第87課 蚯蚓
The earth-worm is also called the dew-worm, because it likes to come out of its hole and creep about when the grass is wet with dew. It is a very long and thin animal, being often a foot long, yet less than one-quarter of an inch in thickness.
蚯蚓又叫露水蟲(chóng), 因?yàn)楫?dāng)天氣潮濕、小草上掛滿(mǎn)露水時(shí), 它就喜歡鉆出自己的洞穴到處爬行。這是一種身體很長(zhǎng)卻又非常纖細(xì)的動(dòng)物, 長(zhǎng)度通常跟我們的腳長(zhǎng)度相仿, 但寬度卻不會(huì)超過(guò)四分之一英寸。
Its body is composed of more than one hundred rings, all joined together. At first you cannot see that the worm has any head. But if you look very closely, you will see that one end of the body is more pointed than the other, and that when the worm moves, this pointed end goes first. The pointed end is its head.
蚯蚓的身體由一百多個(gè)彼此相連的環(huán)節(jié)組成。一眼看去, 蚯蚓似乎沒(méi)有腦袋。然而, 仔細(xì)觀(guān)察就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn), 它身體的一端比另一端稍尖, 當(dāng)它蠕動(dòng)時(shí)這一頭首先進(jìn)行移動(dòng)。這就是蚯蚓的頭。
In the head there is a slit or mouth, by which the worm is able to feed on decayed plants. The earth-worm swallows a great deal of the earth or mould in which it lives, because this earth always contains some decayed leaves or roots. This vegetable matter forms the animal's food, and the useless part of the mould is carried to the top of the hole or burrow in which the worm lives.
它的頭上有一個(gè)狹縫(嘴巴), 蚯蚓就是通過(guò)這個(gè)器官進(jìn)食一些腐爛的植物。蚯蚓需要吞食大量的泥土或爛泥, 因?yàn)槠渲邪芏喔癄€的樹(shù)葉或樹(shù)根。這些包含植被的物質(zhì)構(gòu)成了蚯蚓的食物, 而那些毫無(wú)用處的爛泥則被蚯蚓運(yùn)到自己所棲息的洞穴頂部。
Have you ever seen the "worm-casts, " or little curly heaps of fine mould which the earth-worm leaves behind it? In swallowing the mould to feed on the vegetable matter which it contains, the little animal does a great deal of good, for it breaks up the mould so finely that it changes a hard and barren soil into a rich soil in which plants can grow well.
你有沒(méi)有看到過(guò)“蚯蚓糞便”, 也就是蚯蚓排出的卷曲狀小塊爛泥? 這種小動(dòng)物吞食爛泥, 吸收其中的腐殖質(zhì), 而這種生活習(xí)慣使得植物受益匪淺, 因?yàn)榻?jīng)過(guò)了蚯蚓的吞食和排泄, 這些原本貧瘠的硬土變成了肥沃的泥土, 適合植物的生長(zhǎng)。
The earth-worm has no legs; how, then, does it move? If we wash a worm in water till it is quite clean, and then look at the under side of its body, we shall see eight stiff little bristles on each of its many rings.
蚯蚓沒(méi)有腿, 是如何移動(dòng)的呢? 如果你將蚯蚓放入水中徹底清洗, 然后仔細(xì)觀(guān)察它身體下方, 就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)每個(gè)環(huán)狀結(jié)構(gòu)的兩側(cè)都長(zhǎng)有八根堅(jiān)硬的剛毛。
英語(yǔ)美文