Both honeybees and ants are social insects that live in groups called colonies. They survive by means of their collective intelligence. Their decision-making power is distributed throughout the group; that is, no one ant or bee makes decisions for the group. Instead, they work together. As Deborah M. Gordon, a biologist at Stanford University, says,” Ants aren't smart. Ant colonies are.”
The same is true for bee colonies. Although bees and ants are quite different physically, they have a lot in common in terms of their social behavior. Specifically, honeybees and ants have similar roles within the colony, both have communication systems, and both have the capacity for learning.
Ants communicate by using chemicals called pheromones, which can alert others to danger or to a food source. For example, when worker ants find a promising source, they let the rest of the colony know how to find it by leaving a trail of pheromones on the way back to the colony. The other ants pick up the message using their sense of smell. Bees, on the other hand, use movement to communicate with each other. Worker bees send messages to each other by means of a “dance”. Different speeds and movements send different messages. For example, when worker bees called scouts go out to find a new home for the colony, they return and do a dance for the other worker bees that indicates the location of the new home and how suitable it is. The faster the scouts dance, the better the new location is.
Honeybees and ants are both capable of learning. One Chinese study found that bees can be trained to learn and remember a route to a food source. The researchers also found that bees can be taught to recognize hidden objects and use the concepts of “sameness” and “difference” to accomplish certain tasks. Ants take this one step further. Recent American research has shown that ants not only have the ability to learn, but also can teach their foraging skills to other younger ants.
They observed that older ants accompany young ants in search of food and teach them the route and how to avoid obstacles.
As we can see, the social behavior of honeybees and ants is quite similar. Both coordinate(协调) complex actions and accomplish survival tasks by cooperating in groups consisting of many individuals. Unintelligent as they may be as individuals, as groups they often show amazing brilliance as they go about their everyday activities.
1.What do ants and bees have in common?
A.They live in similar-sized colonies.
B.They make use of collective intelligence.
C.They have small leadership groups that make all decisions.
D.They use the same methods to communicate with each other.
2.What does the speed of a bee's dance indicate?
A.The quality of a new colony location.
B.The distance to a neighboring colony.
C.The discovery of a new food source.
D.The direction to a potential food source.
3.In paragraph 4, how does the author demonstrate the idea that Honeybees and ants are both capable of learning?
A.By using statistics.
B.By explaining reasons.
C.By referencing opinions.
D.By presenting study findings.
4.What is the benefit of collective intelligence?
A.It allows the colony to reproduce more rapidly.
B.It improves work cooperation within the colony.
C.It reduces the division of labor among members.
D.It enables individuals to teach each other new skills.
It was many years ago. I was a young dad sitting on the couch reading a fairy tale to my little girl. She sat next to me with her head on my arm as I told the tale. When it came to the end I finished with those famous words: “And they lived happily ever after.” As I looked over to her with her brown hair and big, innocent eyes, I could see the smile on her face and I never wanted it to end. Then I realized that the ending of the book was what I wanted for her. I wanted her to “live happily ever after”.
Still, deep in my heart I knew that this couldn't always be so. I knew that there would be times when her heart was broken. I knew there would be times when she cried in sorrow and I couldn't comfort her. I knew there would be times when all she felt was fear, sadness, sorrow, and despair. As I touched her hair and smiled at her I hoped that those times would be brief and that she would have joy in her life more often than not. Living happily ever after, though, seemed out of the question.
It takes me a lot of years to realize that it is possible to live happily ever after. You just have to do it “one day at a time”. Happiness you see isn't some reward that you get at the end of your journey. Happiness isn't something that depends on what life you own. Happiness is something you create in your life choice by choice and day by day.
The truth is happiness comes when you love. Love is a gift from God. It is love that mends broken hearts. It is love that heals grief. It is love that gives us joy. Choose to “live happily ever after, one day at a time”.
1.What is the author's wish to his daughter?
A.Getting a good job in the future.
B.Making many friends in her school.
C.Traveling around the world in her life.
D.Having a happy life ever after.
2.What can we know from Paragraph 2?
A.Life's meaning consists in devotion.
B.Living happily ever after seemed out of question to the author.
C.There are times that life goes against us.
D.Everyone has the right to obtain happiness and freedom.
3.How to get happiness in author's opinion?
A.Reward yourself once a day.
B.Create it by yourself in your daily life.
