1 . When it comes to architectural accomplishments, humans like to think they stand at the top. That is to underestimate the astonishing achievement s of social insects; for example, white ants raise skyscraping nests. The true master builders of the insect world, however, are the hundreds of species of stingless bees.
In a new study, Ms. Di Pietro and her colleagues observed over 400 colonies of the stingless bee species in a large bee house in Brazil in 2022 and 2023. Around 95% of the colonies exhibited honeycombs (a structure made by bees) built up in horizontal layers (水平分层), like tiered wedding cakes, while the rest adopted a spiral (螺旋的) structure.
Since the stingless bee shows a strong preference for a horizontal-layer honeycomb structure, it’s surprising that spiral honeycombs occur. The team confirmed that there was no difference in the average cell-building rate between the two styles, and therefore no efficiency advantage.
In order to rule out a genetic explanation for the different styles, the researchers transplanted workers from colonies that built in one tradition to colonies that built in the other, having first emptied the host structures of their native adults. The imported workers soon switched to the local style, which was then continued by the colony’s young insects as they eventually matured into workers.
Dr. Tom Wenseleers guessed that the bees may switch styles as a way of coping with the build-up of small construction errors made by their fore-runners. Such a process, in which multiple organisms indirectly affect each other’s behavior through the traces they leave in their environment, is known as stigmergy (共识主动性). The researchers later introduced a sign of spirals to the otherwise perfect horizontal-layer honeycombs, and found that it did indeed cause the bees to switch to building spirals.
These results suggest that stingless bees can pass on different building traditions across generations and individuals needn’t be instructed by their peers. “The findings are the clearest demonstration of cultural differences naturally appearing in insects. Insect culture would once have been thought impossible,” says behavioral biologist Andrew Whiten, who wasn’t involved in the research. “Less than a century ago, culture was thought to be uniquely human.”
1. How does the author introduce the topic of the text?| A．By posing a contrast. | B．By reporting an event. |
| C．By supposing a situation. | D．By justifying an assumption. |
| A．It is a result driven by genetic factors. |
| B．It involves cost and efficiency considerations. |
| C．It is switched constantly between several styles. |
| D．It shows flexibility in the changing environments. |
| A．The impact of fore-runners’ behavior on other stingless bees. |
| B．The underlying logic behind stingless bees’ building styles. |
| C．The advantages of maintaining stigmergy among stingless bees. |
| D．The significance of correcting small errors during construction. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Conservative. |
| C．Favorable. | D．Critical. |
2 . Art Contest — Technology &You!
Technology is everywhere these days. Automation has pioneered innovation. Your phone is probably in your pocket or your hands at all times, and now it’s easier than ever to communicate with anyone in the world. What are your thoughts on technology, social media or your phone? Do you feel excitement every time you get a notification message, or do you feel tied down by these digital “chains”?
However you feel, we want you to put that into artwork-paintings, digital art or photography. One winner and several honorable mentions will be featured in the December 2024 magazine, and the winner will receive a $25 gift card! You may even see your art work in future issues of Teen Ink magazine.
Deadline: Nov. 1, 2024
Details and requirements:
Entrants must have a Teen Ink account and be aged 13～19.
Inappropriate content will not be accepted.
Submissions must relate to the topic (technology).
Entries must be a piece of artwork created by the entrants themselves.
Entrants can submit as many pieces of art as they wish.
How to submit:
Entries can be submitted through the Teen Ink website. All entries submitted will be reviewed and considered for the contest. See our submission guidelines for more information.
Make sure to submit your art work to the appropriate art category(technology) on Teen Ink. You can do this by using the “additional tags (标签)” field in your submission form.
1. What is the main theme of the art contest?| A．The development of technology. | B．The application of technology. |
| C．Innovations of technology. | D．Viewpoints on technology. |
| A．Submit original artwork. | B．Submit artwork with a unique tag. |
| C．Submit different types of artwork. | D．Submit only one piece of artwork. |
| A．A library. | B．A magazine. | C．An art school. | D．An art museum. |
3 . The American Psychological Association(APA) has issued its first advisory on social media use in adolescence (青春期). What’s most striking in its data based on recommendations is how little we really know about how these apps affect our kids.
The relative newness of platforms like Snapchat and Tik Tok means little research is available about their long-term effects on teen and tween brains. Getting better data will require significant funding—and much more openness from tech companies.
“What little evidence we do have unsurprisingly suggests that social media trades on motivators that aren’t great for young brains. Many kids’ first exposure to social media occurs at the worst possible time when it comes to brain development,” says Mitch Prinstein, a psychologist and neuroscientist at the University of North Carolina(UNC).
