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Anyone who commutes(通勤)by car knows that traffic jams are an unavoidable part of life. But humans are not alone in facing potential traffic jam. Ants also commute一between their nest and sources of food. The survival of their colonies(群体) depends on doing this efficiently.

"The more they are, the more food they're going to bring back. But at the same time, they might end up with traffic jam because there are too many of them.” Sebastien Motsch, a mathematician in Arizona State University said. When humans commute, there's a point at which cars become dense enough to slow down the flow of traffic, causing congestion. Motsch and his colleagues wanted to know if ants on the move could also get blocked. So they control traffic density by constructing bridges of various widths between a colony of Argentine ants and a source of food. Then they waited and watched.

The flow of ants did increase initially as ants started to fill the bridge and then stabilize at high densities. But it never slowed down, even when the bridge was nearly filled with ants. The researchers then took a closer look at how the behavior of individual ants impacted traffic as a whole. That meant cautiously tracking thousands of separate ants as they made their way across the bridge.

Motsch and his team found that when ants sense overcrowding, they adjust their speeds and avoid entering high-density areas, which prevents congestion. These behaviors may be made by pheromones (外激素),chemicals that tell other ants where a trail is. The ants also manage to avoid colliding with each other at high densities, which could really slow them down.

Can ants help us solve our own traffic problems? Not likely, says Motsch. That's because when it comes to getting from point A to point B as fast as possible, human drivers put their own goals first. Individual ants have to be more cooperative in order to feed the colony. But the research could be useful in bettering traffic flow for self-driving cars, which can be designed to be less like selfish humans一and more like ants.

1.What is the purpose of the research?

A.To compare humans with ants.

B.To see how ants, avoid traffic jam.

C.To solve the problem of traffic jam.

D.To see whether ants will encounter a traffic jam.

2.What did the researchers do before testing the ants?

A.They built bridges of different widths.

B.They made the ants on the move.

C.They watched the ants closely.

D.They got the ants blocked.

3.What is the result of the research?

A.The ants avoid entering high-density areas.

B.The ants never stop and no traffic jam happens.

C.The ants sense overcrowding and adjust their speed.

D.The ants give off chemicals to tell others where they can go.

4.What's the researchers' attitude to solving our own traffic jam?

A.Optimistic. B.Doubtful.

C.Indifferent. D.Supportive.

高三英语阅读选择中等难度题

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