IELTS Mini-Readings, 7 of 25: We have to live with them, right?

butterflies.jpg

Insects

What is an insect? Well, the answer is that it is small, has a three-part body, three pairs of legs, and one pair of antennae (those things sticking out from their heads). They can be somewhat beautiful, like the picture above; yet insects can also be ugly and somewhat disgusting [check the previous post]. And insects are everywhere, all over the world. Some scientists guess that 90% of all the different living things on this planet are insects. The only place you cannot find insects is in the oceans.

Most insects begin from eggs, and many can fly as well as walk. They make noises, sometimes quite loudly – for example, by rubbing their wings together. And, of course, they eat. For this reason, many insects are pests. They eat important crops, such as fruit, vegetables, and grains, and can spread diseases. Mosquitoes can be very bad in this way because they bite, and in doing so, put diseases inside our bodies. Yet insects sometimes help us. They pollinate flowers (like our lovely butterflies in the picture above), and this is very important to keep plants and forests healthy. If that is hard to understand, a simpler example is bees, which give us honey.

In some parts of the world, in native cultures, people eat insects. This is very rare in the developed world, where people have better things to eat, but still, some people see many good points of insect-eating. It is cheap, it helps the environment, and it can be healthy. Also, for many poor people in the world, in can be a good source of food. The trouble is, no one would ever say that insects taste good.

Question Time

How many legs do insects have? …………………………………………………………

Where is the only place you can’t find insects? ……………………………….……..

How do some insects make noises? ………………………………………….……….

What is the most important thing insects do? ………………………………………….

What are the benefits of eating insects? ……………………………………………

Word-Learning Time

Do you know the meaning of the underlined words?

To stick out

Oceans

Pest    

Crops

To pollinate

Environment

By the way, you can find out more about me at www.aisielts.com .