双语阅读：自然奇观 - 蜘蛛在水里抓比自己大几倍的鱼当点心
一男子发现蜘蛛在吃他养的金鱼，真恐怖啊！
翻译：涂博士
不要大惊小怪，蜘蛛一直都在吃鱼。 （你为什么还是有些惊恐？）
南非巴伯顿（Barberton）市有个导游想让约会的女友看看他养在水塘里面的金鱼，这条金鱼的名字叫克莱奥（Cleo），但令他感到大吃一惊的是，克莱奥居然不在水里，而是被一只蜘蛛的毒牙紧紧地夹着在空中挣扎。
这个导游（他的名字叫Jérémy Schalkwijk）马上意识到这是一个难得的场景，他迅速拿出相机记录下了克莱奥（Cleo）的最后时光。对于这条鱼而言，可悲的是它的被吃对于这个被称为育儿网蛛（译者注：这种蜘蛛也称盗蛛）的八足杀手来说，仅仅是每天的典型生活的一部分。这种半水栖蜘蛛纲动物可以在静水面上行走，也可以潜入水下躲避捕猎者，还可以潜下水去捉比自己身体大几倍的猎物。
捕食鱼的蜘蛛有多普遍呢？根据2014年《 PLOS ONE》期刊的一项研究，世界上109个蜘蛛家族中有8种蜘蛛可以捕食小鱼，并且在除南极洲以外的几大洲都有这种捕食鱼的蜘蛛。这些蜘蛛不是靠织网来捕获猎物，而是亲自下场在陆地和在水中寻找他们的食物。 （有趣的是，这类蜘蛛家族中的一些蜘蛛也被称为“钓鱼蜘蛛”，“码头蜘蛛”和“漂流蜘蛛”。）
这些蜘蛛的捕食方式是用后腿抓住岸边的石头或植物，把前腿伸到水里面去。水就是这些蜘蛛的蜘蛛网，它们能够感受到水里面细微的波纹变动，例如，当不幸的昆虫掉入并被水的表面张力所困时，蜘蛛能够马上发现这个困在水面的昆虫。
当有美食（不管是掉下来的虫子还是游过的小鱼）从蜘蛛的栖息处经过时，蜘蛛的前腿就会猛扑过去把猎物抓住，然后抓到口边用它的毒牙咬穿猎物，向猎物注入致命的神经毒性毒液，最后将死去的猎物拖回到干燥的土地上享用。
Schalkwijk在接受《太阳报》采访时估计，克莱奥（Cleo）的身高和体重肯定是它的八足攻击者的两倍。虽然蜘蛛的这个负重看起来似乎有些难以置信，但实际上这已经低于捕鱼蜘蛛的平均水平了。在2014年的一项研究调查了89种食鱼蜘蛛的捕食情况，发现平均下来被捕食的鱼的长度是蜘蛛的2.2倍，有些蜘蛛甚至可以捕食比自己大五倍的鱼。
虽然这非常吓人，但是比南美的亚马逊食鸟蛛还是差远了，食鸟蛛可以长到1英尺（0.3米）长。食鸟蛛吃什么呢？这个答案我们就不说了吧。
在开始阅读英文原文之前，请先复习下列核心词汇：
catch - v. 抓住，接住
spider - n. 蜘蛛
pet - n. 宠物
goldfish - n. 金鱼
panic - v. (使)惊慌，惊慌失措
date - n. 日期，约会，约见时间
hover - v. 盘旋
midair - n. 半空中
fang - n. 尖牙，毒牙
witness - v. 见证，当场看到，目击
catalog - v. 为…编目录，记载
demise -n. 死亡
assassin - n. 暗杀者，杀手
nursery - n. 苗圃，婴儿室
semiaquatic - adj. 半水栖的，半水生的
arachnid - n. 蛛形纲动物
evade - v. 躲避，逃避
predator - n. 掠夺者，捕食性动物
prey - n. 猎物，受害者
predation - n. (动物的)捕食
continent - n. 大陆，洲，陆地
Antarctica - n. 南极洲
trap - v. 卡住，套住，夹住
anchor - v. 下锚，使固定，扣牢
adjacent - adj. 旁边的
stone - n. 石头
plant - n. 植物
surface - n. 表面
tension - n. 张力
yummy - adj. 很好吃的
perch - n. 栖息处
goliath - n. （非利士勇士）歌利亚，巨人
estimate - v. 估算，估价
lethal - adj. 致命的
neurotoxic - adj. 神经毒的
venom - n. 毒液
octopedal - adj. 八足的
average - n. 平均水平，平均数
ensnare - v. 诱捕，诱入圈套
species - n. 种，物种
freaky - adj. 怪异的，反常的
birdeater - n. 食鸟者
Goliath birdeater - 亚马逊食鸟蛛
在复习了以上词汇后，请将下面的英文原文一口气读完，不要在中途停下来去查那些不认识的单词。有了上面的核心单词打底，你完全可以将整篇文章读完并且理解里面的大致意思。记住，你只要做到大致明白就可以了。
阅读能力和阅读量成正比，要提高阅读量，必须是大量的泛读，如果要对每个不懂的单词都去查字典，那么就不可能通过大量的泛读来提高你的阅读量。
这篇英语原文是《涂博士原版听读写辅导课》直播班上用来训练学员快速阅读的文章之一。能够快速阅读各个领域的原版文章并找出文中的核心内容，是真正学好英语的最最基础的技能之一，另一个最最基础的技能就是听得懂原版的广播。有了这两个最最基础的技能打底，学员就可以利用好网上大量的原版英语文章和听力资源，不出国就可以把自己沉浸在英语的环境当中。在建立起强大的语感之后，口语和写作能力都会自然成长起来。
如果你对某篇泛读文章特别喜欢，可以在泛读一遍以后再慢慢地精读。如果在精读的过程中对某些句子不是太明白需要讲解，或者你希望以后多看到哪方面的双语阅读，欢迎直接联系涂博士。
A Man Caught a Spider Eating His Pet Goldfish and, Well, It's Terrifying
By Brandon Specktor - Senior Writer January 06, 2020
Don't panic, spiders eat fish all the time. (Why are you still panicking?)
