Scientists in Australia have found that bees seem to understand the idea of zero. This is surprising since bees have very small brains. Studies have shown that only humans and a few animals, such as monkeys and some birds, understand zero. And humans don't usually understand it until they're around four years old. But bees are smarter than they look. Scientists already knew that bees could count up to four. They also knew that bees could "talk to" each other. By dancing in some ways, bees can tell other bees how far away food is and in what direction.
Scientists at RMIT University in Australia came up with a smart way to test whether bees understood the
concept of "zero". They prepared some cards with different numbers of shapes on them. First they had to train the bees by giving them sugar water to make them choose the cards with fewer shapes on them. They put something sour(酸的) under the cards with more shapes on them. Soon the bees knew there was sugar water under the cards with fewer shapes.
After many tests, the bees learned to choose the cards with different numbers of shapes. Then came the interesting part. The scientists took out a card with nothing on it. Even though they had never seen it, the trained bees chose the blank(空白的) card. This showed that they knew that zero, or "none", meant less than "some".
Bees' brains are about 86,000 times smaller than the brains of humans. How are they able to do so much with such a small brain? Scientists want to study more bees to find out more. Many are now trying to create machines that can "think" like bees. By learning how the bees' brains work, they may be able to use some of those ideas to teach computers and robots some new tricks.
(
D
)6. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?
A. Bees are smarter than monkeys.
B. Most animals can count up to four.
C. Humans can understand zero from birth.
D. Dancing is a form of bees' communication.
(
D
)7. What did the scientists use sugar water for?
A. To train the bees to choose the cards with more shapes.
B. To test if bees understand the meaning of numbers.
C. To check if bees can tell sweetness from sourness.
D. To encourage the bees to choose the cards with fewer shapes.
(
A
)8. The interesting result of the test was that
the bees chose the blank card
.
A. the bees chose the blank card
B. the bees landed on the sugar water
C. the bees flew towards the sour water
D. the bees chose the cards with some shapes
(
B
)9. The underlined word "concept" in the second paragraph is closest in meaning to "
idea
".
A. number
B. idea
C. skill
D. goal
(
C
)10. Which is the best title for the passage?
A. Bees Are in Need of Protection
B. Bees Are Important to Humans
C. Bees Know the Meaning of Zero
D. Bees Have Funny Social Activities
