It's hard to believe that a beautiful silk dress comes from thousands of very little worms (虫子)called silkworms! It takes about 5,500 silkworms to make 2.2 pounds of silk. The process (工序) was 1 by the Chinese about 5,000 years ago.
2 is silk made? The process starts with silkworm
eggs. The eggs are collected and kept warm. After a few days 
silkworms come out of the eggs. They are3 leaves from mulberry trees every 30 minutes, all night and all day. The room 4 be kept warm, without loud noises or bad smells. After a month, they start to make cocoons (茧). After four days, the cocoons are 5 .
The cocoons are heated (加热), and the silkworms are killed inside them. Then the cocoons are put into water to make the silk loose (松散的). The silk6 three or four cocoons is put together and made into a thread (线). One cocoon can make a thread 1 kilometre long!7 , the silk threads are made into cloth, and the cloth is used for things like dresses, scarves and neckties.
Today, silk is produced in many 8 , including India and Thailand, but more than 80 percent of the world's silk comes from China. Every year, enough silk thread is 9 to go from the earth to the sun 300 times. People love silk clothes because they are beautiful and 10 --silk feels cool in warm weather and warm in cool weather. Now you know why silk is so expensive!
