They were curious and uninviting pets, I'm bound to admit, those great juicy-looking creatures. Nobody could say that any form of spider is precisely10 what our Italian friends prettily11 describe in their liquid way as simpatico. At times, indeed, the conduct of Lucy and Eliza was so peculiarly horrible and blood-curdling in its atrocity13, that even I, their best friend, who had so often interceded14 for their lives and saved them from the devastating15 duster of the aggressive housemaid—even I myself, I say, more than once debated in my own mind whether I was justified16 in letting them go on any longer in their career of crime unchecked, or whether I ought not rather to rush out at once, avenging17 rag in hand, and sweep them away at one fell swoop18 from the surface of a world they disgraced with their unbridled wickedness. Eliza, in particular, I'm constrained19 to allow, was a perfect monster of vice—a sort of undeveloped arachnid20 Borgia, quick to slay21 and relentless22 in pursuit; a mass of eight-legged sins, stained with the colourless gore23 of ten thousand struggling victims, and absolutely without a single redeeming24 point in her hateful character. And yet, whenever any more than usually horrible massacre25 of some pretty and innocent fly almost moved me in my righteous wrath26 to rush out into the garden in hot haste and put an end at once to the cruel wretch27's existence with a judicial28 antimacassar, a number of moral scruples29, such as could only be adequately resolved by the editor of the Spectator, always occurred spontaneously to my mind and conscience just in time to ensure that wicked Eliza a fresh spell of life in which to continue unabashed her atrocious behaviour.
Has man, I asked myself at such moments, mere30 human man, any right to set himself up in the place of earthly providence31, as so much better and more moral than insentient nature? If the spider cruelly devours33 living flies and intelligent or highly sensitive bees, we must at least remember that she has no choice in the matter, and that, as the poet justly remarks, ''tis her nature to.' But then, on the other hand, it might be plausibly34 argued that 'tis our nature equally to kill the creature that we see so hatefully fulfilling the law of its own cruel being. And yet again it might be pleaded by any able counsel who undertook the defence of Lucy or Eliza on her trial for her life against her human accusers, that she was impelled36 to all these evil deeds by maternal37 affection, one of the noblest and most unselfish of animal instincts. Moreover, if the spider didn't prey38, it would obviously die; and it seems rather hard on any creature to condemn39 it to death for no better reason than because it happens to have been born a member of its own kind, and not of any other and less morally objectionable species. Jedburgh justice o￡ that sort rather savours of the method pursued by the famous countryman who was found cutting a harmless amphibian40 into a hundred pieces with his murderous spade, and saying spitefully as he did so, at every particularly savage41 cut: 'I'll larn ye to be a twoad, I will; I'll larn ye to be a twoad!'
Nevertheless, in spite of all this my vaunted philosophy, I will frankly42 confess that more than once Eliza and Lucy sorely tried my patience, and that I was often a good deal better than half-minded in my soul to rush out in a feverish43 fit of moral indignation and put an end to their ghastly career of crime without waiting to hear what they had to say in their own favour, showing cause why sentence of death should not be executed upon them. And I would have done it, I believe, had it not been for that peculiar12 arrangement of the drawing-room windows, which made it impossible to get at the culprits direct, without going out into the garden and round the house; which, of course, is a severe strain in wet or windy weather to put upon anybody's moral enthusiasm. In the end, therefore, I always gave the evil-doers the benefit of the doubt; and I only mention my ethical44 scruples in the matter here lest scoffers should say, when they come to read what manner of things Lucy and Eliza did: 'Oh yes, that's just like those scientific folks; they're always so cold-blooded. He could stand by and see these poor helpless flies tortured slowly to death, without a chance for their lives, and never put out a helping45 hand to save them!' Well, I would only ask you one question, my sapient46 friend, who talk like that: Has it ever occurred to you that, if you kill one spider, you merely make room in the overflowing47 economy of nature for another to pick up a dishonest livelihood48? Have you ever reflected that the prime blame of spiderhood rests with Nature herself (if we may venture to personify that impersonal49 entity); and that she has provided such a constant supply or relay of spiders as will amply suffice to fill up all the possible vacancies50 that can ever occur in insect-eating circles? Unless you have considered all these points carefully, and have an answer to give about them, you are not in a position to pronounce upon the subject, and you had better be referred for six months longer, as the medical examiners gracefully51 put it, to your ethical, psychological, and biological studies. The great point about the position in which Eliza and Lucy had placed themselves was simply this. They stood full against the light, so that we could see right through their translucent52 bodies, which were almost liquid to look upon, and beautifully dappled with dark spots on a grey ground in a very pretty and effective pattern. So favourable53 was the opportunity for observation, indeed, that we could clearly make out with the naked eye even the joints54 of their legs, the hairs on their tarsi—excuse the phrase—and the very shape of their cruel tigerlike claws, as they rushed forth55 upon their prey in a sort of carnivorous frenzy56. At all hours of the day we could notice exactly what they were doing or suffering; and so familiar did we become with them individually and personally, that before the end of the season we recognized in detail all the differences of their characters almost as one might do with cats or dogs, and spoke57 of them by their Christian58 names like old and well-known acquaintances.
