Question

Recordings of angry bees are enough to send big, tough African elephants running away, a new study says. Beehives (蜂窝)—either recorded or real—may even prevent elephants from damaging farmer’s crops.

In 2002, scientist Lucy King and her team found that elephants avoid certain trees with bees living in them. Today, Lucy wants to see if African honeybees might discourage elephants from eating crops. But before she asked farmer to go to the trouble of setting up beehives on their farms, she needed to find out if the bees would scare elephants away.

Lucy found a wild beehive inside a tree in northern Kenya and set up a recorder. Then she threw a stone into the beehive, which burst into life. Lucy and her assistant hid in their car until the angry bees had calmed down. Next，Lucy searched out elephant families in Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya and put a speaker in a tree close to each family.

From a distance, Lucy switched on the pre-recorded sound of angry bees while at the same time recording the elephants with a video camera. Half the elephant groups left the area within ten seconds. Out of a total of 17 groups, only one group ignored the sound of the angry bees. Lucy reported that all the young elephants immediately ran to their mothers to hide under them. When Lucy played the sound of a waterfall (瀑布) instead of the angry bees to many of the same elephant families, the animals were undisturbed. Even after four minutes, most of the groups stayed in one place.

Lucy is now studying whether the elephants will continue to avoid the sound of angry bees after hearing it several times. She hasn’t tested enough groups yet to know, but her initial (最初的) results were promising enough to begin trials with farmers. She has now begun placing speakers in the fields to see if elephants are frightened away.

1.We know from the passage that elephants may be frightened of        .

A. loud noises    B. some crops

C. video cameras    D. angry bees

2.As mentioned in the passage, Lucy      .

A. works by herself in Africa

B. needs to test more elephant groups

C. has stopped elephants eating crops

D. has got farmers to set up beehives on their farms

3.Why did Lucy throw a stone into a wild beehive?

A. To record the sound of bees.

B. To make a video of elephants.

C. To see if elephants would run away.

D. To find out more about the behavior of bees.

4.Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. Young elephants ignore African honeybees.

B. Waterfalls can make elephants stay in one place.

C. Elephants do not go near trees with bees living in them.

D. Farmers do not allow Lucy to conduct tests in their fields.

Answer

1.D

2.B

3.A

4.C

【解析】试题一项最新的研究表明大象会害怕蜜蜂，为了让农民利用蜜蜂的声音防止大象破坏庄稼，Lucy做了实验，实验表明大象对于蜜蜂的声音是畏惧的，但是为了更有效的证明它的效果，Lucy还要进一步进行研究。

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