Chinese silk is well known all over the world. It is considered as symbol of the origin of civilization. According to legend, a teenage girl in China, saw metamorphosis (蜕变) of a special kind of caterpillars (毛毛虫), did something even more (amaze) — she invented silk! She is Ancest or Lei.
One day, she noticed quite a few caterpillars taking small (bite) of the leaves. A few of them had formed translucent cocoons (半透明的茧) around (they). One by one the cocoons grew thicker so Lei couldn't see through them. They were like eggshells, but smaller and even (strong). She kept wondering was going on inside. Lei started to open them and they turned into bundles of threads. Lei knew that the threads in spider (蜘蛛) webs were strong, but she wondered if the threads from these cocoons were strong enough (make) into cloth. After testing, her doubt was removed.
Later, Lei concentrated figuring out how to make cloth from the cocoon threads. Eventually, Lei invented silk, and the caterpillars (call) silkworms since then.
