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Reading Practice
The Ecological Importance of Bees
A
Sometime in the early Cretaceous period of
the Earth's history, hunting wasps of a certain type became bees by adopting a
vegetarian diet: they began to rely more and more on the pollen of plants as a
source of protein for themselves and their offspring, as an alternative to
insects. In so doing, they accidentally transported pollen on their bodies to
other plants of the same species, bringing about pollination. The stage was
thus set for a succession of ever-closer mutual adaptations of bees and
flowering plants. In particular, flowers began to reward bees for their
unwitting role in their reproduction by providing richer sources of pollen and
another source of nutrition, nectar.
B
Today about 15 per cent of our diet consists
of crops which are pollinated by bees. The meat and other animal products we
consume are ultimately derived from bee- pollinated forage crops, and account
for another 15 per cent. It follows that around one third of our food is
directly or indirectly dependent on the pollinating services of bees. On a
global basis, the annual value of agricultural crops dependent on the
pollination services of bees is estimated at £1,000 million (US$1,590 million).
Much of this pollination is due to honey bees, and in monetary terms it exceeds
the value of the annual honey crop by a factor of fifty.
C
But the apparently harmonious relationship
between bees and plants conceals a conflict of interests. Although flowers need
bees and vice versa, it pays each partner to minimise its costs and maximise
its profits. This may sound like an extreme case of attributing human qualities
to non-human species, but using the marketplace and the principles of
double-entry book keeping as metaphors may give US some insights into what is
really going on between bees and flowering plants. In the real world, both
flower and bee operate in a competitive marketplace. A community of retailers,
the flowers, seek to attract more or less discriminating consumers, the bees.
Each flower has to juggle the costs and benefits of investing in advertising,
by colour and scent, and providing rewards, nectar and pollen, clearly a
species which depends on cross-pollination is on a knife-edge: it must provide
sufficient nectar to attract the interest of a bee, but not enough to satisfy
all of its needs in one visit. A satiated bee would return to its nest rather
than visit another flower. The bee, on the other hand, is out to get the
maximum amount of pollen and nectar. It must assess the quality and quantity of
rewards which are on offer and juggle its energy costs so that it makes a
calorific profit on each foraging trip. The apparent harmony between plants and
bees is therefore not all that it seems. Instead, it is an equilibrium based on
compromises between the competing interests of the protagonists.
D
This sounds remarkably like the ideas of the
18th-century economist Adam Smith. In his book, The Wealth of Nations, Smith postulated that in human society the
competitive interactions of different ‘economic units' eventually resulted in a
balanced, or ‘harmonious’ society. One might predict, therefore, that
economists would find the relationships between bees and plants of some
interest. This is the case in Israel, where economists are collaborating with
botanists and entomologists in a long-term study of the pollination biology of
the native flora, in an attempt to understand the dynamics of the relationship
between communities of bees and plants.
E
This sort of study is of more than passing
academic interest. It is important that authorities understand the dynamic
relationships between plants and their pollinators. This is especially true
when, say, devising conservation policies. A good example comes from the
forests of tropical South America. Here, as in all rainforests, there is a high
diversity of tree species. There may be more than 120 per acre, but in a given
acre there may only be one or two individuals of any one species: These trees
are pollinated by large, fast-flying bees. There is evidence that certain types
of bees learn the distribution of these scattered trees and forage regularly
along the same routes. This is called ‘trap-lining’ and the bees forage for up
to 23 km from their nests. The bees are therefore acting as long distance
pollinators.
F
An issue of current concern in tropical
forest conservation is that of trying to estimate the minimum sustainable size
of islands' of forest reserve in areas where large-scale felling is taking
place. There is much discussion on seed dispersal distances. But this is only
one half of the equation, so far as the reproduction of trees is concerned.
There is another question that must be addressed in order to calculate whether
proposed forest reserves are close enough to the nearest large tract of forest:
‘what is the flight range of these longdistance foragers?' We need to know much
more about bees and their relationships with plants before this question can be
answered.
G
Bees, then, are vital to our survival.
Furthermore, much of the visual impact of human environments derives from
vegetation, and most vegetation is dependent on bees for pollination. Thus, as
pollinators of crops and natural vegetation, bees occupy key positions in the
web of relationships which sustain the living architecture of our planet.
Questions 1-5
Reading Passage has seven paragraphs, A-G
Choose
the correct heading for paragraphs
A, B, D, E and F from the list of
headings below.
Write
the correct number, i-viii, in boxes
1-5 on your answer sheet. List of Headings
i
Parallels between bee and human activities
ii
An evolutionary turning point
iii
A lack of total co-operation iv The preservation of individual plant
species
v
The commercial value of bees
vi
The structure of flowering plants vii The
pursuit of self-interest viii The need for further research
1..................... Paragraph A
2..................... Paragraph B
Example
Paragraph
C vii
3.....................
Paragraph D
4.....................Paragraph E
5.....................Paragraph F
Questions 6-12
Complete
the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
Write
your answers in boxes 6-12 on your answer sheet.
6. Hunting
wasps used to feed on other 6.....................,
rather than on vegetation.
7. Flowering
plants started to reward bees with rich pollen and an additional food in the
form of 7.....................
8. Approximately
8..................... of human food
production relies on the activity of bees.
9. If
the process of 9.....................
is to take place effectively, bees need to travel from one flower to another
before going back to the nest.
10. Bees
need to balance the 10.....................
of each trip against the calorific rewards they obtain.
11. There
can be over 120 different 11.....................
in. an acre of rainforest.
12. The
bees that pollinate large forests regularly practise an activity known as 12.....................
Question 13
Choose the correct letter , A, B, C or D. Write the correct
letter in box 13 on your answer sheet.
Which is the best title for Reading Passage ?
A The
Ecological Importance of Bees
B The
Evolutionary History of Bees
C The
Social Behaviour of Bees
D The
Geographical Distribution of Bees
Solution:
|
1. ii |
8. one third |
|
2. v |
9. cross-pollination |
|
3. i |
10. energy costs |
|
4. iv |
11. tree species |
|
5. viii |
12. trap-lining |
|
6. insects |
13. A |
7.
nectar
PASSWORD: Realexamreading2026
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