Question

    What’s small, buzzes here and there and visits flowers? If you said bees or hummingbirds, you got it. You wouldn’t be the first if you mixed the two up. Now a group of researchers even say we should embrace our history of considering the two together in the same group. The way scientists study bees could help them study hummingbird behavior, too.

Scientists first compared the two back in the 1970s when studying how animals search for food. The idea is that animals use a kind of math to make choices in order to minimize the work it takes to earn maximum rewards. Researchers at the time focused on movement rules, like the order in which they visited flowers, and where flowers were located relative to others. It was “almost like an algorithm(算法)” for efficient searching, said David Pritchard, a biologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Hummingbirds and bees had similar solutions.

As the field of animal cognition(认知) appeared, hummingbird and bee research parted. Neuroscientists and behavioral ecologists developed ways to study bee behavior in naturalistic settings. Hummingbird researchers compared hummingbirds to other birds and borrowed methods from psychology to study their ability to learn in the lab. To be fair, hummingbirds and bees differ. For example, hummingbirds have more advanced eyes and brains than bees. Honeybees and bumblebees are social; hummingbirds typically aren’t.

But however they perceive(感知) or process information, they both experience similar information, Dr. Pritchard said. In day-to-day searching for food, for example, hummingbirds may rely on more of a bee’s-eye view than a bird’s-eye view. Like other birds, they rely on landmarks, distances and directions to make maps when travelling long distances, but they don’t use these cues to find flowers. Move a flower just an inch or so away from where a hummingbird thought it was and it will hover over the flower’s original location. Dr. Pritchard is investigating if, like bees, hummingbirds engage in view matching — hovering, scanning snapshots of a place to its memory and using those as references later.

1.What is the center of research on hummingbirds and bees in the 1970s?

A. Memory.

B. Movement rules.

C. Reward calculating.

D. Information processing.

2.Which subject’s research methods were adopted to study the learning ability of Hummingbirds?

A. Math.

B. Biology.

C. Ecology.

D. Psychology.

3.How do researchers find out that hummingbirds are not like birds?

A. By setting them free.

B. By moving flowers.

C. By matching view.

D. By making maps.

4.Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A. Hummingbirds and Bees

B. Hummingbirds in the Lab

C. New Trends in Studying Bees

D. Thinking of Hummingbirds as Bees

Answer

1.B

2.D

3.B

4.D

【解析】

本文是一篇科普类短文阅读。我们经常把蜂鸟和蜜蜂搞混，然而科学家发现研究蜜蜂的方法可以帮助他们研究蜂鸟的行为。

1.细节理解题。根据文章第二段中Researchers at the time focused on movement rules, like the order in which they visited flowers, and where flowers were located relative to others.可知，当时的研究人员把注意力集中在运动规则上。故选B。

2.细节理解题。根据文章第三段中Hummingbird researchers compared hummingbirds to other birds and borrowed methods from psychology to study their ability to learn in the lab.可知，蜂鸟研究者采用心理学的研究方法来研究它们在实验室中学习的能力。故选D。

3.推理判断题。根据文章最后一段内容及Like other birds, they rely on landmarks, distances and directions to make maps when travelling long distances, but they don’t use these cues to find flowers. Move a flower just an inch or so away from where a hummingbird thought it was and it will hover over the flower’s original location.可以推断出研究者，是通过移动花而发现蜂鸟不像鸟。故选B。

4.主旨大意题。根据全文大意结合第一段中Now a group of researchers even say we should embrace our history of considering the two together in the same group. The way scientists study bees could help them study hummingbird behavior, too.两句话可以确定最佳标题为“把蜂鸟看作蜜蜂”。故选D。