Reading Work 2 Part 1
October 24th, 2006
This is another short story for you to read.
Apply the strategies I have taught you. If you have forgotten, refer to your notes or the earlier posting on this blog.
Give a suitable title for this story. i will lwt you all know at the end of the story (the 4th installment).
UNLESS they alter their course and there’s no reason why they should, they’ll reach your plantation in two days at the latest.”
Leiningen sucked placidly at a cigar about the size of a corncob and for a few seconds gazed without answering at the agitated District Commissioner. Then he took the cigar from his lips, and leaned slightly forward. With his bristling grey hair, bulky nose, and lucid eyes, he had the look of an aging and shabby eagle.
“Decent of you,” he murmured, “paddling all this way just to give me the tip. But you’re pulling my leg of course when you say I must do a bunk. Why, even a herd of saurians couldn’t drive one from this plantation of mine.”
The Brazilian official threw up lean and lanky arms and clawed the air with wildly distended fingers. “Leiningen!” he shouted. “You’re insane! They’re not creatures you can fight–they’re an elemental–an ‘act of God!’ Ten miles long, two miles wide–ants, nothing but ants! And every single one of them a fiend from hell; before you can spit three times they’ll eat a full-grown buffalo to the bones. I tell you if you don’t clear out at once there’ll he nothing left of you but a skeleton picked as clean as your own plantation.”
Leiningen grinned. “Act of God, my eye! Anyway, I’m not an old woman; I’rn not going to run for it just because an elemental’s on the way. And don’t think I’m the kind of fathead who tries to fend off lightning with his fists either. I use my intelligence, old man. With me, the brain isn’t a second blindgut; I know what it’s there for. When I began this model farm and plantation three years ago, I took into account all that could conceivably happen to it. And now I’m ready for anything and everything–including your ants.”
The Brazilian rose heavily to his feet. “I’ve done my best,” he gasped. “Your obstinacy endangers not only yourself, but the lives of your four hundred workers. You don’t know these ants!”
Leiningen accompanied him down to the river, where the Governrnent launch was moored. The vessel cast off. As it moved downstream, the exclamation mark neared the rail and began waving its arms frantically. Long after thc launch had disappeared round the bend, Leiningen thought he could still hear that dimming imploring voice, “You don’t know them, I tell you! You don’t know them!”
But the reported enemy was by no means unfamiliar to the planter. Before he started work on his settlement, he had lived long enough in the country to see for himself the fearful devastations sometimes wrought by these ravenous insects in their campaigns for food. But since then he had planned measures of defence accordingly, and these, he was convinced? were in every way adequate to withstand the approaching peril.
Moreover, during his three years as a planter, Leiningen had met and defeated drought, Hood, plague and all other “acts of God” which had come against him-unlike his fellow-settlers in the district, who had made little or no resistance. This unbroken success he attributed solely to the observance of his lifelong motto: The human brain needs only to become fully aware of its powers to conquer even the elements. Dullards reeled senselessly and aimlessly into the abyss; cranks, however brilliant, lost their heads when circumstances suddenly altered or accelerated and ran into stone walls, sluggards drifted with the current until they were caught in whirlpools and dragged under. But such disasters, Leiningen contended, merely strengthened his argument that intelligence, directed aright, invariably makes man the master of his fate.
Yes, Leiningen had always known how to grapple with life. Even here, in this Brazilian wilderness, his brain had triumphed over every difliculty and danger it had so far encountered. First he had vanquished primal forces by cunning and organization, then he had enlisted the resources of modern science to increase miraculously the yield of his plantation. And now he was sure he would prove more than a match for the “irresistible” ants.
That same evening, however, Leiningen assembled his workers. He had no intention of waiting till the news reached their ears from other sources. Most of them had been born in the district; the cry “The ants are coming!’” was to them an imperative signal for instant, panic-stricken flight, a spring for life itself. But so great was the Indians’ trust in Leiningen, in Leiningen’s word, and in Leiningen’s wisdom, that they received his curt tidings, and his orders for the imminent struggle, with the calmness with which they were given. They waited, unafraid, alert, as if for the beginning of a new game or hunt which he had just described to them. The ants were indeed mighty, but not so mighty as the boss. Let them come!
They came at noon the second day. Their approach was announced by the wild unrest of the horses, scarcely controllable now either in stall or under rider, scenting from afar a vapor instinct with horror.