As the webs which Lucy and Eliza spun59 were several times broken or mutilated during the year, either by accident or the gardener, we had plenty of chances for seeing how they proceeded in making them. The lines were in both cases stretched between a white rose-bush that climbed up one side of the window, and a purple clematis that occupied and draped the opposite mullion. But Lucy and Eliza didn't live in the webs—those were only their snares61 or traps for prey; each of them had in addition a private home or apartment of her own under shelter of a rose-leaf at some distance from the treacherous62 geometrical structure. The house itself consisted merely of a silken cell, built out from the rose-leaf, and connected with the snare60 by a single stout63 cord of very solid construction. On this cord the spider kept one foot—I had almost said one hand—constantly fixed64. She poised65 it lightly by her claws, and whenever an insect got entangled66 in the web, a subtle electric message, so to speak, seemed to run along the line to the ever-watchful carnivore. In one short second Lucy or Eliza, as the case might be, had darted68 out upon her quarry69, and was tackling it might main, according to the particular way its size and strength rendered then and there advisable. The method of procedure, which I shall describe more fully35 by-and-by, differed considerably71 from case to case, as these very large and strong spiders have sometimes to deal with mere tiny midges, and sometimes with extremely big and dangerous creatures, like bumble-bees, wasps73, and even hornets.
In building their webs, as in many other small points, Lucy and Eliza showed from the first no inconsiderable personal differences. Lucy began hers by spinning a long line from her spinnerets, and letting the wind carry it wherever it would; while Eliza, more architectural in character, preferred to take her lines personally from point to point, and see herself to their proper fastening. In either case, however, the first thing done was to stretch some eight or ten stout threads from place to place on the outside of the future web, to act as points d'appuy for the remainder of the structure. To these outer threads, which the spiders strengthened so as to bear a considerable strain by doubling and trebling them, other thinner single threads were then carried radially at irregular distances, like the spokes74 of a wheel, from a point in the centre, where they were all made fast and connected together. As soon as this radiating framework or scaffolding was finished, like the woof on a loom75, the industrious76 craftswoman started at the middle, and began the task of putting in the cross-pieces or weft which were to complete and bind77 together the circular pattern. These she wove round and round in a continuous spiral, setting out at the centre, and keeping on in ever-widening circlets, till she arrived at last at the exterior78 or foundation threads. How she fastened these cross-pieces to the ray-lines I could never quite make out, though I often followed the work closely from inside through the pane of glass with a platyscopic lens; for, strange to say, the spiders were not in the least disturbed by being watched at their work, and never took the slightest notice of anything that went on at the other side of the window. My impression is, however, that she gummed them together, letting them harden into one as they dried; for the thread itself is always semi-liquid when first exuded79.
