7. BABY FLIES.

 1. "Could you not tell me now?" said Rose, for she wanted to hear about the little flies. And I too felt very glad to hear more about my childhood. So I sat still to listen.[Pg 88]

 

2. "Perhaps you think that the child of a fly looks just like itself; only smaller," said Mrs. Sutton. "But the house-fly lays a great many little eggs.

 

3. "She finds some old dirty rubbish, like rotten¹ cabbage or stuff² that is left by careless cooks lying about. In this she puts her eggs, and then she dies. Little grubs are born from them.

 

4. "They begin to eat as soon as they are born, and very soon they turn into flies, after going to sleep for a while first in a kind of little hard skin or shell³. They change into flies while they are inside this shell."

 

5. "What do the flies do when they cannot find any dirty rubbish?" said Rose.

 

"Then they go to look for it in other places," said her granny. "So you see, if we do not wish to have flies in our houses we must have no rubbish."

 

6. "Then the flies are little servants to us, granny?"

 

"Yes, to be sure."

 

"I wish I could see a baby-fly," said Rose.

 

7. "You would not think it at all pretty,"[Pg 89] said Mrs. Sutton. "It is a whitish maggot. But some ugly looking things are very useful to us."

 

"I like pretty things best," said Rose.

 

8. "Well, the fly is pretty enough when he is grown up. He has to wait, you see." I was pleased to hear the kind old lady say this, and I nodded my head and washed my face with my feet.

 

9. "And so it is your birthday on Monday, Rose," went on her granny. "And I suppose it is time to be thinking about the party and the fun we are to have?"

 

10. Rose looked up, beaming⁴ with delight⁵ at these words. Though she had not been born as a grub in a sink, I thought that she looked pretty too.

 

11. "We must get Miss Bush⁶ to write the letters for us, Rose, and ask the little girls, and boys to come and spend the day with you. Run now and see if she will be so good as to do it now."

 

"Oh, very well," said Rose. And she went out with a skip.

 

Write: A house-fly is born in the sink.[Pg 90] The egg from which it comes is laid in dirt and rubbish. The grub which creeps⁷ out eats up the dirty stuff.

 

Questions: 1. Where does the house-fly lay its eggs? 2. What are the young flies like at first? 3. What do they do as soon as they are born? 4. What do they eat? 6. If we do not wish to have many flies, what must we do? 6. What treat was Rose going to have?

1 rotten   

adj.腐烂(朽)的；令人不愉快的；糟糕的

参考例句：

• The book was pretty rotten.这本书糟透了。
• Rotten eggs give off a bad smell.臭蛋散发出难闻的气味。

2 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。

3 shell   

n.贝壳，壳，外形；v.去壳，脱落；n.[计算机] DOS命令:安装备用的COMMAND.COM文件，并改变环境尺寸

参考例句：

• Please shell some peanuts for the cake.请为做点心剥点胡花生。
• This kind of beetles have hard shell.这类甲虫有坚硬的外壳。

4 beaming   

adj.照耀的；光亮的；喜气洋洋的；愉快的v.发出光与热( beam的现在分词 )；面露喜色；播送；1 笑容满面，眉开眼笑 2 发射电波，播送 3 放出束状的光（或热）

参考例句：

• When the touring theatrical troupe arrived at the mountain village, the villagers all ran to tell one and another beaming with delight. 巡回剧团来到山村， 人们笑逐颜开，奔走相告。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Drouet shook hands, beaming good nature, and they strolled towards the bar. 杜洛埃和他握手，露出宽厚和气的笑容。他们一起朝卖酒的柜台踱去。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

5 delight   

n.高兴，愉快；vt.给（某人）乐趣；使愉快；vi.喜爱

参考例句：

• Your new book is a real delight!你的新书真讨人喜欢！
• He takes delight in annoying me.他以惹我生气为乐。

6 bush   

n.灌木，灌木丛，矮树

参考例句：

• This bush has grown up a lot in the last few months.这矮树丛几个月来已向上长高了很多。
• A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.一鸟在手，胜于二鸟在林。

7 creeps   

n.毛骨悚然的感觉，战栗v.蹑手蹑足地走( creep的第三人称单数 )；缓慢地行进；爬行；匍匐

参考例句：

• Old age creeps upon one unawares. 不知不觉老年就来临了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The rabbit creeps away and hides in a hole. 兔子悄悄溜走，藏进洞里。 来自辞典例句