It was announced by a stampede of animals, timid and savage, hurtling past each other; jaguars and pumas flashing by nimble stags of the pampas, bulky tapirs, no longer hunters, themselves hunted, outpacing fleet kinkajous, maddened herds of cattle, heads lowered, nostrils snorting, rushing through tribes of loping monkeys, chattering in a dementia of terror; then followed the creeping and springing denizens of bush and steppe, big and little rodents, snakes, and lizards.
Pell-mell the rabble swarmed down the hill to the plantation, scattered right and left before the barrier of the water-filled ditch, then sped onwards to the river, where, again hindered, they fled along its bank out of sight.
This water-filled ditch was one of the defence measures which Leiningen had long since prepared against the advent of the ants. It encompassed three sides of the plantation like a huge horseshoe. Twelve feet across, but not very deep, when dry it could hardly be described as an obstacle to either man or beast. But the ends of the “horseshoe” ran into the river which formed the northern boundary, and fourth side, of the plantation. And at the end nearer the house and outbuildings in the middle of the plantation, Leiningen had constructed a dam by means of which water from the river could be diverted into the ditch.
So now, by opening the dam, he was able to fling an imposing girdle of water, a huge quadrilateral with the river as its base, completely around the plantation, like the moat encircling a medieval city. Unless the ants were clever enough to build rafts. they had no hope of reaching the plantation, Leiningen concluded.
The twelve-foot water ditch seemed to afford in itself all the security needed. But while awaiting the arrival of the ants, Leiningen made a further improvement. The western section of the ditch ran along the edge of a tamarind wood, and the branches of some great trees reached over the water. Leiningen now had them lopped so that ants could not descend from them within the “moat.”
The women and children, then the herds of cattle, were escorted by peons on rafts over the river, to remain on the other side in absolute safety until the plunderers had departed. Leiningen gave this instruction, not because he believed the non-combatants were in any danger, but in order to avoid hampering the efficiency of the defenders. “Critical situations first become crises,” he explained to his men, “when oxen or women get excited ”
Finally, he made a careful inspection of the “inner moat”–a smaller ditch lined with concrete, which extended around the hill on which stood the ranch house, barns, stables and other buildings. Into this concrete ditch emptied the inflow pipes from three great petrol tanks. If by some miracle the ants managed to cross the water and reached the plantation, this “rampart of petrol,’ would be an absolutely impassable protection for the beseiged and their dwellings and stock. Such, at least, was Leiningen’s opinion.
He stationed his men at irregular distances along the water ditch, the first line of defence. Then he lay down in his hammock and puffed drowsily away at his pipe until a peon came with the report that the ants had been observed far away in the South.
Leiningen mounted his horse, which at the feel of its master seemed to forget its uneasiness, and rode leisurely in the direction of the threatening offensive. The southern stretch of ditch–the upper side of the quadrilateral–was nearly three miles long; from its center one could survey the entire countryside. This was destined to be the scene of the outbreak of war between Leiningen’s brain and twenty square miles of life-destroying ants.
It was a sight one could never forget. Over the range of hills, as far as eye could see, crept a darkening hem, ever longer and broader, until the shadow spread across the slope from east to west, then downwards, downwards, uncannily swift, and all the green herbage of that wide vista was being mown as by a giant sickle, leaving only the vast moving shadow, extending, deepening, and moving rapidly nearer.
When Leiningen’s men, behind their barrier of water, perceived the approach of the long-expected foe, they gave vent to their suspense in screams and imprecations. But as the distance began to lessen between the “sons of hell” and the water ditch, they relapsed into silence. Before the advance of that awe-inspiring throng, their belief in the powers of the boss began to steadily dwindle.
Even Leiningen himself, who had ridden up just in time to restore their loss of heart by a display of unshakable calm, even he could not free himself from a qualm of malaise. Yonder were thousands of millions of voracious jaws bearing down upon him and only a suddenly insignificant, narrow ditch lay between him and his men and being gnawed to the bones “before you can spit three times.”
Hadn’t this brain for once taken on more than it could manage? If the blighters decided to rush the ditch, fill it to the brim with their corpses, there’d still be more than enough to destroy every trace of that cranium of his. The planter’s chin jutted; they hadn’t got him yet, and he’d see to it they never would. While he could think at all, he’d flout both death and the devil.
