Question

    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 of 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 behavior. Specifically, honeybees and ants have similar roles within the colony, both have communication systems, and both have the capacity of 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 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 message 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 hoe 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 America 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 complex actions and accomplish crucial 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 make use of collective intelligence.

B. They live in similar-sized colonies.

C. They have small leadership groups that make all decisions.

D. They use the same method to communicate with each other.

2.What docs the speed of a bee’s dance indicate?

A. The distance to a neighboring colony.

B. The quality of a new colony location.

C. The discovery of a new food source.

D. The direction to a potential food source.

3.In paragraph 3, how docs the author demonstrate the idea that Honeybees and ants are both capable of learning?

A. By using statistics. B. By explaining reason.

C. By presenting study findings. D. By stating opinions.

4.What does the underlined part “foraging skills” refer to in the third Paragraph?

A. The skills of communicating. B. The skills of sacking food.

C. The skills of leaning. D. The skills of finding a new home.

Answer

1.A

2.B

3.C

4.B

【解析】

本文为科普类说明文。蜜蜂和蚂蚁都是群居的昆虫，它们协调复杂的行动，依靠集体智慧生存。尽管它们作为个体和群体可能并不聪明，但在日常活动中经常表现出惊人的聪明才智。

1.细节理解题。根据第一段They survive by means of their collective intelligence. … Instead, they work together. 可知，它们的共同点是利用集体智慧。故选A。

2.细节理解题。根据第二段最后一句The faster the scouts dance the better the new location is.可知，蜜蜂跳舞的速度跳得越快，新地点就越好，故选B。

3.推理判断题。根据第三段的段落结构可知，首句“Honeybees and ants are both capable of learning.（蜜蜂和蚂蚁都有学习的能力）”为主题句，围绕该主题，作者分别通过中国和美国的研究论证该主题，故本段作者通过展示研究结果来陈述观点的，故选C。

4.词义猜测题。根据下文They observed that older ants accompany young ants in search of food and teach them the route and how to avoid obstacles.（年老的蚂蚁陪伴年轻的蚂蚁寻找食物，并教它们路线和如何避开障碍物。）可知，蚂蚁不仅有学习的能力，还能把它们的觅食技能传授给其他年轻的蚂蚁。故foraging skills在此处指“觅食技能”，故选B。