1. The Language of Honey Bees
Unit 14 READING
The Language of Honey Bees

2. Lead-in
    Do animals have their languages?
Yes.

3. Match the following animals with their shouts.
duck bark
Dog howl
Wolf buzz
Cat croak
Chicken meow
cow chirp
Bee hiss
Frog quack
Bird roar
lion cheep
Snake moo

4. Pre-reading 1. How do animals communicate?
They communicate by strange sounds or body language, such as dancing or touching.

5. 2. What kind of information do they communicate?
They maybe tell their partners about the food
directions and safety. For example, when bees
find food in a certain place, it will tell others
by dancing. When a dog feels happy, it will
shake its tail. When a gorilla sees its enemy, it
will warn others of danger.

6. Pre-reading

7. bee
honeycomb
beehive
honey

8. allowing light to pass through so that objects can be seen透明的
1. transparent adj.
allowing light to pass through
so that objects can be seen透明的
2.assumption n.
sth. taken for granted,
sth. supposed but not proved. 假设
3 semicircle n.
half a circle 半圆形
4.apparent adj.
obvious,clearly seen or understood
明显的，清楚的，表面的。
5 come to light
become visible or known.
显露，为人所知。

9. the greatest degree or quantity,etc.
6 maximum n.
the greatest degree or quantity,etc.
最大的量、体积、强度等
7 precise adj.
exact, free from error.
精确的，准确的
8 adequate adj.
Enough 足够的，充分的
9 clarify vt.
make or become clear 澄清

10. Word practice adequate apparent assume clarify dots obtained tell
Word practice adequate apparent assume clarify dots obtained tell...apart transparent
1 Von Frisch build a grass wall through which he could observe what was going on inside the hive. 　　
People used to think that the fastest time a runner could cover 100 metres is 10 seconds.
Von Frish tried to make clear how bees communicate.
4 It soon become obvious that the Chinese Volleyball team would win the match.
5 In order to distinguish the bees,Von Frish painted small circles of different colours on the bees.
6 The scientists had to make sure that the evidence they had got was enough to support their
transparent
assume
clarify
apparent
tell...apart; dots
Obtained; adequate

11. Fast reading
1. How do honey-bees communicate with each other?
They do different dances, a circle dance and a wagging dance.
2. What are they telling each other?
The are able to tell each other that food has been discovered and how far away the feeding place is.
3. What is the main idea of the text?
The text is mainly about the how Professor Karl von Frisch’s experiments are done and how the bees communicate with each other using their “language”.

12. Further comprehension
1. Scientists are most interested in ____.
A. the honey-bees
B. some different varieties of bee
C. bees who make nests in trees　　　　　　
D. bees who don’t live in large groups
How do you know that? A

13. 1. Is there only one type of bee or are there many types? Many types
Para.1
1. Is there only one type of bee or are there many types?
Many types
hive nests in trees
nests in the rocks
nests in the holes in the ground
2. Where do bees live ?
3. What kind of bee interested the scientists most? Why?
the honey-bee.
because of the language they use to
communicate with each other

14. 2. ___ made it possible to research on the language of the honey-bees.
A. The experiments which was designed by Professor von Frisch
B. Discovering honey-bees can communicate in dark hives
C. The development of the modern beehive in
D. Professor von Frisch’s newest discovery about the honey-bees C

15. Para.2 and Para.8
Information about the scientist
Name: _______________
Nationality: ____________
What’s he? ________________
Research work: _________________
How to find it out: _________________
His discovery: ______________________
Prize:_____________________________
Karl von Frisch
Austrian
zoologist/scientist
the amazing way …
by doing experiments
circle dance & wagging dance
Won a Nobel Prize in 1973

16. 3. In Para 2, Professor Karl von Frisch discovered ___.
A. that bees were able to find food quickly
B. how honey-bees communicate with each other
C. circle dances and wagging dances had different meanings
D. honey-bees couldn’t communicate in their dark hives A

17. What does this paragraph talk about?
Von Frish discovered that the bee began to do a circle dance on the surface of the honeycomb.

18. C. He experiments with different types of bees.
4. Von Frisch did the following EXCEPT
“___” to make his experiments more scientific.
A. He set up two different feeding places.　　
B. He marked the bees with little spots of color.
C. He experiments with different types of bees.
D. He built a special hive with one honeycomb and a glass wall. C

19. What does this paragraph talk about?
Von Frish found more information about
the dance : circle dance and wagging dance

20. a b c d
( Food is far away. )
( Food is near. )

21. 5. How did the marked bee tell the message of food to the other bees
5. How did the marked bee tell the message of food to the other bees? Give the follows in right order.
The marked bee returned to the hive from the feeding table.
It repeated these circles over and over again.
The marked bee made a circle to the left.
The marked bee made a circle to the right.
The other excited bees dance together.
The bees left the hive and went to the feeding place.
A.(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) B.(1)(3)(4)(5)(2)(6)
C.(1)(4)(3)(2)(5)(6) D.(1)(4)(3)(5)(2)(6) C

22. 6. The professor found that after the marked bees danced the others ___.
A. made loud strange sounds　
B. began to do different dances
C. flew to the feeding place immediately
D. were excited and danced in the same way D

23. What did the scientist,Von Frish discover?
Para.5
What did the scientist,Von Frish discover?
He discovered that the farther away
the feeding place was,the slower the dance was.
Para.6
What's this paragraph about?
Von Frish and his colleagues did more experiments
and found out more information about the dance.

24. 7. Which is WRONG about the further information the professor and his men discovered?
A. The closer the feeding place is, the faster the wagging dance is.
B. Bees fly a maximum distance of 3.2 km between their hive and a feeding place.
C. The speed of the wagging dance can tell about the amount of food.
D. The direction of the wagging dance tells the direction of the feeding place. C

25. 1.What does "bee-line" mean ? straight line; the shortest distance
Para.7
1.What does "bee-line" mean ?
straight line; the shortest distance
between two places
2.What does "make a bee-line for sb. or sth." mean ?
go quickly along a straight course for sb. or sth.

26. C 8. Professor von Frisch did his third experiment to discover ___.
A. whether the wagging dance showed direction.
B. how far bees can fly between their hive and a feeding place.
C. whether the wagging dance told the bees how far away a feeding place was.
D. how the straight part of the wagging dance was different when the sun’s position changed. C

27. 9. “So another astonishing fact came to light
9. “So another astonishing fact came to light." The underlined part can be replaced by ___.
A. came up　
B. was discovered
C. remained unknown　
D. needed to be checked out　　 B

28. 10. ___ can show the different positions of the sun.
A. The right part of the wagging dance　　　　
B. The left part of the circle dance
C. The straight part of the circle dance　　　　
D. The straight part of the wagging dance D

29. 11. What can be inferred from Para 4?
A. Honey-bees can pass news of food at a high speed.
B. Man can communicate in the same way as
honey-bee do.
C. Man can learn something from animals’
behavior.
D. The expression “to make a bee-line for someone or something” was used centuries ago. C

30. 12. After reading the text, you can infer the writer is likely to write about ____ in the next Para.
Whether the circle dance told them what food was in feeding place
Whether the bees can tell one colour from the other
Whether the wagging dance tell the bees the distance and the direction of the food
Whether the language of honey bees is the most useful language of all animals C

31. Discussion 1. What can you learn from the text?
2. Why does it pay to do research on animals around us?

32. Homework
Please read the text repeatedly and preview the LANGUAGE STUDY part.