The hostile army was approaching in perfect formation; no human battalions, however well-drilled, could ever hope to rival the precision of that advance. Along a front that moved forward as uniformly as a straight line, the ants drew nearer and nearer to the water ditch. Then, when they learned through their scouts the nature of the obstacle, the two outlying wings of the army detached themselves from the main body and marched down the western and eastern sides of the ditch.
This surrounding maneuver took rather more than an hour to accomplish; no doubt the ants expected that at some point they would find a crossing.
During this outflanking movement by the wings, the army on the center and southern front remained still. The besieged were therefore able to contemplate at their leisure the thumb-long, reddish black, long-legged insects; some of the Indians believed they could see, too, intent on them, the brilliant, cold eyes, and the razor-edged mandibles, of this host of infinity.
It is not easy for the average person to imagine that an animal, not to mention an insect, can think. But now both the European brain of Leiningen and the primitive brains of the Indians began to stir with the unpleasant foreboding that inside every single one of that deluge of insects dwelt a thought. And that thought was: Ditch or no ditch, we’ll get to your flesh!
Not until four o’clock did the wings reach the “horseshoe” ends of the ditch, only to find these ran into the great river. Through some kind of secret telegraphy, the report must then have flashed very swiftly indeed along the entire enemy line. And Leiningen, riding–no longer casually–along his side of the ditch, noticed by energetic and widespread movements of troops that for some unknown reason the news of the check had its greatest effect on the southern front, where the main army was massed. Perhaps the failure to find a way over the ditch was persuading the ants to withdraw from the plantation in search of spoils more easily attainable.
An immense flood of ants, about a hundred yards in width, was pouring in a glimmering-black cataract down the far slope of the ditch. Many thousands were already drowning in the sluggish creeping flow, but they were followed by troop after troop, who clambered over their sinking comrades, and then themselves served as dying bridges to the reserves hurrying on in their rear.
Shoals of ants were being carried away by the current into the middle of the ditch, where gradually they broke asunder and then, exhausted by their struggles, vanished below the surface. Nevertheless, the wavering, floundering hundred-yard front was remorselessly if slowly advancing towards the beseiged on the other bank. Leiningen had been wrong when he supposed the enemy would first have to fill the ditch with their bodies before they could cross; instead, they merely needed to act as steppingstones, as they swam and sank, to the hordes ever pressing onwards from behind.
Near Leiningen a few mounted herdsmen awaited his orders. He sent one to the weir-the river must be dammed more strongly to increase the speed and power of the water coursing through the ditch.
A second peon was dispatched to the outhouses to bring spades and petrol sprinklers. A third rode away to summon to the zone of the offensive all the men, except the observation posts, on the near-by sections of the ditch, which were not yet actively threatened.
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See also:
- Any QUESTIONS??? (August 14th, 2007)
- What A Tangled Web We Weave (March 18th, 2007)
- Evaluating the Internet (March 4th, 2007)
- Narrative Modes (February 28th, 2007)
- COMPREHEND? A WORK IN PROGRESS (February 21st, 2007)
October 24th, 2006 at 2:45 am
218251 Blog Verification…
218251…
October 26th, 2006 at 1:12 am
what is the blog verificaion thing? and yay there is a reading work 2! mr grosse the picture is on a leaf-eater ant right? i read about them somewhere…
October 26th, 2006 at 1:32 am
are the ants giant ants, like what the super magnified picture depicts? is that why almost everyone are scared of them?
October 26th, 2006 at 1:34 am
maybe the author wants to tell people not to step on ants as they will take revenge or something.
October 26th, 2006 at 2:00 am
why didn’t leigh throw a grenade filled with pesticide while the ants were near? or spraying pesticide would also be okay. anyway, i think the title should be… attack of the ants? the ants that could think? attack of the ants that could think?
October 26th, 2006 at 3:45 am
why did the ants want to enter the plantation? to eat the plantation or the people? are these mutant ants?
October 26th, 2006 at 3:46 am
what is that blog verification thing? seems very strange…
October 29th, 2006 at 1:34 am
kenneth, i think that the big picture of the ant might have something to do with the story or title of the story…anyway, looks like only both of us know about this posting…
Won’t be posting until end of exams, busy revising.
