One day Uncle Paul gave his nephews this pleasure: he spread before them the riches of his drawer. Jules and Claire looked at them with amazement9; Emile was never tired of putting the large shells to his ear and listening to the continual hoo-hoo-hoo that escapes from their depths and seems to repeat the murmur10 of the sea.
Cassis
“This one with the red and lace-like opening comes from India. It is called a helmet. Some are so large that two of them would be as much as Emile could carry. In some islands they are so abundant that they are used instead of stones and are burnt in kilns11 to make lime.”
“I would not burn them for lime,” said Jules, “if I found such beautiful shells. See how red the opening is, how beautifully the edges are pleated.”
“And then what a loud murmur it makes,” added Emile. “Is it true, Uncle, that it is the noise of the sea echoed by the shell?”
Spiny12 Mollusk13
“I do not deny that it resembles a little the murmur of waves heard at a distance; but you must not think that the shell keeps in its folds an echo of the noise of the waves. It is simply the effect of the air going and coming through the tortuous14 cavity.
“This other belongs to France. It is common on the shores of the Mediterranean15 and belongs to the genus cassis.”
“It goes hoo-hoo, like the helmet,” Emile remarked.
“All those that are rather large and have a spiral cavity do the same.
“Here is another which, like the preceding, is found in the Mediterranean. It is the spiny mollusk. The creature that inhabits it produces a violet glair, from which the ancients derived16, for their costly17 stuffs, a magnificent color called purple.”
Paludinid?
“How are shells made?” asked Claire.
“Shells are the dwellings18 of creatures called mollusks, the same as the spiral snail20’s shell is the house of the horny little animal that eats your young flowering plants.”
“Then the snail’s house is a shell, the same as the beautiful ones you have shown us,” Jules observed.
“Yes, my child. It is in the sea that we find, in greatest number, the largest and most beautiful shells. They are called sea-shells. To these belong the helmet-shell, cassidula, and spiny mollusk. But fresh waters, that is to say streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, have them too. The smallest ditch in our country has shells of good shape but somber21, earthy in color. They are called fresh-water shells.”
“I have seen some in the water resembling large, pointed22, spiral snails23,” said Jules. “They have a sort of cap to close the opening.”
“They are Paludinid?.”
“I remember another ditch shell,” said Claire. “It is round, flat, and as large as a ten or even twenty-sou piece.”
Planorbin?
“That is one of the Planorbin?. Finally, there are shells that are always found on land and for that reason are called land-shells. Such is the spiral snail.”
“I have seen very pretty snails,” Jules remarked, “almost as pretty as the shells in this drawer. In the woods you see yellow ones with several black bands wound round them in regular order.”
“The creature we call the spiral snail—isn’t it a slug that finds an empty shell and lives in it?” asked Emile.
“No, my friend; a slug remains24 always a slug without becoming a snail; that is to say, it never has a shell. The snail, on the contrary, is born with a tiny shell that grows little by little as the snail grows. The empty shells you find in the country have had their inhabitants, which are now dead and turned to dust, only their houses remaining.”
“A slug and a snail without its shell are very much alike.”
“Both are mollusks. There are mollusks that do not make shells, the slug for example; others that do make them, such as the snails, the Paludinid?, and the cassidid?.”
“And of what does the snail make its house?”
“Of its own substance, my little friend; it sweats the materials for its house.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Don’t you make your teeth, so white, shiny, and all in a row? From time to time a new one pushes through, without your giving it any thought. It does it by itself. These beautiful teeth are of very hard stone. Where does that stone come from? From your own substance, it is clear. Our gums sweat stone which fashions itself into teeth. So the snail’s house is built. The little creature sweats the stone that shapes itself into a graceful25 shell.”
“But to arrange stones one on another and make houses of them you need masons. The snail’s house is made without masons.”
“When I say it is done by itself, I do not mean that the stone has the faculty26 of making itself into a shell. You never see rubble27 piling itself unaided into a wall. God, the Father of all things, willed that the stone should arrange itself in a mother-of-pearl palace to serve as a dwelling19 for the poor animal, brother to the slug, and it is accomplished28 according to His will. In like manner He told the stone to grow up into beautiful teeth from the depths of the rosy29 gums of little boys and girls, and it is done as He willed.”
“I begin to feel rather friendly toward the snail, the voracious30 animal that eats our flowers,” said Jules.
“I do not care to make you friendly with it. Let us make war on it since it ravages31 our gardens; it is our right; but do not let us disdain32 to learn from it, for it has many beautiful things to teach us. To-day I will tell you of its eyes and nose.”
点击收听单词发音
1 ornamented | |
adj.花式字体的v.装饰,点缀,美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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2 ribs | |
n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 );(船或屋顶等的)肋拱;肋骨状的东西;(织物的)凸条花纹 | |
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3 knotty | |
adj.有结的,多节的,多瘤的,棘手的 | |
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4 creases | |
(使…)起折痕,弄皱( crease的第三人称单数 ); (皮肤)皱起,使起皱纹 | |
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5 slates | |
(旧时学生用以写字的)石板( slate的名词复数 ); 板岩; 石板瓦; 石板色 | |
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6 bristled | |
adj. 直立的,多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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7 spines | |
n.脊柱( spine的名词复数 );脊椎;(动植物的)刺;书脊 | |
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8 spotted | |
adj.有斑点的,斑纹的,弄污了的 | |
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9 amazement | |
n.惊奇,惊讶 | |
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10 murmur | |
n.低语,低声的怨言;v.低语,低声而言 | |
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11 kilns | |
n.窑( kiln的名词复数 );烧窑工人 | |
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12 spiny | |
adj.多刺的,刺状的;n.多刺的东西 | |
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13 mollusk | |
n.软体动物 | |
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14 tortuous | |
adj.弯弯曲曲的,蜿蜒的 | |
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15 Mediterranean | |
adj.地中海的;地中海沿岸的 | |
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16 derived | |
vi.起源;由来;衍生;导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
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17 costly | |
adj.昂贵的,价值高的,豪华的 | |
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18 dwellings | |
n.住处,处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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19 dwelling | |
n.住宅,住所,寓所 | |
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20 snail | |
n.蜗牛 | |
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21 somber | |
adj.昏暗的,阴天的,阴森的,忧郁的 | |
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22 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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23 snails | |
n.蜗牛;迟钝的人;蜗牛( snail的名词复数 ) | |
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24 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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25 graceful | |
adj.优美的,优雅的;得体的 | |
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26 faculty | |
n.才能;学院,系;(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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27 rubble | |
n.(一堆)碎石,瓦砾 | |
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28 accomplished | |
adj.有才艺的;有造诣的;达到了的 | |
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29 rosy | |
adj.美好的,乐观的,玫瑰色的 | |
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30 voracious | |
adj.狼吞虎咽的,贪婪的 | |
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31 ravages | |
劫掠后的残迹,破坏的结果,毁坏后的残迹 | |
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32 disdain | |
n.鄙视,轻视;v.轻视,鄙视,不屑 | |
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