11.蟋蟀的住宅

Lesson Eleven

Cricket’s Residence

1.Crickets living on grass are almost as famous as cicadas.

2.It is famous not only for its singing, but also for its residence.

3.Most other insects hide in temporary shelters.

4.For cricket, it neither takes any effort to get nor is a pity to abandon the shelters.

5.Cricket, unlike them, refuses to be resigned to the situation.

6.It often chooses its residence carefully, and the place it chose must have good drainage and mild sunshine.

7.It does not use existing caves.

8.And the comfortable residence is excavated by itself, from the hall to the bedroom.

9.How can crickets have the talent to build houses?

10.Does it have any particularly good tools?

11.Actually no.

12.Cricket is not an expert in excavation, and its tools are so weak that people are surprised by its labor achievements.

13.When I was a child, I went to the grass to catch crickets, kept them in cages and fed them with vegetable leaves.

14.Now, in order to study crickets, I search their nests again.

15.On the bank facing the sun, there is a sloping tunnel hidden in the green grass.Even if there is a heavy shower, it will dry up immediately.

16.The tunnel winds along the terrain, with a maximum depth of nine inches and a finger width.This is the residence of crickets.

17.There is always a clump of grass at the exit, just like a door.

18.Crickets come out to eat the tender grass around them and never touch this clump of grass.

19.The slightly inclined door is carefully raked and cleaned up smoothly.

20.This is the platform for crickets.

21.When the surroundings are quiet, crickets play the piano on this platform.

22.The interior of the house is not decorated, but the walls are smooth.

23.The master has plenty of time to repair the rough places.

24.Generally speaking, the residence is simple, clean, dry and sanitary.

25.If the tools used by crickets to dig are as simple as we thought, this house can really be regarded as a great project.

26.Most crickets build their houses in October, when it is cold in early autumn.

27.It raked the soil with its front feet and removed large clods with pliers.

28.It stepped on the ground with strong hind feet.

29.There are two rows of saws on the hind legs, which were used to push the soil to the back and spread it obliquely.

30.The work was done quickly.

31.The cricket worked under the soil.If it felt tired, it would take a rest at the unfinished door, with its head facing outside and its tentacles swinging slightly.

32.After a while, it went back to work.

33.I’ve been watching it for two hours, and I got impatient.

34.An important part of the house was almost finished.

35.The hole has been dug two inches deep, which is spacious enough.

36.The rest is a long-term renovation, which can be done a little in the following days.

37.This hole can be deepened and widened as the weather gets colder and its body grows.

38.Even in winter, as long as the weather is mild and the sun shines on the door of its house, crickets can be seen throwing mud from it.