October 30th, 2006 at 3:11 am
yes it does nicholas. read the story, it is about what i call monster ants and maybe thats why mr grosse made it so big.
October 31st, 2006 at 3:01 am
you are wrong nicholas, I read this posting a few days before, but I could not post because of some problem with the blog. anyway, I also think that the title of this story is THE ATTACK OF THE ANTS
October 31st, 2006 at 3:11 am
who could imagine that just tiny, miniscule ANTS could be that destructive? really creepy. it seems as if the ants really had a mind of their own, and could think. the way the story describes them, you’d think that locusts were better. though actually both are horrible.
oh yeah, i think that the title is: ant attack. just guessing though.
i’ve also thought of something else. if everyone in the country flees, even government armies and stuff, then where would they all go? and would the ants just move to another place to continue feasting on the ‘food’ there?
October 31st, 2006 at 7:47 pm
Actually, Nicholas is wrong…as I read it before any of you did! I just didn’t post because of the exams……
Melissa: Ants could be rather destructive…. I remember reading that some man-eater ants could destroy (eat up) everything that comes across its’ path. When the carnivorous ants are coming, some signs will be that animals flee in a hurry, leaving everything behind. Luckily, there are no such carnivorous ants in Singapore…those ants could eat up human flesh alive (yuck..)!
I bet that those ants are going to eat up Leiningen alive, but perhaps Leiningen may be able to use his wits to fight against the ants.
A suitable title for the story could be “Leiningen and the Ants”, “The war between man and nature” or like what Melissa had said “ant attack”.
October 31st, 2006 at 7:54 pm
I like ‘Ant ATTACK’. It’s a pretty suitable title, but then again, I might just call it ‘ANTS!!!’ and make it sound like a documentary and make those who don’t like fiction like it. But ‘ANTS!!!’ is also quite a cliff hanger. Not many books I know of has just 1 word for the title.
October 31st, 2006 at 7:54 pm
Here are some questions I have…..
1) Will those carnivorous ants alter their path and why do they do so?
2) Is there anyway to “fight” against those ants?
3) Do the carnivorous ants really eat up everything that comes across its path?
4) How do other animals detect that those carnivorous ants are coming?
5) Where are carnivorous ants usually found?
6) Is there a path that carnivorous ants always follow?
Perhaps if there is something that the carnivorous ants are scared of, there would be a way to prevent it from eating up things (humans and animals)….
October 31st, 2006 at 7:56 pm
I think the title for this story should be The Terrifying Killer Ants.
What is the meaning of distended?
I watched a documentary on fire ants where they show the ants rolling into a ball and escape floods by taking turns to go underwater.
Fire ants could destroy anythings in their paths,even humans babies!They marched though the jungles and killed animals as large as a fully-grown leopard.
Anyway,why did the ants want to go to the plantion all of a sudden?
One moral of this story, Never underestimate animals or insects……
October 31st, 2006 at 7:58 pm
I think the title is ANT ATTACK/ THE ATTACK OF THE ANTS [just like almost everybody else]
Can’t imagaine so many ants… millions/billions. So sick for ants to eat somebody ALIVE… YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
btw… how fast do those people spit anyway?
October 31st, 2006 at 7:59 pm
maybe the title of the story is the ‘the war of the ants’, just a guess. i remember seeing a picture of ants making a bridge out of themselves::freaked me out. it was just this mass of ants.
October 31st, 2006 at 8:02 pm
Jazlene : ..
I think that the tiltle could be The Ant Attack . [ it is like everybody else's title] =] can’t they just pour water on those ants ?
October 31st, 2006 at 8:04 pm
I think the title of the story is ‘the attack of the ants’ lol
How did the ants get to grow so big that it could be a threat to humans?
Were they genetically modified?
Why aren’t they just tiny little ants who carry our ‘leftovers’ or crumbs away, which most ants do?
October 31st, 2006 at 8:04 pm
I agree with Rachelle, the title may just be “ants”. It makes the reader feel more suspense and be lured to read on as they may wonder,”What is so fascinating about ants?What can this story be about?” The part where the ants “clambered over their sinking comrades, and then themselves served as dying bridges to the reserves hurrying on in their rear.” reminds me of the book : The Wind Singer as there was also a scene in the book that talked about the Zars, a mighty and destructive army ,falling into some kind of hole, and creating a bridge in order to let the other Zars cross so as to be able to enter the city.
