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Most people have heard the sound of bees among flowers. Bees live almost everywhere in the world except in the Arctic areas.
Many kinds of agriculture depend on these small, social insects. Without bees, fruit and nut growers as well as many other farmers would not have a crop.
There are more than 20,000 kinds of bees. But only honey bees make enough honey for people to use. Honeybees are highly-organized social insects. They work together in a group, called a colony（群体）. Each colony lives in a hive（蜂房）. It contains one queen bee -- she lays all the eggs from which the members of the colony come. Each colony has only a few hundred males, called drones. The majority of all bees in a colony are workers, which are all females.
Bees even have a special stomach, called a honey stomach, which is used to store sweet fluid that the bees gather from flowers. Bees also have long hairs on their body and legs. These hairs capture pollen（花粉） as bees go from flower to flower. Some of the pollen is taken back to the hive. Some, however, is passed to the next flower. This is how many plants are fertilized. Pollen is the reproductive material of plants. Many important agricultural crops depend on bees for fertilization.
Inside their hives, bees store sweet liquid from flowers and pollen as well. They may even gather sweet liquid from some other kinds of insects. These kinds of sweet liquid are also stored in the hive.
Bees make honey through a process. They add liquid from their own mouths to sweet liquid into simple sugar. As the honey is stored, it dries. It becomes thicker and darker.
Although bees are often thought of as honey makers, they provide a surprising number of products. Also, their greatest economic value is in fertilizing crops-not in making honey.
1.The passage is mainly about________.
A．bees and their colony
B．the way for bees to pass pollen
C．bees and agriculture
D．the process for bees to make honey
2.Honeybees are social insects because________.
A．they work in groups B．there is queen bee in every colony
C．they live in a hive D．each of them does the same job
3.The most valuable thing honeybees do for people is in ________.
A．making honey B．fertilizing crops
C．making flowers grow better D．producing pollen
4.The word “fertilize” in the sentence “This is how many plants are fertilized” probably means “________”.
A．to make plants strong and productive
B．to make soil rich for plants
C．to start the development of young flowers
D．to introduce pollen into plants
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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One day, gardeners might not just hear the buzz of bees among their flowers, but the whirr of robots, too. Scientists have managed to turn an unassuming drone (无人机) into a remote-controlled pollinator (授粉媒介) by attaching horsehairs coated with a special, sticky gel to its underbelly.
Animal pollinators are needed for the reproduction of 90% of flowering plants and one third of human food crops. Chief among those are bees — but many bee populations in the United States have been in steep decline in recent decades. Thus, the decline of bees isn't just worrisome because it could disrupt ecosystems, but also because it could disrupt agriculture and economy. People have been trying to come up with replacement techniques, but none of them are especially effective yet.
Scientists have thought about using drones, but they haven't figured out how to make free-flying robot insects that can rely on their own power source without being attached to a wire. “It’s very tough work,” said senior author Eijiro Miyako, a chemist at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. His particular contribution to the field involves a gel, one he’d considered a mistake 10 years before and stuck in a storage cabinet. When it was rediscovered a decade later, it hadn’t dried up or degraded at all. “I was so surprised because it still had high viscosity,” Miyako said.
The chemist noticed that when dropped, the gel absorbed an impressive amount of dust from the floor. Miyako realized this material could be very useful for picking up pollen (花粉). He and his colleagues chose a drone and attached horsehairs to its smooth surface to mimic a bee’s fuzzy body. They coated those horsehairs in the gel, and then controlled the drones over lilies, where they would pick up the pollen from one flower and then deposit the pollen at another one, thus fertilizing it.
The scientists looked at the hairs under a scanning electron microscope and counted up the pollen grains attached to the surface and found that the drones whose horsehairs had been coated with the gel had about 10 times more pollen than those that had not been coated with the gel.
Miyako does not think such drones would replace bees altogether, but could simply help bees with their pollinating duties. There’s a lot of work to be done before that's a reality, however. Small drones will need to become more controllable and energy efficient, as well as smarter, with better GPS and artificial intelligence.
1.What does the underlined word “viscosity” in Para.3 probably mean?
A.Hardness. B.Stickiness.
C.Flexibility. D.Purity.
2.We can learn from the passage that ______.
A.bees disrupt both agriculture and economy
B.scientists have invented self-powered robot insects
C.bees in the United States are on the edge of extinction
D.Miyako found the special feature of the gel by chance
3.A drone works best in picking up pollen when ______.
A.its body is made like a bee’s
B.its GPS works more efficiently
C.some flowers are coated with the gel
D.horsehairs with the gel are attached to it
4.According to Eijiro Miyako, the drones ______.
