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Scientist Thomas Seeley has been studying the ability of honeybees to make good decisions. People can learn a lot from bees. If people could be as effective in offices and town meetings, Seeley says, we could avoid problems of making decisions.
Seeley and others are especially interested in how colonies(集聚地) of honeybees choose a new home. In late spring, when a hive gets too crowded, a colony usually divides. The queen bee (the leader of the hive), some male bees, and about half the workers fly away and meet again on a tree branch. Most of the bees wait there. A few other bees search for a new place to live in. The best home will be a hole in a tree, high off the ground. The new hive will have lots of room inside for young bees and honey. Once a colony chooses a place, it usually won’t move again. It has to make the right choice.
The bees have rules for making decisions. Small groups look for different places where they could live. They do dance to compete for the best idea. Then they narrow choices by gathering at the site they like best. “I’ve applied what I’ve learned from the bees to use at the worker meetings,” Seeley says. He tries not to make a decision before going to a meeting. Seeley asks his group to discuss their ideas, and then make a secret vote (投票). “In fact, almost any group that follows the bees rules will make itself smarter,” says James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds. “The bees are predicting which nest place will be the best, and humans can do the same thing.”
1. According to Thomas Seeley, we know honeybees have the ability to _________.
| A．make good decisions | B．make warm homes | C．make lots of friends |
2. Which of the following words best describe bees when they choose a place?
| A．Outgoing. | B．Confident. | C．Serious. |
3. Which paragraph tells about the rule for bees to make decisions?
| A．Paragraph 1. | B．Paragraph 2. | C．Paragraph 3. |
4. The writer wrote this passage to _________.
| A．show us the bee rules |
| B．explain why bees are clever |
| C．introduce the differences between bees and other animals |
