Unit 22 Bees

Lesson85 THE LANGUAGE OF HONEY BEES(1)

I. Do true or false on p229 of the workbook

II. Reading comprehension:

1. Which of the following statements is right?

A. All the bees live together.

B. Most bees live together.

C. Many bees live together.

D. Some bees live together.

2. The scientists can study the language of honey bees only after the development of

_________.

A. the modern beehive B. experiments

C. dishes of honey D. both A and B

3. You can find out the main idea of the text simply from_______.

A. the title

B. the first sentence of paragraph 1

C. the first sentence of paragraph 2

D. the first sentence of paragraph 3

4. The phrase “ tell the bees apart” in paragraph 2 means _________.

A. let the bees live separately

B. tell one bee from the other

C. drive the bee away

D. tear the bees into pieces

5. Karl von Frisch made an experiment to research _________.

A. the food of honey bees

B. the dance of honey bees

C. the hive of honey bees

D. the ways honey bees communicate

6. The marked bee told the other bees by ________.

A. making a circle to the left

B. making a circle to the right

C. performing a circle dance

D. all of the above

7. After the marked bee danced, the other bees ______.

A. danced together

B. became very excited

C. seemed not to notice it

D. both A and B

8. Different dances indicate different _______.

A. food B. feeding places

C. steps D. semicircles

9. The circle dance communicates ________.

A. the distance of food

B. the information of food

C. the amount of food

D. both A and B

(D;D;A;B;D;D;D;B;D)

III. Questions:

1. How did Karl von Frisch find that one bee was able to communicate the news of food to the other bees in its hive?

2. How did Karl von Frisch find out whether the dance of one bee told the other bees how far away the feeding place was?

Suggested answers:

1. First Karl von Frisch built special hives, and each hive had got only one honeycomb. He then built a glass wall so that he cold watch what was going on inside. In order to tell the bees apart, he painted some bees with little spots of colour. When all this was ready, he watched through the glass. He found that as soon as a marked bee returned to the hive from the feeding place, the bee began to perform a dance on the surface of the honeycomb. And the circle dance, he thought, seemed to communicate news of food.

2. Karl von Frisch set up two feeding places. One was close to the hive while the other was much farther away from the hive. He marked all the bees that came to the nearby feeding place blue, and all the bees that went to the faraway place were marked red. When all these bees came back to the hive, he found that all the “blue” bees were doing a circle dance. But the “red” bees were doing a wagging dance. Things were quite clear now. the circle dance meant that food was near, while the wagging dance meant that food was far away.

Lesson 86 THE LANGUAGE OF HONEY BEES (2)

I. Do true or false on p230 of the workbook

II. Reading comprehension:

1. Which of the sentences tells the main idea of paragraph 1?

A. But then another question came up.

B. The number of wagging dances per minute told the exact distance to the feeding place.

C. Von Frisch and his co-workers wet up a feeding place close to the hive.

D. Then they slowly moved it farther and farther away.

2. The phrase “came to light” in paragraph 1 means ________.

A. became known

B. came to a bright place

C. turned bright

D. both B and C

3. We can rewrite the last sentence of paragraph 1 as “_______”

A. They also discovered that bees can only fly 3.2 kilometres.

B. They also discovered that bees can fly as far as 3.2 kilometres.

C. They also discovered that the farthest distance bees can fly is 3.2 kilometres.

D. Both B and C.

4. the word “astonishing” in paragraph 1 means ______.

A. unusual B. surprising

C. frightening D. shocking

5. Which paragraph(s) is (are) mainly about “the wagging dance shows direction”?

A. Paragraph 2 B. Paragraph 3

C. Paragraph 2 and 3 D. Paragraph 2, 3 and 4

6. The different position of the sun can be shown by _______.

A. the right part of the wagging dance

B. the right part of the circle dance

C. the straight part of the wagging dance

D. the straight part of the circle dance

7. Which of the following statements is possible according to the last paragraph?

A. We human beings can communicate as honey bees do

B. We human beings can go as quickly as honey bees.

C. We human beings can come to help each other in a very fast way.

D. We human beings can learn something from animals’ behavior

(B;A;D;B;C;C;D)

III. Questions:

1. Did the wagging dance tell the bees how far away the food was?

2. How did the bees learn the direction of a feeding place?

Suggested answers:

1. In order to answer this question, Karl von Frisch and his co-workers set up a feeding place close to the hive. Then they slowly moved it farther and farther away. They then watched the wagging dance and discovered that the father away the feeding station was, the slower the dance was. So it was clear that the number of wagging dances per minute told the exact distance to the feeding place.

2. Karl von Frisch watched the wagging dance very carefully. He noticed that the straight part of the dance was different in the afternoon from what it had been in the morning. He found out that the straight part of the dance changed when the sun’s position changed. If the feeding place was toward the sun, the dancer headed straight upward during the straight part of the wagging dance. If the feeding place was away from the sun, the straight part of the wagging dance pointed downward. In this way, the wagging dance of the bee showed the direction of a feeding place.