“Things like ‘button and artificial intelligence(in general)’ are going to affect young people’s brains in a way that’s very different from adult brains when it comes to the desire to stay online and to say or do almost anything to get followers.” When it comes to social interactions, he compares kids’ brains to a car with a huge gas pedal and weak brakes (刹车).
Earlier this year, Prinstein and his UNC colleagues published the results of one of the first studies of how the adolescent brain reacts to social media. The team surveyed a group of middle schoolers to understand their social media habits, and then stuck them in an MRI machine to watch their brains as they reacted to social rewards or punishments. They found that 12-year-olds who habitually checked social media had distinct neural patterns, with more activities over time in parts of the brain associated with motivation, salience(or where attention is focused) and cognitive control.
The team didn’t weigh in on whether those differences were good or bad, or whether the relationship was causal or correlational. But their work points to the need for more research. It should also remind parents of the need to be keenly aware of social media’s hidden influence on still-developing brains.
1. What issue regarding social media apps does the APA report highlight?| A．Their addictive nature. | B．The lack of data on their influence. |
| C．The dishonesty of their developers. | D．The ineffectiveness of their incentives. |
| A．Uncontrolled. | B．Sensitive. | C．Unpredictable. | D．Productive. |
| A．They are usually highly motivated. | B．They find it difficult to concentrate. |
| C．They have greater cognitive control. | D．Their brains show unique features. |
| A．Empowering Teens in the Digital Age |
| B．How to Guide Teens’ Social Media Engagement |
| C．The Hidden Influence of Social Media on Young Minds |
| D．The Importance of Healthy Social Media Habits |
4 . Parenting roles evolve from the full control and safekeeping of a young baby to the delicate dance between independence and guidance in adolescence (青春期). Eventually, our children become adults, and if we are lucky, we will have lifelong friendships with them.
Play is a key element of friendship with children. With babies and very young children, we play with them, engaging in back-and-forth activities. They often start the game, and we join in. They pull us into play, and we love it. In the language of experts who research children from birth to 3 years old, we express delight in these interactions. But delight often hits a snag when our children learn how to say “no”. From this point onward — into adolescence — we focus on getting children to behave. We tend to be the parent, not the friend, often saying “because I said so”. Highlighting our role as taskmasters limits our parenting tools. If we can leave time and space for child-driven play and activities — without adult demands or expectations — we can return to delight. These friendly interactions expand our relationship with our children. It’s not the same as peer friendship, but we are being friends.
Beyond play, the other foundational component of parent friendship is the child-directed conversation. Maintaining a friendly, non-judgmental standpoint in conversation with your kids can provide you with a world of trust and engagement. Being quiet and not saying anything are undervalued parenting tools. Instead, we can keep our ears open for informal chatter and then listen with intention and presence. And it’s usually best if we don’t offer ad vice unless asked for it. Being curious and compassionate and listening deeply to their stories and worries build emotional bonds, maintain communication, and produce trust, which sounds like friendship.
In my experience as a child, a parent, and a child psychiatrist, I think we can be more than command-and-control. And I firmly believe that we can treat children with affection and respect, as companions.
1. What does the underlined word “snag” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Misjudgement. | B．Demand. | C．Challenge. | D．Response. |
| A．Be a deep listener. | B．Start the topic of a talk. |
| C．Never make any comments. | D．Avoid any informal chatter. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Approving. | C．Unclear. | D．Negative. |
| A．Parent-child Friendship Bonds | B．Lifelong Parent-child Relationship |
| C．Fundamental Elements of Friendship | D．Parenting Roles in Children’s Growth |
5 . If you feel discouraged because of your plain looking, here are some practical ways that you can rethink about your own appearance self-esteem(自尊).
Throw away conventional, media-defined ideas of beauty.
Define yourself in ways other than how you look. Make your self-esteem based on your inner, not outer qualities. Focus on what you like about your abilities, personality and perspective on the world. These almost always show improvement over time.
Use others as a sounding board. You may think your nose is huge, but those who care about you may find the very features that bother you the most lovely. If you’re feeling that you “look funny” or “fat”, ask your nearest and dearest.
To sum up, changing our society’s views of attractiveness won’t be easy.
| A．Focus on keeping healthy |
| B．Be concerned about how you feel inside |
| C．They may, surprisingly, give supporting ideas |
| D．Shifts in our viewpoint can make no difference |
| E．So work your way through the tips listed above |
| F．You’re not going to change society’s definition of beauty |
| G．And they are often more changeable than facial or bodily features |
6 . Go Sledding (滑雪橇) around Baltimore
From steep slopes (陡坡) to gentle hills, there’s no shortage of local sledding rides in the Baltimore area. Here are a few of the favorites.