A.are not yet ready for practical use
B.may eventually replace bees in the future
C.are much more efficient than bee pollinators
D.can provide a solution to economic depression
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
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One day, gardeners might not just hear the buzz of bees among their flowers, but the whirr of robots, too. Scientists have managed to turn an unassuming drone into a remote-controlled pollinator by attaching horsehairs coated with a special, sticky glue to the under part of it.
Animal pollinators are needed for the reproduction of 90% of flowering plants and one third of human food crops. Chief among those are bees-but many bee populations in the United States have been in steep decline in recent decades. Thus, the decline of bees isn't just worrisome because it could spoil ecosystems. but also, because it could spoil agriculture and economy. People have been trying to come up with replacement techniques, but none of them are especially effective yet.
Scientists have thought about using drones, but they haven't figured out how to make free-flying robot insects that can rely on their own power source without being attached to a wire. “It’s very tough work." said Senior author Elijio Miyako, a chemist at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. His particular contribution to the field involves a kind of glue, one he'd considered a mistake 10 years before and stuck in a storage cabinet. When it was rediscovered a decade later, it hadn't dried up or broke down at all. “I was so surprised because it still had high viscosity,” Miyako said.
The chemist noticed that when dropped, the glue absorbed an impressive amount of dust from the floor. Miyako realized this material could be very useful for picking up pollen. He and his colleagues chose a drone and attached horsehairs to its smooth surface to imitate a bee's furry body. They coated those horsehairs in the glue, and then controlled the drones over flowers, where they would pick up the pollen from one flower and then deposit the pollen at another one, thus fertilizing it.
The scientists looked at the hairs under a scanning electron microscope and counted up the pollen grains attached to the surface and found that the drones whose horsehairs had been coated with the glue had about 10 times more pollen than those that had not been coated with the glue.
Mivako does not think such drones would replace bees altogether, but could simply help bees with their pollinating duties. There’s a lot of work to be done before that's a reality, however. Small drones will need to become more controllable and energy efficient, as well as smarter, with better GPS and artificial intelligence.
1.What does the underlined word “viscosity” in Para.3 probably mean?
A.Hardness. B.Stickiness.
C.Flexibility. D.Purity.
2.We can learn from the passage that .
A.bees disturb both agriculture and economy
B.scientists invented automatic robot insects
C.Miyako found the special feature of the glue accidently
D.bees in the United States are on the edge of extinction
3.A drone works best in picking up pollen when ___
A.it is coated with the glue B.its body is made like a bee's
C.researchers control it precisely D.horsehairs with the glue are attached to it
4.According to Eijiro Miyako, the drones____
A.are not yet ready for practical use B.may eventually replace bees in the future
C.are much more efficient than bee pollinators D.can provide a solution to economic depression
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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If maths is the language of the universe, bees may have just uttered their first words. New research suggests these busybodies of the insect world are capable of addition and subtraction (减法)—using colors in the place of plus and minus symbols.
In the animal kingdom, the ability to count—or at least distinguish between differing quantities—isn’t unusual: It has been seen in frogs, spiders, and even fish. But solving equations (方程式) using symbols is rare, so far only achieved by famously brainy animals such as chimpanzees and African grey parrots.
Building on previous research that says the social insects can count to four and understand the concept of zero, researchers wanted to test the limits of what their tiny brains can do.
Scientists trained 14 bees to link the colors blue and yellow to addition and subtraction, respectively. They placed the bees at the entrance of a Y-shaped maze (迷宫), where they were shown several shapes in either yellow or blue. If the shapes were blue, bees got a reward if they went to the end of the maze with one more blue shape (the other end had one less blue shape); if the shapes were yellow, they got a reward if they went to the end of the maze with one less yellow shape.
The testing worked the same way: Bees that “subtracted” one shape when they saw yellow, or “added” one shape when they saw blue were considered to have aced the test. The bees got the right answer 63% to 72% of the time, depending on the type of equation and the direction of the right answer—much better than random guesses would allow—the researchers report today in Science Advances.
Though the results came from just 14 bees, researchers say the advance is exciting. If a brain about 20,000 times smaller than ours can perform maths using symbols, it could pave the way to novel approaches in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Just don’t ask the bees to do your homework anytime soon.
1.Why do the scientists conduct the research?
A. To teach them maths. B. To test the power of tiny brains.
C. To explain the meaning of colors. D. To get access to machine learning.
2.What does the underlined word “aced” in Paragraph 5 probably mean?
A. Given up. B. Entered for.
C. Got through. D. Checked over.
3.What might the research make contributions to?
