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据生物学家计算，全世界的蜘蛛每年捕食重达 4 至 8 亿公吨（ 4 至 8 千亿公斤）的昆虫。科学家们希望通过这项研究使人们更加重视蜘蛛的生态学意义。他们说，这种蛛形纲动物每年捕食的总重约是人类每年消耗的肉和鱼类食物的重量之和。请听 Victoria Gill 的报道。
The Swiss scientist who led this study was inspired by a 1958 book, The World of Spiders, in which a British arachnologist speculated that the weight of insects killed every year by the British spider population would exceed the combined weight of the British human population.
Since he first considered that, Dr Martin Nyffeler has spent hundreds of hours recording spider behaviour in the field and gathering spider ecology studies published around the world. His numbers are enough to haunt any arachnophobe. The researchers say the entire population of the world’s spiders, weighing 25 million tonnes, hunts and eats between 400 and 800 million tonnes of insect prey annually.
But these numbers are not meant to terrify anyone. The scientists hope their study will raise awareness of the importance of spiders in the global food web.
词汇表
arachnologist 蜘蛛学家
speculated 推测了，推断了
the field （自然环境中的）实地，现场
ecology 生态学
haunt 使不安，使苦恼
weighing 有……的重量，重为……
prey 猎物
raise awareness of 提高……意识
food web 食物网，食物链
测验
请听报道并回答下列问题。
1. What is the name of the book that inspired the Swiss scientist who led this study?
2. What has Dr Martin Nyffeler spent hundreds of hours doing for the research?
3. True or false? The scientists hope that their study will terrify people who lack awareness of the importance of spiders in the global food web.
4. Which word in the text means ‘someone who has an extreme fear of spiders'?
答案
1. What is the name of the book that inspired the Swiss scientist who led this study?
The name of the book is The World of Spiders.
2. What has Dr Martin Nyffeler spent hundreds of hours in doing for the research?
Dr Martin Nyffeler has spent hundreds of hours recording spider behaviour in the field and gathering spider ecology studies published around the world.
3. True or false? The scientists hope that their study will terrify people who lack awareness of the importance of spiders in the global food web.
False. The numbers in their research are not meant to terrify anyone.
4. Which word in the text means ‘someone who has an extreme fear of spiders'?
Arachnophobe.