Leakin Park
1901 EAGLE DRIVE
There’s a sweet slide behind the Crimean Mansion off Eagle Drive — also known today as Friends of Orianda House — which is accessible and also one of the best-kept sledding secrets inside city lines. The Winans Meadow area is super scenic year-round, but especially so when it snows.
Baltimore Country Club
4712 CLUB ROAD
The golf course is a legendary sledding destination, but make sure to be aware that the steep slope here is nicknamed “Adventure Hill” for a reason. No small number of green hands have rolled down here. As one Reddit commenter said, “It left me hurt many a time as a kid” — words no doubt that frighten some but also attract more than a few.
Herring Run Park
3800 BELAIR ROAD
The 375-acre northeast area may be the top spot in the city for the variety of hills to choose from. Created by the Olmstead Brothers more than a century ago, the stream valley park is also home to fox and deer, which you might just spot wandering about in their winter coats. Visitors can enjoy the benefit of sufficient parking for private vehicles.
Federal Hill
300 WARREN AVE.
It’s an obvious destination, given its picturesque view overlooking the Inner Harbor, for sledding and building snowmen and snowwomen. The hills here are very steep, however. Just be careful not to rush out onto Key Highway or into the back of the American Visionary Art Museum.
1. Where is the destination with easy access to parking lot?| A．At 1901 EAGLE DRIVE. | B．At 4712 CLUB ROAD. |
| C．At 3800 BELAIR ROAD. | D．At 300 WARREN AVE. |
| A．They enjoy beautiful scenery. | B．Sledding there is challenging. |
| C．Visitors can interact with animals. | D．They are perfect for building snowmen. |
| A．Travel. | B．Environment. | C．Health. | D．Culture. |
7 . Recently Chinese scientists have solved a food challenge of the ages! They cultivated (培育) the world’s first crucian carp (鲫鱼) without intermuscular (肌间的) fish bones.
The new fish ends a world-wide debate which has lasted for more than 50 years on whether intermuscular fish bones can be reproduced.
Crucian carp is a popular freshwater fish with tender meat and a fresh flavor, but its many tiny bones can easily get stuck in people’s throats when the fish is eaten. A research team from Heilongjiang Province started a project to solve the problem in 2009 and chose the key gene from about 1,600 fishes, in order to control the growth of the fish’s intermuscular bones. Researchers knocked out the bmp6 gene without influencing the fish’s growth.
“In 2020, we successfully cultivated the first generation of crucian carp without intermuscular fish bones with a success rate of 12.96 percent and the second generation at the rate of 19 percent in 2021,” said a researcher from the team. “At the beginning of 2022, we set free around 20,000 fish of the third generation at the test base in Harbin. The fish grew well and is quite different from normal crucian carp. The results of an examination in August showed that we succeeded completely.”
Experts said, “People will no longer have to pick out tiny fish bones. It could greatly change the fish diet of the world in the future.” In addition, the research can help promote industrial processing of the fish, marking a great breakthrough in the field of aquaculture (水产养殖) breeding in China.
1. What challenge have Chinese scientists solved?| A．They’ve found a wild fish. |
| B．They’ve created a fish with a fresh flavor. |
| C．They’ve cultivated a fish with tender meat. |
| D．They’ve produced a fish with no small bones. |
| A．The fish can’t live in the sea. |
| B．The fish grow very slowly in freshwater. |
| C．The fish’s intermuscular bones are long and thin. |
| D．The fish’s tiny bones are stuck in people’s throats easily. |
| A．100% | B．50% | C．19% | D．12.96% |
| A．The fish diet in the future. |
| B．The problem of tiny fish bones. |
| C．The importance of the research. |
| D．The aquaculture breeding in China. |
8 . Set 40 kilometers northeast of the city of Ambatondrazaka, Madagascar, the Zahamena National Park has overall land coverage of 643 square kilometers, but only about 420 square kilometers is open to the public. It receives an average rainfall level of around 6 feet every year and experiences frequent rain showers even during the dry season between April and October. And elevations (海拔) inside the park range from 250 to 1,560 meters, which has resulted in a diversity (多样性) of climates.
One really interesting thing about the Zahamena National Park is its unique highland landform (高地地貌). The development of several ecosystems that all together exist within its area greatly depends on it. And this is also the reason why the types of wildlife living in one area of its wide range are different in another, which makes it quite exciting to explore.
