Around the world, honeybee groups are dying in huge numbers: About one-third of nests collapse each year. For bees and the plants they pollinate (授粉) — as well as for beekeepers, farmers, honey lovers and everyone else who appreciates this marvelous social insect — this is a catastrophe.

Honeybee collapse has been particularly worrying because there is no one cause, but rather a thousand little cuts. The main elements include the mixed impact of pesticides (杀虫剂) applied to fields, as well as pesticides applied directly into nets to control bugs, pests and diseases; nutritional shortages caused by vast acreages of single-crop fields that lack diverse flowering plants; and commercial beekeeping itself, which destroys groups by moving most bees around the country multiple times each year to pollinate crops.

The real issue, though, is not the volume of problems, but the interactions among them. Here we find a major lesson from the bees that we ignore at our risk: the concept of synergy (协同作用), where one plus one equals three, or four, or more. A typical honeybee colony contains remains from more than 120 pesticides. Alone, each represents a benign dose (良性剂量). But together they form a poisonous soup of chemicals whose interplay (相互作用) can greatly reduce the effectiveness of bees’ immune systems, making them easier to suffer from diseases.

Observing the death of honeybees should warn us that our own well-being might be similarly threatened, and the widespread collapse of so many groups presents a clear message: We must demand that our regulatory authorities require studies on how exposure to low dosages of combined chemicals may affect human health before approving compounds.

Bees also provide some clues to how we may build a more collaborative relationship with the services that ecosystems can provide. Bees could offer some of the pollination service needed for agriculture. People discovered that crop harvests, and thus profits, are maximized if some cropland are left uncultivated for bees. Meanwhile a variety of wild plants means a healthier, more diverse bee population, which will then move to the planted fields next door in larger and more active numbers.

1.Which of the following is NOT the cause that leads to bees dying?

A. Lack of nutrition from enough diverse flowering plants.

B. The pests and diseases of the bees.

C. The beekeepers’ destroying without intention

D. The pesticides applied to crops.

2.By saying “one plus one equals three, or four, or more” in Paragraph 3, the author means that ____.

A. bees united mean they are much more powerful

B. bees united mean they are much more poisonous

C. pesticides mixed mean they are much more poisonous.

D. pesticides mixed mean they are much more effective.

3.The lesson people can learn from bees dying is that ____________.

A. medicine is as powerful as pesticide

B. our health might be threatened by pesticides

C. we should protect bees by reducing the usage of pesticides

D. medicine may be harmful to us when used together

4.What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A. Keeping a balance with nature is important

B. More plants mean more and healthier bees.

C. Bees are very important to agriculture.

D. Bees can bring in good higher profits to farmers

An 80-year-old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45-year-old son. Suddenly a crow(乌鸦) landed on their window.

The father asked his son, “What is that?”

The son replied, “That is a crow.”

After a few minutes, the father asked his son for the second time, “What is that?”

The son said, “Father, I told you just now. it is a crow.”

After a little while, the father asked his son the same question for the third time, “What is that?”

This time his son shouted at his father, “Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again? I have told you already. ‘IT IS A CROW.’ Are you not able to understand this?”

A minute later the father went to his room and came back with a diary, which he had kept since his son was born. On opening a page, he asked his son to read that page:

Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa, when a crow suddenly landed on the window edge. My son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied him 23 times that it was a crow. I hugged him lovingly each time he asked me the same question. I did not at all feel angry, but instead felt affection for my son.

If your parents reach old age, do not look at them as a burden, but speak to them gently, and be kind to them. Form today on say this aloud, “I want to see my parents happy forever. They have cared for me ever since I was a little child. They have always showered me with love. I will take care of my old parents in the BEST way no matter how they behave.”

1.The writer mainly wants to .

A.call on us to love our parents

B.tell us the function of a diary

C.teach us what a crow is

D.introduce a pair of son and father

2.According to the passage, the son felt when his father kept asking the same question.

A.puzzled B.grateful

C.angry D.surprised

3.We can know that the father wrote this diary at the age of .

A.eighty B.forty-five

C.thirty-eight D.thirty-five

4.The old man brought out the diary, which he had kept since his son was born, because.

A.he forgot what had happened

B.he would like his son to read it

C.it could remind himself of the past

D.he wanted to find what a crow was in his diary

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网