Man has become master of the earth's surface. He is (1) probing into the earth's depths and into the atmosphere's upper reaches, yet it is (2) whether man, with all of his intelligence and vigor, holds his planetary seat with greater assurance than a vast of small, many-legged animals that pass their lives at their feet--the spiders.
Spider are among the (3) of science. They dwell at higher altitudes than any other (4) their size or larger. On the (5) of Mount Everest, at an altitude of twenty-two thousand feet-five thousand feet above the vegetation line--lives a species of black spider only a quarter of an inch long. This is an (6) environment for creatures so delicately constructed. To (7) themselves from the chill of night, they take (8) in crevices(缝隙) where the twenty-four-hour variation in temperature is only twelve degrees, as against forty-four on the outside.
Spiders (9) other unlikely places--rabbit burrows(洞穴),flowers, anthills, and the desolate, drafty aeries of eagles. They have been found soaring through the air five miles above the earth. One species has been (10) in an American cavern more than two thousand feet underground.
le ered ul re t ently ntly d e s able t r it |