it has been adopted in other countries too. The Swedes were the first to recognize that public officail live civil servants, police officers, health inspectors or tax-collectors can make mistakes or act over-zealously in the belief that they are serving the public. As long as 1809, the Swedish Parliament introduced a scheme to safeguard the interest of the individual. A parliamentary committee representing all political parties appoints a person who is suitably qualified to iinvestigate private grievances against the State. The official title of the person is Justiteombudsman, but the Swedes commonly refer to him as the J.O. or Ombudsman. The Ombudsman is not subject to political pressure. He investigates complaints large and small that come to him from all levels of society. As complaints must be made in writing, the Ombudsman receives an average of 1,200 letters a year. He has eight lawyer assistants to help him and examines every single letter in detail. There is nothing secretive about the Ombudsman's work for his correspondence is open to public inspection. If a citizen's complaint is justified, the Ombudsman will act on his behalf. The action he takes varies according to the nature of the complaint. He may gently reprimand an official or even suggest to parliament that a law the altered. The following case is a typical example of the Ombudsman's work. A foreigner living in a Swedish village wrote to the Ombudsman complaining that he had been illtreated by the police, simply because he was a foreigner. The Ombudsman immediately wrote to the Chief of Police in the district asking him to send a record of the case. There was nothing in the record to show that the foreigner's complaint was jstified and the Chief of Police strongly denied the accusation. It was impossible for the Ombudsman to take action, but when he received a similar complaint from another foreigner in the same willage, he immediately sent one of his layers to investigate the matter. The lawyer ascertained that a policeman had indeed dealt roughly with foeigners on serveral occasions. The fact that the policeman was prejudiced against foreigners could not be recorded in the official files. It was only possible for the Ombudsman to find this out by sending one of his representatives to check the facts. The policeman in question was severely reprimanded and was informed that if any further complaints were lodged against him, he would prosecuted. The Ombudsman's prompt action at once put an end to an unpleasant practice which might have gone unnoticed. Lesson54 我们自幼就在对昆虫的惧怕中长大。我们把昆虫当作害多益少的无用东西。人类不断同昆虫斗争，因为昆虫弄脏 我们的食物、传播疾病、吞噬庄稼。它们无缘无故地又叮又咬；夏天的晚上，它们未经邀请便飞到我们房间里，或者 对着露出亮光的窗户乱扑乱撞。我们在日常生活中，不但憎恶如蜘蛛、黄峰之类令人讨厌的昆虫，而且憎恶并无大害 的飞蛾等。阅读有关昆虫的书能增加我们对它们的了解，却不能消除我们的恐惧的心理。即使知道勤奋的蚂蚁甚或在具有 高度组织性的社会里，当看到大群蚂蚁在我们精心准备的午间野餐上爬行时，我们也无法抑制对它们的反感。不管 我们多么爱吃蜂蜜，或读过多少关于蜜蜂具有神秘的识别方向的灵感的书，我们仍然十分害怕被蜂蜇。我们的恐惧 大部分是没有道理的，但却无法消除。同时，不知为什么昆虫又是迷人的。我们喜欢看有关昆虫的书，尤其是当我们 了解螳螂等过着一种令人生畏的生活时，就更加爱读有关昆虫的书了。我们喜欢入迷地看它们做事，它们不知道 我们就在它们身边。当看到蜘蛛扑向一只苍蝇时，一队蚂蚁抬着一只巨大的死甲虫凯旋归时，谁能不感到敬畏呢？ 去年夏天，我花了好几天时间站在花园里观察成千只蚂蚁爬上我那颗心爱的桃树的树干。那棵树是靠着房子又遮挡 的一面暖墙生长的。我为这颗树感到特别只好，不仅因为它度过几个寒冬终于活了下来，而且还因为它有时结出 些甘甜的桃子来。到了夏天，我发现树叶开始枯萎，结果在树叶背面找到成串的叫做蚜虫小虫子。蚜虫遭到一窝蚂蚁 的攻击，蚂蚁从它们身上可以获得一种蜜。我当即动手作了一项试验，这项试验尽管没有使我摆脱这些蚂蚁，却使我 着迷了24小时。 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 ageist 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 revvlsion 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 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?