A. Language acquisition. B. Arithmetic learning.
C. Protection of animals. D. Development of AI.
4.What can be the best title for the text?
A. Bees “Like” Counting
B. Bees “Tell” Colors Apart
C. Bees “Perform” Maths Using Shapes
D. Bees “Get” Addition and Subtraction
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
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Tiny transmitters(发射机) fixed on the backs of the blue-green bees have allowed scientists to follow the insects as they fly for miles in search of rare flowers．
Working in Panama，scientists caught 17 bees of the common species and fixed a 300 milligram radio light onto the back of each．The signals they sent out were used to follow their movements in and around the forest where they lived．
Professor Martin，from Princeton University，US，and the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany，said，“By following the radio signals，we discovered that male bees spent most of their time in small centre areas，but could take off and visit areas farther away．One male even crossed over the shipping lanes in the Panama Canal，flying at least 5km，and returned a few days later．”
Researchers have struggled to follow the movements of bees before，following bees marked with paint or using radar which doesn’t work well in forests．
“Carrying the transmitter could reduce the distance that the bees travel，but even if the flight distances we record are the shortest distances that these bees can fly，they are impressive，long-distance movements，” said Dr．Roland Kays，from New York State Museum，a co-author of the research published today in the on-line journal．“This result helps to explain how these bees’ pollination(授粉) can be so rare．” Pollination by bees and other insects is the key to the diversity and continued growth of flowers and trees in some forests．
The new study is the first to use radio transmitters to follow bees in a forest．Similar research may now be carried in temperate forests，where bees also play a vital role．
1.The main purpose of the passage is to___
A． call on people to protect the bees for the environment
B． explain why the bees fly far away in search of flowers
C． introduce a modern way to follow the bees to readers
D． encourage the public to support the scientists' research
2.What was the problem when researchers tried to follow the bees in the past?
A． It was quite difficult to mark the bees
B． The radar itself didn't work very well
C． The bees weren't easy to be recognized
D． Environmental limits were hard to solve
3.What Dr．Roland Kays said implied that____
A． he didn't expect bees could fly so long a distance
B． The transmitter didn't have any effects on bees at all
C． He wanted to know how far bees could travel badly
D． The record was in fact as exact as he had thought
4.Researchers follow the movements of bees mainly to___
A． learn how far they can fly at most
B． discover how they affect the plants
C． correct some wrong ideas about bees
D． get to know where they enjoy living
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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Tiny transmitters(发射机) fixed on the backs of the blue-green bees have allowed scientists to follow the insects as they fly for miles in search of rare flowers.
Working in Panama, scientists caught 17 bees of the common species and fixed a 300 milligram radio light onto the back of each. The signals they sent out were used to follow their movements in and around the forest where they lived.
Professor Martin, from Princeton University, US, and the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany, said, “By following the radio signals, we discovered that male bees spent most of their time in small centre areas, but could take off and visit areas farther away. One male even crossed over the shipping lanes in the Panama Canal, flying at least 5km, and returned a few days later.”
Researchers have struggled to follow the movements of bees before, following bees marked with paint or using radar which doesn’t work well in forests.
“Carrying the transmitter could reduce the distance that the bees travel, but even if the flight distances we record are the shortest distances that these bees can fly, they are impressive, long-distance movements,” said Dr. Roland Kays, from New York State Museum, a co-author of the research published today in the on-line journal. “This result helps to explain how these bees’ pollination(授粉) can be so rare.” Pollination by bees and other insects is the key to the diversity and continued growth of flowers and trees in some forests.
The new study is the first to use radio transmitters to follow bees in a forest. Similar research may now be carried in temperate forests, where bees also play a vital role.
1.The main purpose of the passage is to___
A.call on people to protect the bees for the environment
B.explain why the bees fly far away in search of flowers
C.introduce a modern way to follow the bees to readers
D.encourage the public to support the scientists’ research
2.What was the problem when researchers tried to follow the bees in the past?
A. It was quite difficult to mark the bees
B. The radar itself didn’t work very well
C. The bees weren’t easy to be recognized
D. Environmental limits were hard to solve
3.What Dr. Roland Kays said implied that____
A.he didn’t expect bees could fly so long a distance
B.The transmitter didn’t have any effects on bees at all
C.He wanted to know how far bees could travel badly
D.The record was in fact as exact as he had thought
4.Researchers follow the movements of bees mainly to___
A.learn how far they can fly at most
B.discover how they affect the plants
C.correct some wrong ideas about bees
D.get to know where they enjoy living
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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Where are the bees?
