第59课 美丽的蝴蝶

　　What a lovely creature a butterfly is! Look at the butterflies in the picture, flying about among the blossoms. They are getting good food from the flowers, but they are doing no harm to them; they are only sucking the sweet juices with their long tongues.

　　蝴蝶是一种多么美丽的生物啊！看看这幅画里的蝴蝶，在花丛中翩翩飞舞。蝴蝶的食物是从花里得到的，但蝴蝶并没有伤害花儿，只是用长长的舌头吸取甜甜的汁液。

　　It seems a pity that any one should try to catch butterflies. Run after them if you like, and watch them as they fly; but do not try to kill or to catch them.

　　有人想要抓蝴蝶，是一件很让人难过的事！小朋友可以追着蝴蝶跑，看着蝴蝶飞，但千万不要试图弄死蝴蝶，或者抓住蝴蝶。

　　We cannot even take a butterfly in our hands without doing it harm. Its wings are covered with thousands of tiny scales, and these are rubbed off by the least touch.

　　连把蝴蝶拿在手里，都一定会让它受伤。蝴蝶翅膀上覆盖着成千上万片细小的鳞片，最轻微的触碰，也能把这些鳞片蹭掉。

　　Where do the butterflies come from? If you look at the under sides of cabbage leaves in spring, you may find some tiny white specks on them. These are the eggs laid by a butterfly.

　　蝴蝶是怎么来的？在春天，看看卷心菜的叶子底下，可能会找到一些白色的小块，这就是蝴蝶产的卵。

　　After a few weeks, a little caterpillar crawls out of each egg. These caterpillars feed on the cabbage leaves. You can see many holes in the leaves, made by their tiny teeth.

　　几个星期过后，每颗卵里都会钻出小小的幼虫。这些幼虫就以卷心菜的叶子为食。你可以在叶子上见到很多小洞，就是这些幼虫用小牙咬出来的。

　　At last each caterpillar changes into a chrysalis; and a few weeks later the hard brown covering of the chrysalis splits open, and out of it crawls a butterfly.

　　最后，每只幼虫都会化蛹，再过几个星期，蛹外面的棕色硬壳就会破开，爬出一只蝴蝶！

　　The cabbage butterfly is white; but the "brimstone butterfly, " which we see in early spring, is yellow. In summer we also see pretty little blue butterflies, and large ones with blue spots, called "peacock butterflies, " and many other kinds.

　　“菜粉蝶”也叫“纹白蝶”，是白色的，但是早春时节，我们看到的“钩粉蝶”是黄色的。夏天，我们还能看到漂亮的小“灰蝶”，带着蓝色斑点的大蝴蝶“孔雀蛱蝶”，还有很多其他的种类。