October 31st, 2006 at 8:05 pm
What kind of ants are these? I can tell that they are not one huge ant, but a whole mass of ants. However, if they are small, what huge harm could they do? I mean if they work as individuals, it would be hard to harm anyone, but since they work together as a whole, it would be quite terrifying. You just need a group of such ants to destroy all your crops and houses quickly. Well, that is if they don’t start attacking you next.
I agree with Melissa. If everyone in the country leaves, the ants will have nothing to eat since there’s no one to rebuild houses and regrow crops for them. Will they go crazy and start attacking the country beside (that is if the country is not an island by itself)?
I find it kind of creepy that the ants don’t mind putting their lives at stake to help their comrades through the water. It is as good as committing suicide. It is terrible to die like that, but well, if the ants really can think, they’ll probably have a parade in honour of their brave friends.
Oh, I’ve thought of another name for the story: A battle of the wits. Leningen has to use his brains to worm himself out of death. The ants have to think of plans to get through Leningen’s traps. Interesting…
October 31st, 2006 at 8:06 pm
hmm .. i agree with zb’s questions …
the ants are scary ! and Rachelle , the ant’s 2nd body part looks like its split into 2 , unless the ant’s body is supposed to be like that.
possibly, carnivorous ants are scared of water? unless those type of ants are really huge, they should be scared of a pool of water, so it’ll be useful to jump into a swimming pool, they would most probably drown. Unless they have a way to swim across, if not that would be the most likely way to save yourself.
i don’t think carnivorous ants eat everything in their path. However rough and casual about eating they can be, there is always bound to be some things they do not like to eat. Be it a kind of leaf or something, there is bound to be something they don’t like to eat.
If ants were carnivorous, they would most probably live in deserts, as i don’t think they would be too near humans. if they were, there would definitely be human skeletons hidden in the forest.. and they couldn’t be too near the forests, if not many squirrels and small wildlife, will mostly be gone. And i don’t think they will like water too much, so the desert is one of the best.
RACHELLE: by the way, possibly having a 1word title is unique. really documentary-like.
October 31st, 2006 at 8:07 pm
And anyway, why do the ants want to eat him up?
Can those ants feel / know what he was going to do or were they just plain hungry? Anyway, i still don’t like the idea of someone getting eaten alive by those disgusting carnivorous ants…
YUCK.YUCK.YUCKKK.YUCK!!!
and Zi Bing, i don’t think that the title would be “leiningen and the ants”… because the readers would not even know who leiningen is. ‘The war between man and nature” just doen’t give the reader enough clues to what the story is going to be about.
Rachelle: – I agree that the title “ANTS” might interest non-fiction readers but what about the people who insist on only reading fiction books? Won’t they not want to read? Ant Attack/ The Attack of the Ants MAY [and only may] still attract fiction readers to read the story…
October 31st, 2006 at 8:07 pm
if there’s anyone in the world who got eaten up by ants, i really pity them::i think it’s kind of stupid to be killed by ants, those tiny little red things that you can kill by squishing them under your foot. i think it’s brave of leningen to try to beat the ants but you don’t know what mother nature can do so i think leningen is a bit foolish.
October 31st, 2006 at 8:08 pm
desiree comment 20::the title may make a reader feel bored coz’ it might disinterest them
October 31st, 2006 at 8:09 pm
by the way , dawne , you pour water on the ants, NO USE . they won’t drown, they have to be ‘water proof’ … so drown !! is better
October 31st, 2006 at 8:11 pm
dawne : – anyway the idea about the title is just ants + attack + whatever other words you want to add right???
And i still don’t think that there can be so many ants in one group… i mean maybe one-meter long worth is still reasonable but… ITS SOOOOOOO LOOOOOOOONG!!!!
*I wonder if anybody is not disgusted*
October 31st, 2006 at 8:11 pm
jazlene comment 23::i agree that people will not know who leningen is but there are many books that have a character’s name included in the title. a person may become interested in a book because of the name maybe he/she likes the name[crazy person] or maybe because his/her name is used in the book[another crazy person].