Bees are essential to the production of food we eat. Bees make honey, but they also pollinate (授粉) large areas of ________, such as strawberries, apples and onions. About a. third of the food we eat is a(n) __________ of pollination of the bees. _______, bees have been disappearing at a(n) f _______ rate.
In 2006, beekeepers started reporting about something called Colony Collapse Disaster (CCD). The main sign of CCD is the __________ of adult honey bees from a hive. In October of 2006, some beekeepers reported that they had lost between 30 and 90 percent of their hives.
There were many ________ for the disappearance of the bees. But the most convincing one has to _________ pesticides and lifestyles of bees today. Nowadays, beekeepers get most of their income not from, __________ honey but from renting bees to pollinate plants. This means that the life of the typical bee now __________ travelling all around the country to pollinate crops as the __________ change. That means a lot of traveling on trucks, which is very ________ to bees. It is __________ for up to 30% of the hive to die during __________ due to stress. In addition, bees that spend most of their time locked up on trucks are not __________ what they usually live on. __________, they live on a sweet liquid from corn, usually polluted with pesticides.
The __________ reason for the disappearance of bees is not sure, but losing bees is very_______ to the economy. The bee pollination services are _______ over $ 8 billion a year. With no bees, pollination will have to be done ________, which would have, effects on the quality, of food and increase food prices. We hear a lot about big environmental disasters almost every day. But one of the biggest __________ be the loss of that tiny flying insect.
1.A.flowers B.trees C.crops D.grass
2.A.protection. B.result C.power D.impact
3.A.Eventually B.Accidentally C.Interestingly D.Unfortunately
4.A.alarming B.moderate C.amusing D.reasonable
5.A.escape B.loss C.boom D.growth
6.A.chances B.theories C.adjustments D.excuses
7.A.go with B.agree with C.do with D.deal with
8.A.producing B.buying C.giving away D.processing
9.A.consists of B.accounts for C.lies in D.counts on
10.A.beekeepers B.behaviors C.prices D.seasons
11.A.beneficial B.acceptable C.stressful D.familiar
12.A.avoidable B.temporary C.not unusual D.rare
13.A.flight B.circle C.stay D.transport
14.A.interested in B.exposed to C.accustomed to D.hunting for
15.A.Or else B.However C.Therefore D.Instead
16.A.exact B.extra C.complex D.original
17.A.exciting B.great C.contrary D.costly
18.A.spending B.paying C.worth D.valuable
19.A.by chance B.by hand C.in time D.in turn
20.A.may well B.need C.must D.can’t
高三英语完形填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
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Where are the Bees?
Bees are essential to the production of food we eat. Bees make honey, but they also pollinate (授粉) large areas of _______ such as strawberries, apples and onions. About a third of the food we eat is a(n) _______ of pollination of the bees. _______, bees have been disappearing at a(n) _______ rate.
In 2006, beekeepers started reporting about something called Colony Collapse Disaster (CCD). The main sign of CCD is the _______ of adult honey bees from a hive. In October of 2006, some beekeepers reported that they had lost between 30 and 90 percent of their hives.
There were many _______ for the disappearance of the bees. But the most convincing one has been _______to pesticides (杀虫剂) and lifestyles of bees today. Nowadays beekeepers get most of their income not from _______ honey but from renting bees to pollinate plants. This means that the life of the typical bee now _______ travelling all around the country to pollinate crops as the ________ change. That means a lot of traveling on trucks, which is very ________ to bees. It is not ________ for up to 30% of the hive to die during ________ due to stress. In addition, bees that spend most of their time locked up on trucks are not ________ what they usually live on. ________, they live on a sweet liquid from corn, usually polluted with pesticides.
The ________ reason for the disappearance of bees is not sure, but losing bees is very ________ to the economy. The bee pollination services are ________ over 8 billion a year. With no bees, pollination will have to be done ________, which would have effects on the quality of food and increase food prices. We hear a lot about big environmental disasters almost every day. ________ one of the biggest may well be the loss of that tiny flying insect.
1.A.flowers B.trees C.crops D.grass
2.A.protection B.result C.power D.impact
3.A.Eventually B.Accidentally C.Interestingly D.Unfortunately
4.A.alarming B.moderate C.amusing D.reasonable
5.A.escape B.loss C.boom D.growth
6.A.chances B.theories C.adjustments D.excuses
7.A.applied B.associated C.related D.involved
8.A.producing B.buying C.keeping D.processing
9.A.includes B.consists C.considers D.stands
10.A.beekeepers B.behaviors C.prices D.seasons
11.A.beneficial B.acceptable C.stressful D.familiar
12.A.likely B.necessary C.unusual D.common
13.A.flight B.circle C.stay D.transport
14.A.interested in B.exposed to C.accustomed to D.hunting for
15.A.Thus B.Otherwise C.Therefore D.Instead
16.A.exact B.extra C.complex D.original
17.A.essential B.dangerous C.insignificant D.costly
18.A.demanding B.remaining C.worth D.valuable
19.A.by chance B.by hand C.in time D.in turn
20.A.But B.For C.Or D.So
高三英语完形填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
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Bees play a vital role in the world. Unfortunately, bees are dying by the second.
