Question

【題目】

I used to think ants knew what they were doing. The ones marching across my kitchen counter looked so confident; I just figured they had a plan, knew where they were going and what needed to be done. How else could ants organize highways, build elaborate nests, launch impressive attacks, and do all the other things ants do?

Turns out I was wrong. Ants aren’t clever little engineers, architects, or soldiers after all --- at least not as individuals. When it comes to deciding what to do next, most ants don’t have a clue. “If you watch an ant try to accomplish something, you’ll be impressed by how awkward it is,” says Deborah M. Gordon, a biologist at Stanford University.

“Ants aren’t smart,” Gordon says. “Ant colonies are.” A colony can solve problems unthinkable for individual ants, such as finding the shortest path to the best food source, assigning workers to different tasks, or defending a territory from neighbors. As individuals, ants might be tiny dummies, but as colonies they respond quickly and effectively to their environment. They do it with something called collective intelligence.

Where this intelligence comes from raises an essential question in nature: How do the simple actions of individual ants add up to the complex behavior of a group? How do hundreds of honey-bees make a critical decision about their hive (蜂巢)if many of them disagree? The collective abilities of such animals --- one of which grasps the big picture, but each of which contributes to the group’s success --- seem miraculous even to the biologists who know them best. Yet during the past few decades, researchers have come up with fascinating insights.

【1】The author’s former false impression about ants is that he thought them to be _______.

A. smart B. awkward C. elaborate D. creative

【2】Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. Ants will function as a single body once a decision is made by the commander.

B. Ants are the only species which developed collective intelligence.

C. The ant queen plays a role in managing ant workers besides laying eggs.

D. An individual ant can’t comprehend the whole process of a big movement.

【3】The paragraph following the passage will most probably deal with _______.

A. where we can observe such fantastic behavior of ants

B. which is the leading ant in charge of the action

C. how the collective intelligence works

D. what inspiration can be drawn from the collective abilities

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】A

【2】D

【3】C

【解析】 本文屬于科普類文章。我過去一直以為螞蟻知道它們在做什么。其實螞蟻個體并不聰明，聰明的是蟻群。單個螞蟻百思不得其解的問題能輕易地被蟻群解決。他們是通過使用一種稱為“群體智慧”來完成的。

【1】A

細節(jié)理解題。根據第一段內容可知，“I used to think ants knew what they were doing….”以前認為螞蟻非常聰明，知道它們在做什么…….。而在第二段第一句“Turns out I was wrong. Ants aren’t clever little engineers, architects, or soldiers after all --- at least not as individuals” 結果證明我錯了。螞蟻畢竟不是聰明的小工程師、建筑師或士兵，至少不是作為個體的。分析這兩段可知作者以前認為螞蟻是聰明的，分析選項可知A符合題意，故選A。

【2】D

細節(jié)理解題。根據第三段““Ants aren’t smart,” Gordon says. “Ant colonies are.”A colony can solve problems unthinkable for individual ants,… As individuals, ants might be tiny dummies, They do it with something called collective intelligence.” . “螞蟻并不聰明”， 蟻群才是”。單個螞蟻百思不得其解的問題能輕易地被蟻群解決…他們是通過使用一種稱為“群體智慧”來完成的。由此螞蟻不是作為個體而是一個群體，可推斷出A是錯誤的，D說螞單個蟻是不能完成整個活動的進程，是正確。根據第四段可知螞蟻不是唯一的有群體智慧的物種，還有其它的物種如蜜蜂、鯡魚等也是有發(fā)展集體智慧的物種，故B錯誤的，而C項文章沒有提及，故選D項。

根據文章可知，

【3】C

推理判斷題。根據最后一段“Where this intelligence comes from raises an essential question in nature: How do the simple actions of individual ants add up to the complex behavior of a group?” 這種智慧從何而來提出了自然界一個基本的問題：簡單的單個個體的行為是如何集合為群體復雜多變的群體行為？接著又用蜜蜂和鯡魚為例，提出到底是什么讓他們單一的個體匯聚成集體的智慧，這集體的智慧又是如何起作用的。最后一句“Yet during the past few decades, researchers have come up with fascinating insights.”然而，在過去的幾十年中，研究人員們已經得到對此現象引人入勝的深入的理解。由此可推斷出下段要講述集體的智慧如何起作用的。

分析選項可知C項符合題意。故選C項。