最新英语100个经典故事Word格式文档下载.docx

1、migrations of people who lived long ago, but none could write down what theydid. Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesianpeoples now living in the Pacific Islands came from. The sagas of these peopleexplain that some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago.But

2、the first people who were like ourselves lived so long ago that even theirsagas, if they had any, are forgotten. So archaeologists have neither history norlegends to help them to find out where the first modern men came from.Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especially flint, be

3、-cause this is easier to shape than other kinds. They may also have used woodand skins, but these have rotted away. Stone does not decay, and so the tools oflong ago have remained when even the bones of the men who made them have disappeared without trace.2Why, you may wonder, should spiders be our

4、friends ? Because they destroy somany insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the humanrace. Insects would make it impossible for us to live in the world; they woulddevour all our crops and kill our flocks and herds, if it were not for the protectionwe get from insect-eating ani

5、mals. We owe a lot to the birds and beasts who eatinsects but all of them put together kill only a fraction of the number destroyedby spiders. Moreover, unlike some of the other insect eaters, spiders never dothe least harm to us or our belongings.Spiders are not insects, as many people think, nor e

6、ven nearly related to them.One can tell the difference almost at a glance for a spider always has eight legsand an insect never more than six.How many spiders are engaged in this work on our behalf ? One authority onspiders made a census of the spiders in a grass field in the south of England, andhe

7、 estimated that there were more than 2,250,000 in one acre, that is somethinglike 6,000,000 spiders of different kinds on a football pitch. Spiders are busy forat least half the year in killing insects. It is impossible to make more than thewildest guess at how many they kill, but they are hungry cr

8、eatures, not contentwith only three meals a day. It has been estimated that the weight of all the in-sects destroyed by spiders in Britain in one year would be greater than the totalweight of all the human beings in the country.T. H. GILLESPIE Spare that Spider from The Listener3Modern alpinists try

9、 to climb mountains by a route which will give them goodsport, and the more difficult it is, the more highly it is regarded. In the pioneeringdays, however, this was not the case at all. The early climbers were looking forthe easiest way to the top because the summit was the prize they sought, espec

10、i-ally if it had never been attained before. It is true that during their explorationsthey often faced difficulties and dangers of the most perilous nature, equippedin a manner which would make a modern climber shudder at the thought, butthey did not go out of their way to court such excitement. The

11、y had a single aim,a solitary goal-the top!It is hard for us to realize nowadays how difficult it was for the pioneers. Ex-cept for one or two places such as Zermatt and Chamonix, which had rapidlybecome popular, Alpine villages tended to be impoverished settlements cut offfrom civilization by the h

12、igh mountains. Such inns as there were were generallydirty and flea-ridden; the food simply local cheese accompanied by bread oftentwelve months old, all washed down with coarse wine. Often a valley boasted noinn at all, and climbers found shelter wherever they could-sometimes with thelocal priest （

13、who was usually as poor as his parishioners）, sometimes with shep-herds or cheesemakers. Invariably the background was the same: dirt andpoverty, and very uncomfortable. For men accustomed to eating seven-coursedinners and sleeping between fine linen sheets at home, the change to the Alpsmust have b

14、een very hard indeed. 4In the Soviet Union several cases have been reported recently of people whocan read and detect colours with their fingers, and even see through solid doorsand walls. One case concerns an eleven-year-old schoolgirl, Vera Petrova, whohas normal vision but who can also perceive things with different parts of herskin, and through solid walls. This ability was first noticed by her father. Oneday she came into his office and happened to put her hands on the door of alocked safe. Suddenly she asked her father why he kept so many old