The cross-pieces, we observed from the very beginning, were invariably covered by little sparkling drops of something wet and beadlike, which at first in our ignorance we took for dew; for until I began systematically80 observing Lucy and Eliza, I will frankly confess I had never paid any particular attention to the spider-kind with the solitary81 exception of my old winter friends, the trap-door spiders of the Mediterranean shores. But, after a little experience, we soon found out that these pearly drops on the web were not dew at all, but a sticky substance, akin1, to that of the web, secreted82 by the animals themselves from their own bodies. We also quickly discovered, coming to the observation as we did with minds unbiased by previous knowledge, that the viscid liquid in question was of the utmost importance to the spiders in securing their prey, and that unfortunate insects were not merely entangled but likewise gummed down or glued by it, like birds in bird-lime or flies in treacle83. So necessary is the sticky stuff, indeed, to the success of the trap, that Lucy and Eliza used to renew the entire set of cross-pieces in the web every morning, and thus ensure from day to day a perfectly84 fresh supply of viscid fluid; but, so far as I could see, they only renewed the rays and the foundation-threads under stress of necessity, when the snare had been so greatly injured by large insects struggling in it, or by the wind or the gardener, as to render repairs absolutely unavoidable. The whole structure, when complete, is so beautiful and wonderful a sight, with its geometrical regularity85 and its beaded drops, that if it were produced by a rare creature from Madagascar or the Cape86, in the insect-house at the Zoo, all the world, I'm convinced, would rush to look at it as a nine-days' wonder. But since it's only the trap of the common English garden spider, why, we all pass it by without deigning87 even to glance at it.
At night my eight-legged friends slept always in their own homes or nests under shelter of the rose-leaves. But during the day they alternated between the nest and the centre of the web, which last seemed to serve them as a convenient station where they waited for their prey, standing88 head downward with legs wide spread on the rays, on the look-out for incidents. Whether at the centre or in the nest, however, they kept their feet constantly on the watch for any disturbance89 on the webs; and the instant any unhappy little fly got entangled in their meshes90, the ever-watchful spider was out like a flash of lightning, and down at once in full force upon that incautious intruder. I was convinced after many observations that it is by touch alone the spider recognizes the presence of prey in its web, and that it hardly derives91 any indications worth speaking of from its numerous little eyes, at least as regards the arrival of booty. If a very big insect has got into the web, then a relatively92 large volume of disturbance is propagated along the telegraphic wire that runs from the snare to the house, or from the circumference93 to the centre; if a small one, then a slight disturbance; and the spider rushes out accordingly, either with an air of caution or of ferocious94 triumph.
Supposing the booty in hand was a tiny fly, then Lucy or Eliza would jump upon it at once with that strange access of apparently95 personal animosity with seems in some mysterious way a characteristic of all hunting carnivorous animals. She would then carelessly wind a thread or two about it, in a perfunctory way, bury her jaws96 in its body, and in less than half a minute suck out its juices to the last drop, leaving the empty shell unhurt, like a dry skeleton or the slough97 of a dragon-fly larva. But when wasps or other large and dangerous insects got entangled in the webs, the hunters proceeded with far greater caution. Lucy, indeed, who was a decided98 coward, would stand and look anxiously at the doubtful intruder for several seconds, feeling the web with her claws, and running up and down in the most undecided manner, as if in doubt whether or not to tackle the uncertain customer. But Eliza, whose spirits always rose like Nelson's before the face of danger, and whose motto seemed to be 'De l'audace, de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace,' would rush at the huge foe99 in a perfect transport of wild fury, and go to work at once to enclose him in her toils100 of triple silken cables. I always fancied, indeed, that Eliza was in a thoroughly housewifely tantrum at seeing her nice new web so ruthlessly torn and tattered101 by the unwelcome visitor, and that she said to herself in her own language: 'Oh well, then, if you will have it, you shall have it; so here goes for you.' And go for him she did, with most unladylike ferocity. Indeed, Eliza's best friend, I must fain admit, could never have said of her that she was a perfect lady.
