新概念英语第四册自学导读：第二课 不要伤害蜘蛛(上)

Lesson 2 Spare that spider

第二课 不要伤害蜘蛛

by T. H. GILLESPLE

from The Listener

2-1. Why, you may wonder, should spiders be our friends?

【译文】你可能会奇怪，蜘蛛怎是吾友？

【讲解】you may wonder为插入语。

2-2. Because they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race.

【译文】因为它们消灭了那么多昆虫，包括一些属于人类最大敌人的昆虫。

2-3. 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.

【译文】昆虫可以使我们无法在地球上生存。如果不是食虫动物的保护，则这些昆虫会吞噬我们所有的庄稼，杀死我们成群的牛羊。

【讲解】make it impossible for us to live in the world中it是形式宾语，真正的宾语是for us to live in the world。insects would和they would中的would均表示与事实不符的虚拟结构。

if it were not for the protection…作前面两个分句的非真实条件状语从句，意即“要不是我们从食虫那里得到保护的话……”。这里的were是虚拟语气结构。we get…animals作protection的定语。

2-4. 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 destroyed by spiders.

【译文】我们受惠于食虫的飞禽鸟兽，但把它们都算在一起，也只是捕杀了蜘蛛消灭的昆虫数的一个零头。

【讲解】all of them指birds and beasts，put together kill相当于…them who are put together kill。意即“它们全加在一起消灭……”。the number指“被消灭的昆虫数”。

【单词和短语】

owe:应感激（to know that someone’s help has been important to you in achieving something），例如：

We owe our parents a lot. 我们得大大感激我们的父母。

2-5. Moreover, unlike some of the other insect eaters, spiders never do the least harm to us or our belongings.

【译文】此外，不同于其他一些食虫动物，蜘蛛对人类及其财物丝毫无损。     

【单词和短语】

belongings：所有物，财物，动产；行李，例如：

He left all his belongings to his brother.

他把他的全部财物留给了他兄弟。

It didn’t take me long to arrange my belongings；for I had brought little.

因为行装带得不多，我没花多少时间就把东西整理好了。