Why, you may wonder, should spiders be our friends?
你可能会问，为什么蜘蛛应该是我们的朋友呢？
Because they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race.
因为它们能消灭许多昆虫，而昆虫中就有一些是人类最大的敌人。
Insects would make it impossible for us to live in the world; they would devour all our crops and kill our flocks and herds, if it were not for the protection we get from insect-eating animals.
We owe a lot to the birds and beasts who eat insects but all of them put together kill only a fraction of the number destroyed by spiders.
我们要感谢吃昆虫的鸟类和野兽，但它们杀死的昆虫加在一起，也不过是蜘蛛消灭的数量的一小部分。
Moreover, unlike some of the other insect eaters, spiders never do the least harm to us or our belongings.
此外，与其他一些吃昆虫的动物不同，蜘蛛从来不会对我们或我们的物品造成丝毫伤害。
Spiders are not insects, as many people think, nor even nearly related to them.
蜘蛛并不像许多人认为的那样是昆虫，甚至与昆虫也没有什么关系。
One can tell the difference almost at a glance, for a spider always has eight legs and an insect never more than six.
人们几乎一眼就能看出它们的区别，因为蜘蛛总是有八条腿，而昆虫永远不会超过六条。
How many spiders are engaged in this work on our behalf?
到底有多少蜘蛛在为我们工作呢？
One authority on spiders made a census of the spiders in a grass field in the south of England, and he estimated that there were more than 2,250,000 in one acre; that is something like 6 million spiders of different kinds on a football pitch.
Spiders are busy for at least half the year in killing insects.
蜘蛛一年中至少有一半时间忙于捕杀昆虫。
It is impossible to make more than the wildest guess at how many they kill, but they are hungry creatures, not content with only three meals a day.
要想知道它们杀死了多少昆虫是不可能的，但它们是饥饿的动物，不会满足于一日三餐。
It has been estimated that the weight of all the insects destroyed by spiders in Britain in one year would be greater than the total weight of all the human beings in the country.
据估计，英国一年内被蜘蛛消灭的所有昆虫的重量，将超过该国所有人类的总重量。
T.H.GILLESPIE Spare that spider from The ListenerA spider destroys a grasshopper