The chawing-up of that wasp72 was a sight to behold102. I have no great sympathy with wasps—they have done me so many bad turns in my time that I don't pretend to regard them as deserving of exceptional pity—but I must say Eliza's way of going at them was unduly103 barbaric. She treated them for all the world as if they were entirely104 devoid105 of a nervous system. I wouldn't treat a Saturday Reviewer myself as that spider treated the wasps when once she was sure of them. She went at them with a sort of angry, half-contemptuous dash, kept cautiously out of the way of the protruded106 sting, began in most business-like fashion at the head, and rolling the wasp round and round with her legs and feelers, swathed him rapidly and effectually, with incredible speed, in a dense107 network of web poured forth from her spinnerets. In less than half a minute the astonished wasp, accustomed rather to act on the offensive than the defensive108, found himself helplessly enclosed in a perfect coil of tangled67 silk, which confined him from head to sting without the possibility of movement in any direction. The whole time this had been going on the victim, struggling and writhing109, had been pushing out its sting and doing the very best it knew to deal the wily Eliza a poisoned death-blow. But Eliza, taught by ancestral experience, kept carefully out of the way; and the wasp felt itself finally twirled round and round in those powerful hands, and tied about as to its wings by a thousand-fold cable. Sometimes, after the wasp was secured, Eliza even took the trouble to saw off the wings so as to prevent further struggling and consequent damage to the precious web; but more often she merely proceeded to eat it alive without further formality, still avoiding its sting as long as the creature had a kick left in it, but otherwise entirely ignoring its character as a sentient32 being in the most inhuman110 fashion. And all the time, till the last drop of his blood was sucked out, the wasp would continue viciously to stick out his deadly sting, which the spider would still avoid with hereditary111 cunning. It was a horrid112 sight—a duel113 à outrance between two equally hateful and poisonous opponents; a living commentary on the appalling114 but o'er-true words of the poet, that 'Nature is one with rapine, a harm no preacher can heal.' Though these were the occasions when one sometimes felt as if the cup of Eliza's iniquities115 was really full, and one must pass sentence at last, without respite116 or reprieve117, upon that life-long murderess.
One insect there was, however, before which even Eliza herself, hardened wretch as she seemed, used to cower118 and shiver; and that was the great black bumble-bee, the largest and most powerful of the British bee-kind. When one of these dangerous monsters, a burly, buzzing bourgeois119, got entangled in her web, Eliza, shaking in her shoes (I allow her those shoes by poetical120 licence) would retire in high dudgeon to her inmost bower121, and there would sit and sulk, in visible bad temper, till the clumsy big thing, after many futile122 efforts, had torn its way by main force out of the coils that surrounded it. Then, the moment the telegraphic communication told her the lines in the web were once more free, Eliza would sally forth again with a smiling face—oh yes, I assure you, we could tell by her look when she was smiling—and would repair afresh with cheerful alacrity123 the damage done to her snare by the unwelcome visitor. Hummingbird124 hawk-moths, on the other hand, though so big and quick, she would kill immediately. As for Lucy, craven soul, she had so little sense of proper pride and arachnid honour, that she shrank even from the wasps which Eliza so bravely and unhesitatingly tackled; and more than once we caught her in the very act of cutting them out entire, with the whole piece of web in which they were immeshed, and letting them drop on to the ground beneath, merely as a short way of getting rid of them from her premises125. I always rather despised Lucy. She hadn't even the one redeeming virtue126 of most carnivorous or predatory races—an insensate and almost automatic courage.
I need hardly say, however, that the spider does not kill her prey by a mere fair-and-square bite alone. She has recourse to the art of the Palmers and Brinvilliers. All spiders, as far as known, are provided with poison-fangs in the jaws, which sometimes, as in the tarantula and many other large tropical kinds, well known to me in Jamaica and elsewhere, are sufficiently127 powerful to produce serious effects upon man himself; while even much smaller spiders, like Eliza and Lucy, have poison enough in their falces, as the jawlike organs are called, to kill a good big insect, such as a wasp or a bumble-bee. These channelled poison-glands128, combined with their savage tigerlike claws, make the spiders as a group extremely formidable and dominant129 creatures, the analogues130 in their own smaller invertebrate131 world of the serpents and wolves in the vertebrate creation.