C.Get rid of those disturbing things.
D.Take charge of your life independently.
4.What is the author's purpose in writing the passage?
A.To show the significance of love.
B.To describe a daughter's growth.
C.To introduce the definition of love.
D.To tell a young father's experience.
On September 10, 2018, Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, announced his successor(继任者)at the company he founded 19 years ago. Jack Ma will quit his role as chairman on September 10, 2019. Surprisingly, in a country where 70 to 80 percent of private companies are still family run, Mr. Ma did not name a family member. Rather, one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies will be led by Daniel Zhang, an 11-year Alibaba old hand chosen only for his “professional talent.”
The history of many countries can be marked by a trend away from dependence on family succession in business, or the belief that qualities of leadership flow through bloodlines. Ma is a true innovator(创新者)in many ways, most famously for building an innovative online shopping market worth more than the economies of most countries. But his legacy(遗产)may lie in showing how China as well as much of Asia can produce founders of successful organizations unwilling to pass the torch to relatives.
“Alibaba was never about Jack Ma,” he stated in announcing his succession plan. Instead, the former schoolteacher who came from lowly origins is stepping back from day-to-day operations because he has built a system that takes root in a company culture based on innovation, transparency, and responsibility. “For the last 10 years, we kept working on these ingredients,” he stated.
The company’s future will depend on developing a wealth of talent that drives innovation, he said. And in a society with a long tradition of cautious distrust toward those outside the family circle, Ma has built an “architecture of trust” with customers, who number over half a billion. Chinese now readily rely on Alibaba’s online payment system, its ratings of products and services, and other trust-building systems or methods pioneered by the company.
China’s rapid growth now produces a new billionaire almost every day. Many of them, like Ma, have favored systems of management based on talent and honesty. As many countries have discovered as they progress, it is better to swim in a talent pool, not a gene pool.
1.What do we know about Daniel Zhang from the passage?
A.He’s a talented professor.
B.He’s an experienced employee.
C.He’s a successful founder.
D.He’s Chairman of Alibaba.
2.Where does Ma’s legacy lie in?
A.Becoming a successful innovative founder.
B.Casting doubt on traditional succession plan.
C.Providing creative answers to succession problems.
D.Representing trends towards non-family-run companies.
3.What seems to be the recipe for the company’s future success?
A.Trust-building methods.
B.The “architecture of trust”.
C.A culture of talent development.
D.The latest successful innovations.
4.What can be a suitable title for the text?
A.Prefer Qualities to Blood.
B.Train a Potential Successor.
C.Favor Genes over Talents.
D.Provide New Management.
1.What is the advantage of Fineways’ new food labels?
A.They provide extra nutritional information.
B.They warn customers about unhealthy foods.
C.They show different customers’ nutritional needs.
D.They remind customers of the harm of unbalanced nutrition.
2.According to the passage, the new labelling system can help to ______.
A.reduce the amount of food you take
B.follow GDAs by mixing various foods
C.make your choice of more delicious food
D.satisfy the growing demands for nutrition
3.Where is the passage most probably taken from?
A.A dinner menu.
B.A research report.
C.A fashion magazine.
D.An advice brochure.
听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1.What is the purpose of the talk?
A.To show the importance of clothing.
B.To give some tips on how to impress the employer.
C.To tell the listeners how first impressions are formed.
2.What advice does the speaker offer to job hunters?
A.Go for dark color suits.
B.Wear a suit to hide weak points.
C.Dress according to the company's dress culture.
3.What doesn't the speaker recommend borrowing a suit?
A.The suit may not fit the job hunter.
B.The suit may be of poor quality.
C.The suit may look ugly.
4.What does the speaker suggest the listeners practice?
A.Words expression.
B.Handshaking.
C.Smiling.
听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1.Why does the woman come to see the man?
A.To get a better understanding of the lectures.
B.To explain why she missed two classes.
C.To get notes of the classes she missed.
2.Why doesn't the woman want to go to the student centre?
A.She has to reserve the time in advance.
B.There are usually too many students.
C.She has no time to wait there.
3.What do we know about the man?
A.He can't help with the woman's problem now.
B.He can't explain his lessons outside the class.
C.He is often busy during his office hours.
4.What may the woman do next?
A.Borrow notes from her classmate.
B.Visit the recommended websites.
C.Meet the man after his class.