October 31st, 2006 at 8:12 pm
Cass : – Don’t get what you mean AT ALL [coment 26]
October 31st, 2006 at 8:12 pm
jazlene comment 27::i’m disgusted
October 31st, 2006 at 8:13 pm
i agree with melissa and wonder what will happen if everyone in the country runs away, will the ants move on and go to another country to find fresh food? why is Leningen so sure that he can ‘win’ the ants? why does his workers have absolute faith in him at first? why did Leningen say ‘your ants’ to the Brazilian official? does he mean it literally like that the Brazilian owns the ants or does he mean that ‘his ants’ as in like in the ants that he brought news of, so he ‘owns’ the news of the ants? why do the ants still want to try to cross the ditch when they know thata they will die? why are they so intent on eating everyone they set their eyes on?
October 31st, 2006 at 8:14 pm
Yu Teng & Melissa: After all the people have left, and the carnivorous ants have eaten everything…they will continue their journey to look for food. Thus, those ants are always on the move, destroying everything that comes across its’ path!
Jazlene: How about “Leiningen vs. Ants”?? Perhaps that will be better…xD
October 31st, 2006 at 8:15 pm
it is brave, i mean . even though ants are so tiny [like JODIE said] that you can squish ‘em under your foot, try squishing a MILLION / BILLION under foot at one time. They are UNITED . quite undefeatable. a million flesh-eating ants devouring a single human .
October 31st, 2006 at 8:16 pm
best way to kill the ants is give them a tsunami of PESTICIDE! weet! DIE ANTS!!!
October 31st, 2006 at 8:16 pm
Why is everyone argueing about who saw this post first?
October 31st, 2006 at 8:16 pm
jodie… u mean like my aunt? she bought a condo because the name was her name… (-.-)”
Cass…. STILL DON’T UNDERSTAND YOUR COMMENT.[oh.... just now i also meant *comment* not coment, even if the is such a word...]
I think he is sooooooooo dumb NOT to pour water? whats wrong with that when they intend on killing you[or maybe not really intend] but anyway, i still think it is 100% dumb to go on such a big army of ants, and don’t even pur water . [NOT BRAVE! brave in a stupid way*]
*haha. they say can only post a comment after 15 seconds . “Cool down, cowboy” HAHAHA*
October 31st, 2006 at 8:17 pm
zi bing::how come you suddenly use xD? you don’t use it.
October 31st, 2006 at 8:19 pm
Zi Bing: At least you could post to say that you visited the blog….
October 31st, 2006 at 8:20 pm
GARY – NOBODY IS ANYMORE!!!
jodie and cass: – then why didn’t the stupid guy go use pesticide????
Zi Bing- like a game called MvC??[Marvel vs. Capcom] =p my fave game . and cass…. WHAT I MEANT WAS about the WATER thing NOT the brave thingy .
October 31st, 2006 at 8:21 pm
I think that the humans should run away from the ants. The ants would surely have enough comrades to form a bridge across the river. Their dead bodies would be strong enough to surport the other ants going across the river. Should the ants go across the river, Leiningen will be dead as the ants would strip him to shreds. His men, the Indians, would also die. If the humans do not escape soon, a bridge would soon be formed, and the ants would get across the river. Even if some of the ants sacrifice their lives, that would still be a small proportion of the whole huge ant colony. If Leiningen really wants to pour more water into the dam, he would soon run out of water.
I think that a suitable title for this story is ‘Attack of the ants’.
October 31st, 2006 at 8:23 pm
If a line of ants like the ones in the story marched towards me, I’d be armed with a bottle of pesticide – wasn’t Leiningen? I’d spray it all about the arny of carnivorous insects.
October 31st, 2006 at 8:24 pm
Everyone keeps saying that the Title is the Attack of the Ants and whatnot. However, they fail to think why the ants will be attacking. Therefore I think the title should be Revenge of the Ants because then they have a reason for attacking. Ants do not attack for no reason.
November 1st, 2006 at 1:30 am
Samuel, I think that the ants may not be looking for revenge. Suppose that you are one of those ants, your first priority is food. SInce, as an ant, you can’t grow crops and such, you will depend on attacking people’s farms and plantations. Ants can’t talk or do anything, so they fight for the food by attacking as a whole. Anyway, as I think of it now, nothing stated the fact that they ate humans up. They just attacked them.
November 1st, 2006 at 3:41 am
I do not understand the horseshoe moat thingy. Can someone explain to me or draw it out?
