All about Two-Legged and Six-Legged Bookworms

How do you take care of you books? Are books important? When do you say that a person is a bookworm? This selection is

about two kinds of bookworms. Find out the difference between the

two.

According to Charles Banks, there are two kinds of bookworms in the world. They are the two-legged kind and the six-legged kind.

The two-legged bookworm wears clothes, shoes, and slippers. Some may wear spectacles or eyeglasses, and they are often presumed to be intelligent or bright. The children of this kind go to school. This bookworm is not very sociable and sometimes not so fond of other people’s community or society. Folks often say that when a two-legged bookworm “sticks his or her nose into a book,” this

creature sees nothing, hears nothing, and feels nothing that is going on around him or her.

As a two-legged bookworm pointed out, “We’d rather be

called a bookworm than not be interested in reading books. After all, books are the best friends we can have. Books are ever true to us. They never betray us. They never get back at us. Books never get angry, never change, and never grow tired. Every book can teach us something that, maybe, we did not know before. So we should really be thankful if we are called bookworms, for so long as we do not neglect our regular duties or chores in order to read an interesting book.”

Let us now turn to the six-legged bookworms, we will say at once: “These must be insects of some kind because insects are the only creatures that possess six legs. “We are quite right. Why should insects like books? No other animal except man ever pays any attention to books. But these insects visit books in order to feed upon the paper and boards of which the book is made. Of course this fact makes them the enemies of all two-legged bookworms.

Nobody wishes his or her books destroyed. However, in many parts of the world, especially in warmer climates, books are likely to be attacked by these insects. They are attacked in public libraries, in

bookstores, and in private houses. Books are attacked when they are placed in book cases without glass doors.

Most of the bookworms enter the book at the top and at the bottom of its back cover. The mothers of bookworms are tiny beetles. They lay their eggs on these parts of the book. When an egg hatches into a young worm, it begins at once to dig or burrow into the boards of the cover or into the paper of the pages themselves.

The tiny male bookworm starts his tunnel very small. Then as he feeds ad grows and grows and feeds, his tunnel gets larger and larger. He fills his tunnel with his frass to keep out his enemies. When he has grown to full size, he makes a little cocoon in the tunnel. Later, this cocoon turns into a pupa and afterwards a beetle. This beetle must then gnaw his way out and seek a mate.

In order to destroy bookworms in our libraries, whether public or private, many schemes or plans have been made. One of them is the use of poisons which are harmful to the readers. These chemicals contain substances that destroy the book. Therefore, these should not be used, especially by young persons.

Any boy or girl who has books that he or she may prize, even old school books, should keep them free from dust and free from bookworms. This can be done by cleaning all the books at least once a month or more often if possible. Constant or frequent handling of books, even merely opening and closing them, usually keeps them quite free from bookworms.

We shall not mention the damage done to library books by the white ants or termites. This is a much larger and more serious problem and its effects are very much evident.

Our books may be cheap or expensive when we first bought them. If they are written by the best writers of the world, they grow more precious to us and more expensive as the years go by. They, thus, become our most treasured wealth or riches. We should, therefore, keep out the six-legged bookworms and allow only the careful two-legged bookworms to use them.

– Adapted from Bookworms by Charles Banks, Enriching Reading Skills 5

Vocabulary Wordsspectacles – eyeglasses, esp. with pieces passing over or around

the ears for holding them in place sociable – inclined to associate with or be in the company of others cheap – relatively low in cost; inexpensive betray – to be false or disloyal burrow – to dig a hole or tunnel for habitation or refuge frass – fine powdery refuse or fragile perforated wood produced

by the activity of boring insects

Questions:

1. What are the two kinds of bookworms mentioned in the selection?

2. Compare the two kinds of bookworms discussed in the selection.3. What does the expression, “sticks his or her nose into a book,”

mean?4. Why does the writer say books are the best friends we can have?5. Describe how six-legged bookworms “attack” books.6. How can these six-legged bookworms in the libraries be

destroyed?7. If you were a two-legged bookworm, how would you treasure

books?

Project in

English V

Submitted by:Christine-Dion B. Gustilo

Submitted to:Mrs. Rosario Corpuz