Walk through Times Square—you’re bombarded with advertising. And it turns out, a bumblebee might have a similar feeling, buzzing through a field of flowers. “So these flowers are these billboards, they’re advertising a commodity, this delicious nectar (花蜜) reward, and bees are very picky shoppers”, says Anne Leonard, a pollination biologist at the University of Nevada, Reno.
She describes a flower field as a sort of pollination marketplace. “Bees are nectar experts. They are really good at assessing even really small differences in the sugar concentration of nectar.” They also scope out flower shape and size, color and scent. And now Leonard and her colleagues have discovered that bumblebees are also sensitive to pollen.
They found that out by lacing batches of cherry pollen with either table sugar or bitter quinine. And to display the pollen to bees, “We got really into it—we started 3-D printing flowers in our lab.” And for the anther—the male flower part, which presents the pollen —pipe cleaners. “So we bought out Michael’s craft store supplies of these pipe cleaners and used them in our experiments.”
It turns out bees would return again and again to the same color flower that dispensed sweet pollen, and spend more time collecting there. But when confronted with the bitter pollen, they sought a different colored flower for their very next stop. All of which suggests that, in addition to savoring nectar, bees taste pollen too—and judge flowers by it. The results are in the journal Biology Letters.
The finding means that plants have to find a happy medium: “So can you make your pollen attractive enough that the bees will collect it, but distasteful enough that they won’t collect too much of it?” And that balancing act, of carefully calibrated chemistry(校准化学)—it’s just one of the many transactions that plays out in the buzzing pollination marketplace, where the object is to make a sweet profit.
1. What does the author compare a flower field to?
2. Why are bees described as nectar experts?
3. What are used to present the pollen by Anne and her colleagues in their experiments?
4. How do bees choose where to visit in a flower field according to the passage?
5. What do Anne and her colleagues’ research findings suggest?
问题1选项
A.Times Square.
B.A commodity.
C.A billboard.
D.A shopper.
问题2选项
A.Because they are able to detect differences in sugar levels of nectar.
B.Because they are capable of discerning different types of flowers.
C.Because they know instinctively where to collect more nectar.
D.Because they could distinguish sweet pollen from bitter one.
问题3选项
A.3-D printers.
B.Pipe cleaners.
C.Sugar.
D.Quinine.
问题4选项
A.By color and scent of flowers.
B.By taste of nectar and pollen.
C.By maleness or femaleness of flowers.
D.By shape and size of flowers.
问题5选项
A.Calibrated chemistry is very useful in changing the structure of pollen.
B.Attracting more bees to pollinate could make plants more productive.
C.The more bees to be attracted, the better it will be for the pollen.
D.The taste of pollen can be controlled for commercial purpose.
第1题:A
第2题:A
第3题:A
第4题:A
第5题:D
1.【试题答案】A
【试题解析】细节事实题。根据题干可定位到文章第一段“Walk through Times Square—you’re bombarded with advertising. And it turns out, a bumblebee might have a similar feeling, buzzing through a field of flowers. ‘So these flowers are these billboards, they’re advertising a commodity, this delicious nectar (花蜜) reward, and bees are very picky shoppers’（走过纽约时代广场，你会被广告不断侵扰。事实证明，熊蜂在嗡嗡地飞过花田时，可能会有类似的感觉。因为这些花朵就像是那些广告牌，它们在为这些美味可口的花蜜打广告，而蜜蜂就是那些非常挑剔的消费者）”。由此可知作者把花田比作时代广场，把花朵比作广告牌。A选项“时代广场”；B选项“一种商品”；C选项“广告牌”；D选项“购物者”。B、C、D选项均不符合题意，因此A选项正确。
2.【试题答案】A
【试题解析】细节事实题。根据题干可定位到文章第二段“Bees are nectar experts. They are really good at assessing even really small differences in the sugar concentration of nectar.（蜜蜂是花蜜专家。它们很擅长评估花蜜，即使花蜜糖的浓度存在微小的区别它们也能感觉到。）”。A选项“因为它们能够检测出花蜜中糖分水平的差异”；B选项“因为它们能够辨别不同种类的花”；C选项“因为它们本能地知道去哪里采集更多的花蜜”；D选项“因为它们可以区分甜花粉和苦花粉”。B、C、D选项均不符合题意，因此A选项正确。
3.【试题答案】A
【试题解析】细节事实题。根据题干可定位到文章第三段“And to display the pollen to bees, ‘We got really into it—we started 3-D printing flowers in our lab.’（为了向蜜蜂展示花粉，‘我们进行了非常深入地研究，我们开始在实验室用3D技术打印花朵。’）”。A选项“3D打印技术”正确；B选项“清管器”是为了呈现花药部分；C选项“甜蔗糖”和D选项“苦奎宁”是为了试验蜜蜂对花粉味道的评估。因此A选项正确。
4.【试题答案】A
【试题解析】细节事实题。根据题干可定位到文章第四段“It turns out bees would return again and again to the same color flower that dispensed sweet pollen, and spend more time collecting there.（实验证明，蜜蜂会在含有甜蔗糖花粉的相同颜色花朵间重复往返，并且花费更多的时间来采集。）”。A选项“根据花的颜色和气味”正确；B选项“通过花蜜和花粉的味道”；C选项“通过花的雄性或雌性”；D选项“根据花朵的形状和大小”。B、C、D选项均不符合题意，因此A选项正确。
5.【试题答案】D
【试题解析】判断推理题。根据题干可定位到文章最后一段“And that balancing act, of carefully calibrated chemistry(校准化学)—it’s just one of the many transactions that plays out in the buzzing pollination marketplace, where the object is to make a sweet profit.（这一精确校准化学的平衡做法，只是蜜蜂授粉市场上进行的众多交易中的其中一种。该市场的目标是获得甜蜜的利润。）”，由此可知市场上很多人为了商业利润会人为的控制花粉的味道。A选项“校准化学在改变花粉结构方面非常有用”看似正确，但是联系全文以及安妮和同事们的研究，她们试验的结果主要还是表明花粉味道的可控性；B选项“吸引更多的蜜蜂授粉可以使植物更多产”和C选项“吸引的蜜蜂越多，花粉就越好”都不符合题意；D选项“为了商业目的，花粉的味道可以被控制”说法正确，因此D选项正确。
