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Lesson 87 The Earth-worm
第87課 蚯蚓
The earth-worm is also called the dew-worm, because it likes to come out of its hole and creep about when the grass is wet with dew. It is a very long and thin animal, being often a foot long, yet less than one-quarter of an inch in thickness.
蚯蚓又叫露水蟲, 因為當天氣潮濕、小草上掛滿露水時, 它就喜歡鉆出自己的洞穴到處爬行。這是一種身體很長卻又非常纖細的動物, 長度通常跟我們的腳長度相仿, 但寬度卻不會超過四分之一英寸。
Its body is composed of more than one hundred rings, all joined together. At first you cannot see that the worm has any head. But if you look very closely, you will see that one end of the body is more pointed than the other, and that when the worm moves, this pointed end goes first. The pointed end is its head.
蚯蚓的身體由一百多個彼此相連的環節組成。一眼看去, 蚯蚓似乎沒有腦袋。然而, 仔細觀察就會發現, 它身體的一端比另一端稍尖, 當它蠕動時這一頭首先進行移動。這就是蚯蚓的頭。
In the head there is a slit or mouth, by which the worm is able to feed on decayed plants. The earth-worm swallows a great deal of the earth or mould in which it lives, because this earth always contains some decayed leaves or roots. This vegetable matter forms the animal's food, and the useless part of the mould is carried to the top of the hole or burrow in which the worm lives.
它的頭上有一個狹縫（嘴巴）, 蚯蚓就是通過這個器官進食一些腐爛的植物。蚯蚓需要吞食大量的泥土或爛泥, 因為其中包含很多腐爛的樹葉或樹根。這些包含植被的物質構成了蚯蚓的食物, 而那些毫無用處的爛泥則被蚯蚓運到自己所棲息的洞穴頂部。
Have you ever seen the "worm-casts, " or little curly heaps of fine mould which the earth-worm leaves behind it? In swallowing the mould to feed on the vegetable matter which it contains, the little animal does a great deal of good, for it breaks up the mould so finely that it changes a hard and barren soil into a rich soil in which plants can grow well.
你有沒有看到過“蚯蚓糞便”, 也就是蚯蚓排出的卷曲狀小塊爛泥? 這種小動物吞食爛泥, 吸收其中的腐殖質, 而這種生活習慣使得植物受益匪淺, 因為經過了蚯蚓的吞食和排泄, 這些原本貧瘠的硬土變成了肥沃的泥土, 適合植物的生長。
The earth-worm has no legs; how, then, does it move? If we wash a worm in water till it is quite clean, and then look at the under side of its body, we shall see eight stiff little bristles on each of its many rings.
蚯蚓沒有腿, 是如何移動的呢? 如果你將蚯蚓放入水中徹底清洗, 然后仔細觀察它身體下方, 就會發現每個環狀結構的兩側都長有八根堅硬的剛毛。