November 1st, 2006 at 4:56 am
Sam, I disagree with you, I think tyhe ants kill for food and that is their reason, they do not care who kills them or whatnot, they just eattheir way through everything
November 1st, 2006 at 4:57 am
sorry, I mean the, not thye
November 1st, 2006 at 8:30 am
I find the story quite nice but a little confusing too. It’s pretty interesting – Ants who eat human and animal flesh! I ever heard of these ants before but I didn’t know that they could actually be so destructive. Like what Melissa had mentioned earlier, it’s quite hard to believe that these little ants could cause such destruction and chaos. I’m definitely looking forward to the next part of the story!
November 1st, 2006 at 9:40 am
I think the reason why Leningen wasn’t armed with a bottle of pesticide or used pesticide tp try and kill the ants is because he knows pesticde(no matter how strong) would be able to kill gigantic man-eating ants, so why bother to try and kill the ants with something that cannnot kill them?
November 1st, 2006 at 9:42 am
oops. what i meant was unable instead of ‘ able’
November 2nd, 2006 at 2:55 am
I still do not understand the horseshoe moat and the dam. What is talking about? How does it look like? How does it work? It’s so confusing!
How did all of these ants come from? Nowhere? What are they?
I think the title should be more easily guessed when we have the other parts of the story. I predict our guess would chang as we read on. The title could be: Flesh-eaters and a Big mind or Flesh-eaters versus a Big mind are something like that. Any body has other suggestions?
November 2nd, 2006 at 2:56 am
What is the other website we are also supose to go to?
November 2nd, 2006 at 4:26 am
Well, based on my experience, if you pour water on tiny ants ( not the larger ones), they can swim. Well, actually, if you pour a bit… like abt 0.3mm deep… Try it… lol.
They CAN swim… and they can get out of the ‘pool’ of water, although they would be rather weak after that, but they are strong enough to get onto my worksheet, walk around and get me annoyed… but they usually end up like a pancake under my ruler… but aniwae…
This proves that ants can swim in a pool at a certain depth. AND ANTS CAN FLOAT… well, for a few seconds after they enter the water… And yes, I’ve tried that too.
This means that less ants will be drowning in the dam.
November 2nd, 2006 at 6:20 am
The ants behavior is a little odd. I mean have you seen swarms of ants coming for food. I only have seen about 10 ants eating together. Ants do not pose a threat when alone but its a whole different stroy in a swarm. As the chinese saying goes… United we stand, Divided we fall. Or was it an English proverb… Im not sure. The ants probbly have more than food on their mind(s)
November 14th, 2006 at 10:09 am
I am on the side of Len, of course. However, i have to applaud the ants for their thinking and sacrificial act. Swarms of them come, and probably half would only survive. Like Samuel said, they pose a threat when united. And it is not easy for one to dicide he will die for his colony of millions( I would do that, if an army came in a million, somehow)
November 16th, 2006 at 4:56 am
A possible title might be ‘Attack of the Ants’. The ants might be attacking as they want food or revenge. Most probably revenge as they could easily get more nourishing food from other animals and not get food from them. Since other animals seem so afraid of them, it probably means they are alot stronger than the other animals even the preadators.
November 16th, 2006 at 11:37 pm
THe would a link this to the article on the debate ranges on ectices of montaineering. THis is a connection that I have made. For example, 40 montaineers climb the montain and only 5 get to the top. The same may go to the ants. Only half may get to the plantation and Len would have to fight them before they gobble up the plantation. It is a fight for time and property!
November 19th, 2006 at 8:10 pm
Are these ants specially evolved to be impervious to the ways that we use at home to kil them?
Like maybe they are resistant to bug spray.
December 1st, 2006 at 4:00 am
I do not think the term sons of hell is good for describing the ants. The sons of hell (which would mean the devil) does not come with warning, and does not take so long to reach to its destination. Like there will be no stampede if a devil enters your house or whatnot.
December 1st, 2006 at 4:14 am
Yeah but i suppose he wrote that as to portray the ants as canniballistic
December 17th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
Darren: The term sons of hell could also mean that the ants are like death, the bane of their lives.
Why did the ants attack the plantation?
January 2nd, 2007 at 5:31 am
Why are these ants called ’sons of hell’? The ants are just trying to find food to eat. And the ants really know how to sacrifice themselves.
Len very resourceful, but I think his resources will run out soon.