Lucy and Eliza's family relations, I am sorry to say, were not, we found, of a kind to endear them to a critical public already sufficiently scandalized by their general mode of behaviour to their inoffensive neighbours. As mothers, indeed, gossip itself had not a word of blame to whisper against them; but as wives, their conduct was distinctly open to the severest animadversion. The males of the garden spider, as in many other instances, are decidedly smaller than their big round mates; so much so is this the case, indeed, in certain species that they seem almost like parasites132 of the immensely larger sack-bodied females. Now, just as the worker bees kill off the drones as soon as the queen-bee has been duly fertilized133, regarding them as of no further importance or value to the hive, so do the lady-spiders not only kill but eat their husbands as soon as they find they have no further use for them. Nay134, if a female spider doesn't care for the looks of a suitor who is pressing himself too much upon her fond attention, her way of expressing her disapprobation of his appearance and manners is to make a murderous spring at him, and, if possible, devour6 him. Under these painful circumstances the process of courtship is necessarily to some extent a difficult and delicate one, fraught135 with no small danger to the adventurous136 swain who has the boldness to commend himself by personal approach to these very fickle137 and irascible fair ones. It was most curious and exciting, accordingly, to watch the details of the strange courtship, which we could only observe in the case of the cruel Eliza, the rather gentler Lucy having been already mated, apparently, before she took up her quarters in our climbing white rose-bush. One day, however, a timid-looking male spider, with inquiry138 and doubt in every movement of his tarsi, strolled tentatively up on the neat round web where Eliza was hanging, head downward as usual, all her feet on the thread, on the look-out for house-flies. We knew he was a male at once by his longer and thinner body, and by his natural modesty139. He walked gingerly on all eights, like an arachnid Agag, in the direction of the object of his ardent140 affections, with a most comic uncertainty141 in every step he took towards her. His claws felt the threads as he moved with anxious care; and it was clear he was ready at a moment's notice to jump away and flee for his life with headlong speed to his native obscurity if Eliza showed the slightest disposition142, by gesture or movement, to turn and rend70 him. Now and again, as he approached, Eliza, half coquettish, moved her feet a short step, and seemed to debate within her own mind in which spirit she should meet his flattering advances—whether to accept him or to eat him. At each such hesitation143, the unhappy male, fearing the worst, and sore afraid, would turn on his heel and fly for dear life as fast as eight trembling legs would carry him. Then, after a minute or two, he would evidently come to the conclusion that he had wronged his lady-love, and that her movement was one of true, true love rather than of carnivorous and cannibalistic appetite. At last, as I judged, his constancy was rewarded, though his ominous144 disappearance145 very shortly afterwards made me fear for the worst as to his final adventures.
In the end, Eliza laid a large number of eggs in a silken cocoon146, in shape a balloon, and secreted, like the web, by her invaluable147 spinnerets. Indeed, the real reason—I won't say excuse—for the rapacity148 and Gargantuan149 appetite of the spider lies, no doubt, in the immense amount of material she has to supply for her daily-renewed webs, her home, and her cocoon, all which have actually to be spun out of the assimilated food-stuffs in her own body; to say nothing of the additional necessity imposed upon her by nature for laying a trifle of six or seven hundred eggs in a single summer. And, to tell the truth, Lucy and Eliza seemed to us to be always eating. No matter at what hour one looked in upon them, they were pretty constantly engaged in devouring some inoffensive fly, or weaving hateful labyrinths150 of hasty cord round some fiercely-struggling wasp or some unhappy beetle151.
We weren't fortunate enough, I regret to say, to see Eliza's eggs hatch out from the cocoon; but in other instances, especially in Southern Europe, I have noticed the little heap of well-covered ova, glued together into a mass, and attached to a branch or twig152 by stout silken cables. If you open the cocoon when the young spiders are just hatched, they begin to run about in the most lively fashion, and look like a living and moving congeries of little balls or seedlets. The common garden spider lays some seven hundred or more such eggs at a sitting, and out of those seven hundred only two on an average reach maturity153 and once more propagate their kind. For if only four lived and throve, then clearly, in the next generation, there would be twice as many spiders as in this; and in the generation after that again, four times as many; and then eight times; and so on ad infinitum, until the whole world was just one living and seething154 mass of common garden spiders.
What keeps them down, then, in the end to their average number? What prevents the development of the whole seven hundred? The simple answer is, continuous starvation. As usual, nature works with cruel lavishness155. There are just as many spiders at any given minute as there are insects enough in the world or in their area to feed upon. Every spider lays hundreds of eggs, so as to make up for the average infant mortality by starvation, or by the attacks of ichneumon flies, or by being eaten themselves in the young stage, or by other casualties. And so with all other species. Each produces as many young on the average as will allow for the ordinary infant mortality of their kind, and leave enough over just to replace the parents in the next generation. And that's one of the reasons why it's no use punishing Lucy and Eliza for their misdeeds in this world. Kill them off if you will, and before next week a dozen more like them will dispute with one another the vacant place you have thus created in the balanced economy of that microcosm the garden.
