The spider (蜘蛛) is very little and clever. Its body is made up of two parts. It has four pairs of legs and eight little eyes.

The spider loves work. It begins to work as soon as it begins to live. Every spider is a weaver. Even the youngest spider knows how to weave (編織) its web (網(wǎng)) just as well as the oldest.

The silk of which it makes its web comes from its body. It is like hairs. Many of these hairs come out at the same time, but they are all formed into one rope of silk. It is so thin that a hundred of them together are only as thick as a human hair.

First the spider fasten (固定) one end of the silk thread (絲線) to a leaf or to a piece of wood, then it turns and fastens it to the other end.

When the spider fastens both ends, it can run down the silk and fix some more threads. These are the cross ropes of the web. Then it weaves other lines round them, and makes about twenty rings.

Then spider works hard and fast, and it finishes its work in less than an hour. The web is then so strong that the wind cannot blow it away and the rain cannot break it. The purpose (目的) of the spider’s web is to catch insects (昆蟲), which are its food.

Insects cannot walk or fly out of the web, because the spider covers it all with something like glue (膠水), which sticks to (粘) anything that touches the web and holds it fast (牢固).

Not all the spiders are the same sort of work to do.

Some spiders are masons(泥瓦匠). They build houses the size of a big thimble (頂針). They make doors in them, which they shut after them when they go in. They can even fasten the door of the house from the inside, so that no robber can get in.

The garden spider lets thread float in the air till they stick to plants or to the branches of trees. It then uses these threads as the roads or bridges to cross from one place to another. 

1. What is the spider’s silk like?

A. It’s very thin. One hundred of them are as thin as a human hair.

B. It’s very strong. It is made of human’s hair.

C. It’s really like human hair and it’s as thin as human’s hair.

D. It’s no color and it is a strong line just like human’s hair.

2. While the spider makes its web,         .

A. first it makes a leaf or a piece of wood

B. first it fixes one end of the silk thread firmly to a leaf or a piece of wood

C. first it fixes one end of the silk thread to its own head

D. first it fixes human’s hair to a leaf or a piece of wood. Then makes a web along the air

3. The spider makes about          rings.

A. thirty        B. a hundred        C. fifty         D. twenty

4. The spider finishes its work         .

A. more than a day                  B. in less than an hour

C. in a week                        D. in half an hour

5. Which of the following is true?

A. All the spiders are masons.

B. The garden spider lets thread float in the air to catch insects.

C. The silk of which makes its web comes from human’s hair.

D. The spider is both little and clever.