Chirping Crickets

Chirping Crickets

会唱歌的蟋蟀

It's late in the summer. The day is nearly over. The sun hangs low in the sky. Listen! The crickets are loudly chirping.

夏末，白天就要过去，太阳低垂在天边。听!蟋在高声鸣唱。

You can hear crickets chirping almost everywhere -in parks and woods, in fields and on lawns, along country roads, even inside your house. It is the male crickets you hear. They usually stay in one spot and call the females to them. Most of the females cannot make sounds.

几乎每个角落都能听到蟋蟀的叫声:公园里、树林中、田野上、草地间、乡村路旁,甚至你的家家中。 你听到的是公蟋蟀的叫声。它们总是待在一个地方 ,召唤母蟋蟀。大多数母蟋蟀不会叫。

A male cricket does not chirp with his voice. He makes a chirping sound with his front wings. Each wing has a sharp edge called the scraper. The wing also has a long, bumpy vein called a file. The cricket lifts up his front wings and rubs the scraper of one wing against the file of the other wing. Chirp! Back and forth he rubs his two front wings. Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Would you like to chirp like a male cricket? Get a piece of stiff paper and a nail file. Rub the file against the edge of the paper. The sound is almost the same as a cricket's chirp.

公蟋蟀的叫声不是从嘴里发出的,而是来自一对前翅。前翅上有尖尖的摩擦缘,成为刮器;还有长长凸起的翅脉，称为音锉。 蟋蟀竖起一对前翅,用一只翅膀上的刮器摩擦另一只翅膀上的音锉。“唧!它就这样用两只前翅来回摩擦，发出“唧唧唧唧”的叫声。 你想不想学公蟋蟀唧唧叫?找一个硬纸片和一把指甲锉刀,拿指甲锉刀摩擦纸片边缘你听到的声音，就和蟋蟀的唧唧声非常像。

The " ears" of a cricket are not where you'd expect them to be. They are under the knees of the cricket's front legs! Each ear is a tiny hole with a tight, tissue-thin cover. Crickets hear chirping sounds through these tiny holes. This is what happens: The chirps make the air move, or vibrate. The vibrating air forms sound waves. The sound waves spread out to all sides. When they bump into the cricket's ears, the cricket hears the sound

蟋蟀的耳朵绝对合你出乎意料,它长在前足的膝盖下面!蟋的耳朵称为听器,是一个小小的洞,上有一层紧实的薄膜保护着,蟋蟀通过这个小洞才听到声音。 一只蟋蟀摩擦翅膀,发出“唧唧”的叫声。声音振动空气,形成声波。声波向四面八方传播，传到另一只蟋蟀的听器，于是它听到了这个叫声。

A female cricket hears the male's chirps. She jumps toward the sound. Closer and closer she gets. Soon she is alongside the chirping male cricket, and they mate. Inside the female, tiny eggs start to grow. When the eggs are ready, she uses a long, pointed tube at her back end to make tiny holes in the ground. Then she lays her eggs inside the holes. The eggs look like tiny yellow bananas.

母蟋蟀听到公蟋蟀的呼唤,就朝声音的方向跳去,越跳越近。不一会儿,它就来到了公蟋蟀的身边，进行交配。 在母蟋蟀的身体里,一粒粒细卵逐渐长大。等到卵成熟了,母蟋蟀将产卵管插进土壤把卵下在土里。那些卵看起来像是一个个小小的黄香蕉。