A tour guide in Barberton, South Africa, wanted to show his date his pet goldfish, Cleo, which he kept in the pond by his house. To the man's surprise, Cleo wasn't in the pond when he got there; she was hovering in midair, caught in a spider's fangs.
The tour guide (a man named Jérémy Schalkwijk) knew he was witnessing something remarkable when he pulled out his camera and began cataloging Cleo's final moments. Sadly for the fish, her demise was just part of a typical day for the eight-legged assassins known as nursery web spiders — a family of semiaquatic arachnids than can walk on still water, dive beneath the surface to evade predators and even "fish" for prey many times their own size.
How common is spider-on-fish predation? According to a 2014 study in the journal PLOS ONE, spiders in eight of the world's 109 arachnid families can catch and eat small fish, and do so on every continent but Antarctica. Rather than building webs to catch prey, these arachnids hunt for their meals in person, on land and in the water. (Tellingly, some spiders within this family are also known as "fishing spiders," "dock spiders" and "raft spiders.")
They do this by lowering their front legs down to rest on the water's surface while anchoring their hind legs to an adjacent stone or plant. The water acts like a web, with the spider able to detect minute ripples created, for example, when an unlucky insect falls in and gets trapped by the water's surface tension.
When something yummy passes by the spider's perch — be it a fallen bug or passing fish — the spider lashes out with its front legs and brings the prey to its jaws. The spider bites down with flesh-piercing fangs, injects its prey with a lethal, neurotoxic venom, then finally hauls its dead quarry back to dry land.
In an interview with The Sun, Schalkwijk estimated that Cleo must've been double the length and weight of her octopedal attacker. While this may seem like an incredible load to bear, it's actually below average for fishing spiders. In the 2014 study, which surveyed 89 incidences of spider-on-fish predation, the ensnared fish was about 2.2 times as long as the spider on average, with some spider species ensnaring fish five times their size.
That's pretty freaky — but not nearly as freaky as the Goliath "birdeater" spiders of South America, which can grow to up to 1 foot (0.3 meters) long. What do Goliath birdeaters eat? We'll let you figure that out for yourself.