This protected region’s main area is divided into two parts: the eastern and western areas, with a separate piece of ground in the middle where many small villages are located. Zahamena means “red trees”, which suggests a tree species scientifically called Diatum unifoliatum. It lives only in Zahamena and is characterized by its typically deep reddish-orange color.
Established as a strict natural highland habitat for nature conservation (保护) in 1927, the Zahamena National Park was officially awarded the honorary title of national park in 1997 and was finally opened to the public. Due to its amazing landform and unique local biodiversity, this national park was later listed as a key part of the Rainforests of the Atsinanana in 2007.
Unluckily, there are no hotels or restaurants around the national park. So Zahamena is not an easy rainforest—this national park needs people with a high level of fitness and people with low requirements concerning accommodations. Everyone who is not discouraged by this will be able to expect an amazing rainforest experience in a location which has a small number of tourists.
1. What do we know about the Zahamena National Park?| A．It is hard to reach due to conservation rules. |
| B．It has changeable weather all year round. |
| C．It has a great difference in elevations. |
| D．It is famous for its traditional villages. |
| A．The complete food chain of wildlife there. |
| B．The wet weather condition there. |
| C．The conservation efforts there. |
| D．The special landform there. |
| A．A cultural belief. | B．A local tree species. |
| C．The unique geography. | D．The local village group. |
| A．The tough condition of Zahamena. | B．People’s high level of fitness. |
| C．Its geographical location. | D．The diversity of climates. |
9 . Behavioral scientists have found that good listening is one of the most important things we can do to improve our relationships.
In addition to actively attending to a speaker’s words, good listeners also use questions and body language that indicate their understanding and their desire to understand. This might feel awkward at first, and what’s most effective might depend on your relationship with the speaker.
These might seem like small changes, but together they make a big difference. And when people feel heard, they report more satisfaction, trust, and connection in their relationships.
| A．Finally, don’t be afraid of silence. |
| B．So, what can we do to become better listeners? |
| C．It’s possible to know what truly excellent listening looks like. |
| D．But with time and practice, you can internalize these basic behaviors |
| E．There’s no universally agreed-upon definition of high-quality listening. |
| F．Researchers have found that smiling and nodding at set intervals doesn’t quite work. |
| G．So try to stay present and if you lose focus, don’t be shy about asking the speaker to repeat what you missed. |
10 . Independent will is what really makes effective self-management possible. It is the ability to make decisions and choices and to act in accordance with them. It is the ability to act rather than to be acted upon.
The human will is an amazing thing. Time after time, it has won against unbelievable difficulties. The Helen Kellers of this world give dramatic evidence to the value, the power of the independent will. But as we examine it in the context of effective self-management, we realize it’s usually not the dramatic, the visible, the once-in-a-lifetime effort that brings enduring success. Empowerment comes from learning how to use independent will in the decisions we make every day.
The degree to which we have developed our independent will in our everyday lives is measured by our personal integrity. Integrity is, fundamentally, the value we place on ourselves. It’s our ability to make and keep commitments to ourselves—to “walk our talk.” It’s honor with self, a fundamental part of the character ethic, the essence of active growth.
Effective management is putting first things first. While leadership decides what “first things” are, it is management that puts them first, day-by-day, moment-by-moment. Management is discipline, carrying it out.
Discipline stems from disciple (追随者) —disciple to a philosophy, disciple to a set of principles, disciple to a set of values, and disciple to an ultimate. purpose. In other words, if you are an effective manager of your self, your discipline comes from within; it is a function of your independent will. You are a disciple, a follower, of your own deep values and their source. And you have the will, the integrity, to place your feelings, your urges, your moods after those values.
That placement requires a purpose, a mission. It also requires independent will, the power to do something when you don’t want to do it, to be a function of your values rather than a function of the urge or desire of any given moment. It’s the power to act with integrity to your first creation.
1. What is the author’s purpose in mentioning “the Helen Kellers” in paragraph 2?| A．To explain a reason. | B．To highlight a point. |
| C．To make a prediction. | D．To give a definition. |
| A．Put words into deeds. | B．Display confidence. |
| C．Stop talking big. | D．Strike a balance. |
| A．Seeking external support. | B．Undertaking more missions. |
| C．Sticking to one’s own values. | D．Following one’s desires. |
| A．The Secret Behind Self-discipline | B．The Magic of Personal Integrity |
| C．The Power of Independent Will | D．The Road to Effective Management |