Our observations upon Lucy and Eliza, however, had the effect of making us take an increased interest thenceforth in spiders in general, which till that time we had treated with scant156 courtesy, and set us about learning something as to the extraordinary variety of life and habit to be found within the range of this single group of arthropods, at first sight so extremely alike in their shapes, their appearance, their morals, and their manners. It's perfectly astonishing, though, when one comes to look into it in detail, how exceedingly diverse spiders are in their mode of life, their structure, and the variety of uses to which they put their one extremely distinctive157 structural158 organ, the spinnerets. I will only say here that some spiders use these peculiar glands to form light webs by whose aid, though wingless, they float balloon-wise through the air; that others employ them to line the sides of their underground tunnels, and to make the basis of their marvellously ingenious earthen trap-doors; that yet others have learnt how to adapt these same organs to a subaquatic existence, and to fill cocoons159 with air, like miniature diving bells; while others, again, have taught themselves to construct webs thick enough to catch and hold even creatures so superior to themselves in the scale of being as humming-birds and sunbirds. This extraordinary variety in the utilization160 of a single organ teaches once more the same lesson which is impressed upon us elsewhere by so many other forms of organic evolution: whatever enables an animal or plant to gain an advantage over others in the struggle for life, no matter in what way, is sure to survive, and to be turned in time to every conceivable use of which its structure is capable, in the infinite whirligig of ever-varying nature.
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1
akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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pane
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| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
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diligent
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| adj.勤勉的，勤奋的 | |
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devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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prohibition
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| n.禁止；禁令，禁律 | |
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migration
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| n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙 | |
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Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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prettily
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| adv.优美地；可爱地 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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atrocity
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| n.残暴，暴行 | |
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interceded
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| v.斡旋，调解( intercede的过去式和过去分词 )；说情 | |
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devastating
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| adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的 | |
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justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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avenging
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| adj.报仇的，复仇的v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的现在分词 )；为…报复 | |
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swoop
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| n.俯冲，攫取；v.抓取，突然袭击 | |
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constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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arachnid
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| n.蛛形纲动物 | |
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slay
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| v.杀死，宰杀，杀戮 | |
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relentless
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| adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的 | |
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gore
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| n.凝血，血污；v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破；缝以补裆；顶 | |
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redeeming
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| 补偿的，弥补的 | |
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massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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judicial
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| adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的 | |
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scruples
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| n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 )；顾虑，顾忌v.感到于心不安，有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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32
sentient
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| adj.有知觉的，知悉的；adv.有感觉能力地 | |
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33
devours
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| 吞没( devour的第三人称单数 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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34
plausibly
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| 似真地 | |
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35
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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36
impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37
maternal
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| adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的 | |
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38
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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39
condemn
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| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
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40
amphibian
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| n.两栖动物；水陆两用飞机和车辆 | |
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41
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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42
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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43
feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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44
ethical
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| adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的 | |
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45
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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46
sapient
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| adj.有见识的，有智慧的 | |
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47
overflowing
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| n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式 | |
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48
livelihood
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| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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49
impersonal
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| adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的 | |
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50
vacancies
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| n.空房间( vacancy的名词复数 )；空虚；空白；空缺 | |
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51
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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52
translucent
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| adj.半透明的；透明的 | |
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53
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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54
joints
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| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
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55
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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56
frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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57
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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58
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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59
spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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60
snare
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| n.陷阱，诱惑，圈套；（去除息肉或者肿瘤的）勒除器；响弦，小军鼓；vt.以陷阱捕获，诱惑 | |
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61
snares
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| n.陷阱( snare的名词复数 )；圈套；诱人遭受失败（丢脸、损失等）的东西；诱惑物v.用罗网捕捉，诱陷，陷害( snare的第三人称单数 ) | |
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62
treacherous
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|
| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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64
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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65
poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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66
entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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67
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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68
darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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69
quarry
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| n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找 | |
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70
rend
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| vt.把…撕开，割裂；把…揪下来，强行夺取 | |
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71
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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72
wasp
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| n.黄蜂，蚂蜂 | |
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73
wasps
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| 黄蜂( wasp的名词复数 )； 胡蜂； 易动怒的人； 刻毒的人 | |
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74
spokes
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| n.（车轮的）辐条( spoke的名词复数 )；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 | |
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75
loom
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| n.织布机，织机；v.隐现，(危险、忧虑等)迫近 | |
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76
industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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77
bind
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| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
