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--- lesson 54 Instinct or cleverness? |
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--- Listen to the tape then answer the question below. |
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--- Was the writer successful in protecting his peach tree? why not? |
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We have been brought up to fear insects. |
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We regard them as unnecessary creatures that do more harm than good. |
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We continually wage war on them, for they contaminate our food, carry diseases, or devour our crops. |
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They sting or bite without provocation; |
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they fly uninvited into our rooms on summer nights, or beat against our lighted windows. |
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We live in dread not only of unpleasant insects like spiders or wasps, but of quite harmless ones like moths. |
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Reading about them increases our understanding without dispelling our fears. |
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Knowing that the industrious ant lives in a highly organized society does nothing to prevent us from being filled with revulsion |
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when we find hordes of them crawling over a carefully prepared picnic lunch.^(.. .. |
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No matter how much we like honey, or how much we have read about the uncanny sense of direction which bees possess, |
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we have a horror of being stung. |
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Most of our fears are unreasonable, but they are impossible to erase. |
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At the same time, however, insects are strangely fascinating. |
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We enjoy reading about them, especially when we find that, like the praying mantis, they lead perfectly horrible lives. |
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We enjoy staring at them, entranced as they go about their business, unaware (we hope) of our presence. |
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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? |
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Last summer I spent days in the garden watching thousands of ants crawling up the trunk of my prize peach tree. |
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The tree has grown against a warm wall on a sheltered side of the house. |
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I am especially proud of it, not only because it has survived several severe winters, but because it occasionally produces luscious peaches. |
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During the summer, I noticed that the leaves of the tree were beginning to wither. |
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Clusters of tiny insects called aphids were to be found on the underside of the leaves. |
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They were visited by a large colony of ants which obtained a sort of honey from them. |
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I immediately embarked on an experiment which, even though it failed to get rid of the ants, kept me fascinated for twenty-four hours. |
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I bound the base of the tree with sticky tape, making it impossible for the ants to reach the aphids. |
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The tape was so sticky that they did not dare to cross it. |
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For a long time. I watched them scurrying around the base of the tree in bewilderment. |
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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. |
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I got up early next morning hoping to find that the ants had given up in despair. |
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Instead, I saw that they had discovered a new route. |
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They were climbing up the wall of the house and then on to the leaves of the tree. |
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I realized sadly that I had been completely defeated by their ingenuity. |
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The ants had been quick to find an answer to my thoroughly unscientific methods! |