The main purpose of bees is to make honey. Honey, shockingly, does not exist for human consumption, it is essential to the insects. Honeybees store honey in their hives (蜂巢) in order for the bees to have energy for their flight muscles and for heating the hive during the winter period. They collect pollen (花粉) which supplies protein for young bees to grow.
According to Honey, com, the increased production and quality of agricultural crops as a result of honey bee pollination is valued &t more than1 $14/ 6 billion per year. These insects are responsible for over 70 of the fruits and vegetables we eat today, including apples, grapes, coffee, beans, and broccoli.
So if they are so valuable to agriculture, why do they keep dying off? A key suspect seems to be pesticides (农药). Honeybees who are exposed to pesticides result in the damage to their neurological (神经的) functions, specifically memory or behavior. And that's why the majority of worker bees disappear and leave behind a queen, plenty of food and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees and the queen. There are several other causes to the decline of bees, including the destruction of natural habitat, like woodlands, forests, and other habitats for bees. Climate change is also a factor in the decline of the wild bee population.
Actually, there are a variety of methods to help the bee population grow. One way is to start your own organic garden by planting bee-friendly plants. Pesticides are used in both industrial practices and even in your home, so it is best to find organic seeds and weed killers.
1.Why do honeybees store honey in their hives?
A. To provide enough honey for human to consume.
B. To draw protein out of honey for young bees.
C. To help attract other insects and make hives stronger.
D. To strengthen bee muscles and heat hives in winter.
2.Apples and beans are mentioned in the third paragraph to show that _.
A. bees supply human beings with basic food
B. bees mainly live on these agricultural crops
C. bees are of great importance to fruits and vegetables
D. bees can bring in more money for famers every year
3.What is most likely to cause the worker bees to leave their hives behind?
A. The lack of food.
B. The abuse of pesticides.
C. The fighting among bees.
D. The destruction of the habitats.
4.What would the author probably discuss in the paragraph that follows?
A. Another way to save bees.
B. Other tips for choosing seeds.
C. More methods to plant green organic fruits.
D. Causes of the decline in the wild bee population.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
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Bees in a colony work with each other to gather food, and they try to find the most nectar (花蜜)in the least amount of time possible. A small number of bees work as searchers, but when a good flower patch (花丛) is found, how do they tell other bees where to find it?
Bees communicate flower location using special dances inside the hive, where bees live. One bee dances while the other bees watch. The dancing bee smells like the flower patch, and also gives the watching bees a taste of the nectar she has gathered. Smell and taste helps other bees find the correct flower patch. Bees use two different kinds of dances to communicate information: the waggle (摇摆) dance and the circle dance.
Waggle dance
The waggle dance tells the watching bees two things about a flower patch's location: the distance and the direction away from the hive.
A. Distance
The dancing bee waggles back and forth as she moves forward in a straight line, then circlesaround to repeat the dance. The length of the middle line, called the waggle run, shows roughly how far it is to the flower patch.
B. Direction
Bees know which way is up and which way is down inside their hive, and they use this to show direction. How? Bees dance with the waggle run at a specific angle away from straight up. Outside the hive, bees look at the position of the sun, and fly at the same angle away from the sun.
Circle dance
The circle dance tells the watching bees only one thing about the flower patch’s location: that it is somewhere close to the hive.
In this dance, the bee walks in a circle, turns around, then walks the same circle in the opposite direction. Sometimes, the bee includes a little waggle as she’s turning around. The duration of this waggle is thought to indicate the quality of the flower patch.
1.Why does the searcher give the watching bees a taste of the nectar?
A. To inform them of the distance of the flower.
B. To celebrate her success of finding the nectar.
C. To motivate them to collect the nectar.
D. To ensure the bees find the right patch.
2.Which of the following statements is TRUE about the dances?
A. The searcher’s waggle means little during the circle dance.
B. The waggle dance indicates the direction of the flower patch.
C. The waggle dance shows precisely how far the flower patch is.
D. The quality of the flower patch is not shown in the circle dance.
3.If the searcher dances inside the hive in this way(see the right picture), which of the following is the WRONG flying direction for the other bees?
A.
B. 
C. 
D. 
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
