What unusual or unique biological train led to the remarkable diversification and unchallenged success of the ants for ever 50 million years? The answer appears to be that they were the first group of predatory ensocial insects that both lived and foraged Line primarily in the soil and in rotting vegetation on the ground. Eusocial refers to a form (5) of insect society characterized by specialization of tasks and cooperative care of the young; it is rare among insects. Richly organized colonies of the land made possible by eusociality enjoy several key advantages over solitary individuals.
Under most circumstances groups of workers arc better able to forage for food and defend the nest, because they can switch from individual to group response and back (10) again swiftly and according to need. When a food object or nest intruder is too large for one individual to handle, nestmates can be quickly assembled by alarm or recruitment signals. Equally important is the fact that the execution of multiple-step tasks is accomplished in a series-parallel sequence. That is, individual ants can specialize in particular steps, moving from one object (such as a larva to be fed) to another (a second (15) larva to be fed). They do not need to carry each task to completion from start to finish—for example, to check the larva first, then collect the food, then feed the larva. Hence, if each link in the chain has many workers in attendance, a senes directed at any particular object is less likely to fail. Moreover, ants specializing in particular labor categories typically constitute a caste specialized by age or body form or both. There has bees some (20) documentation of the superiority in performance and net energetic yield of various castes for their modal tasks, although careful experimental studies are still relatively few.
What makes ants unusual in the company of eusocial insects is the fact that they are the only eusocial predators (predators are animals that capture and feed on other animals) occupying the soil and ground litter. The eusocial termites live in the same places as ants and also have wingless workers, but they feed almost exclusively on dead vegetation. Comment 1: 在多数情况下,工蚁合作可以更好地搜寻食物,保卫巢穴,它们可以随时组成团队完成任务或是在需要时解散。
Comment 2:同样重要的是,多步骤的任务是并行完成的。
10. Which of the following questions does the passage primarily answer?
(A) How do individual ants adapt to specialized tasks?
(B) What are the differences between social and solitary insects?
(C) Why are ants predators?
(D) Why have ants been able to thrive for such a long time?
解析:文章第一句提到“What unusual or unique biological train led to the remarkable diversification and unchallenged success of the ants for ever 50 million years?”意思是说5000万年来,究竟是何种独特的生物学动力导致了蚂蚁不寻常的多样化和勿庸置疑的成功?可见,文章主要是来回答这样一个问题,故选D。
11. The word "unique" in line 1 is closest in meaning to
(A) inherited
(B) habitual
(C) singular
(D) natural
解析:inherited,遗传的;habitual,习惯性的;singular,单一的、异常的;natural,自然的。unique本意为“独特的”,故选择与其最接近的C。
12. The word "rotting" in line 4 is closest in meaning to
(A) decaying
(B) collected
(C) expanding
(D) cultivated
解析:decaying,腐烂的;collected,收集成的;expanding,扩张的;cultivated,培植的。rotting本意为“腐烂的”,故选A。
13. The word "key" in line 7 is closest in meaning to
(A) uncommon
(B) important
(C) incidental
(D) temporary
解析:uncommon,不寻常的;important,重要的;incidental,偶然的;temporary
时的。key本意为“重要的”,故选B。
14. According to the passage, one thing eusocial insects can do is rapidly switch from
(A) one type of food consumption to another
(B) one environment to another
(C) a solitary task to a group task
(D) a defensive to an offensive stance
解析:文中第10行至第12行提到“When a food object or nest intruder is too large for one individual to handle, nestmates can be quickly assembled by alarm or recruitment signals.”意思是说当目标食物或是巢穴入侵者大到单个蚂蚁无法应对时,巢友们可以通过警报或征募信号快速集结。可见C为正确选项。
15. The task of feeding larvae is mentioned in thepassage to demonstrate
(A) the advantages of specialization
(B) the type of food that larvae are fed
(C) the ways ant colonies train their young for adult tasks
(D) the different stages of ant development
解析:文中第13行至第15行提到蚂蚁哺育幼虫时说“individual ants can specialize in particular steps, moving from one object (such as a larva to be fed) to another (a second larva to be fed). They do not need to carry each task to completion from start to finish”意思是单个蚂蚁可以专注于某几步骤的工作,从一个对象(如喂养幼虫)移到另一个对象(如喂养下一个幼虫)。它们不需要从头到尾完成一项工作。由此可见蚂蚁的分工具有单一性的特点。故选A。
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