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78
exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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79
exuded
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| v.缓慢流出，渗出，分泌出( exude的过去式和过去分词 )；流露出对（某物）的神态或感情 | |
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80
systematically
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|
| adv.有系统地 | |
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81
solitary
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|
| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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82
secreted
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| v.（尤指动物或植物器官）分泌( secrete的过去式和过去分词 )；隐匿，隐藏 | |
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83
treacle
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| n.糖蜜 | |
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84
perfectly
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|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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85
regularity
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|
| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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86
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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87
deigning
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| v.屈尊，俯就( deign的现在分词 ) | |
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88
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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89
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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90
meshes
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| 网孔( mesh的名词复数 )； 网状物； 陷阱； 困境 | |
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91
derives
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| v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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92
relatively
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|
| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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93
circumference
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| n.圆周，周长，圆周线 | |
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94
ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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95
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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96
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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97
slough
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| v.蜕皮，脱落，抛弃 | |
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98
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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99
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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100
toils
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| 网 | |
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101
tattered
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| adj.破旧的，衣衫破的 | |
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102
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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103
unduly
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| adv.过度地，不适当地 | |
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104
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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105
devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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106
protruded
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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107
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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108
defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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109
writhing
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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110
inhuman
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| adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的 | |
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111
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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112
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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113
duel
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| n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争 | |
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114
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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115
iniquities
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| n.邪恶( iniquity的名词复数 )；极不公正 | |
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116
respite
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| n.休息，中止，暂缓 | |
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117
reprieve
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| n.暂缓执行（死刑）；v.缓期执行；给…带来缓解 | |
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118
cower
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| v.畏缩，退缩，抖缩 | |
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119
bourgeois
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| adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子 | |
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120
poetical
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| adj.似诗人的；诗一般的；韵文的；富有诗意的 | |
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121
bower
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| n.凉亭，树荫下凉快之处；闺房；v.荫蔽 | |
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122
futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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123
alacrity
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| n.敏捷，轻快，乐意 | |
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124
hummingbird
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| n.蜂鸟 | |
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125
premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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126
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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127
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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128
glands
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| n.腺( gland的名词复数 ) | |
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129
dominant
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| adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因 | |
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130
analogues
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| 相似物( analogue的名词复数 )； 类似物； 类比； 同源词 | |
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131
invertebrate
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| n.无脊椎动物 | |
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132
parasites
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| 寄生物( parasite的名词复数 )； 靠他人为生的人； 诸虫 | |
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133
Fertilized
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| v.施肥( fertilize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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134
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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135
fraught
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| adj.充满…的，伴有(危险等)的；忧虑的 | |
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136
adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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137
fickle
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| adj.(爱情或友谊上)易变的，不坚定的 | |
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138
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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139
modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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140
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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141
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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142
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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143
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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144
ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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145
disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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146
cocoon
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| n.茧 | |
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147
invaluable
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| adj.无价的，非常宝贵的，极为贵重的 | |
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148
rapacity
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| n.贪婪，贪心，劫掠的欲望 | |
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149
gargantuan
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| adj.巨大的，庞大的 | |
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150
labyrinths
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| 迷宫( labyrinth的名词复数 )； （文字，建筑）错综复杂的 | |
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151
beetle
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| n.甲虫，近视眼的人 | |
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152
twig
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| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
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153
maturity
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| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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154
seething
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| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
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155
lavishness
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| n.浪费，过度 | |
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156
scant
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| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
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157
distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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158
structural
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| adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的 | |
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159
cocoons
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| n.茧，蚕茧( cocoon的名词复数 )v.茧，蚕茧( cocoon的第三人称单数 ) | |
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160
utilization
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| n.利用，效用 | |
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