职称英语考试(理工类):阅读理解(六)
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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)

Bees and Colour

  On our table in the garden we put a blue card, and all around this blue card we put a number of different grey cards. These trey cards are of all possible shades of grey and include white and black. On each card a watch-glass is placed. The watch-glass on the blue card has some syrup1 in it; all the others are empty. After a short time bees find the syrup, and they come for it again and again. Then, after some hours, we take away the watch-glass of syrup which was on the blue card and put an empty one in its place.
  
  Now what do the bees do? They still go straight to the blue card, although there is no syrup there. They do not go to any of the grey cards, in spite2 of the fact that one of the grey cards is of exactly the same brightness3 as the blue card. Thus the bees do not mistake any shade of grey for blue. In this way we have proved that they do really see blue as a colour.

  We can find out in just the same way what other colours bees can see. It turns out that bees can see various colours, but these insects differ from us as regards their colour-sense in two very interesting ways. Suppose we train bees to come to a red card, and, having done so, we put the red card on the table in the garden among the set of different grey cards. This time we find that the bees mistake red for dark grey or black. They cannot distinguish4 between them. This means that red is not a colour at all for bees; for them it is just dark grey or black.

  That is one strange fact; here is another. A rainbow is red on one edge, violet5 on the other. Outside the violet of the rainbow there is another colour which we cannot see at all. This colour beyond the violet, invisible6 to us, is called the ultra-violet. Although it is invisible, we know that the ultra-violet is there because it affects a photographic plate. Now, although we are unable to see ultra-violet light, bees can do so; for them ultra-violet is a colour. Thus bees see a colour which we cannot even imagine. This has been found out by training bees to come for syrup to various parts of a spectrum7, or artificial8 rainbow, thrown by a prism on a table in a dark room. In such an experiment the insects can be taught to fly to the ultra-violet, which for us is just darkness.


1. The experiment with bees described in the first and second paragraphs tell us that bees regard blue as a colour.
A. True
B. False
C. Not mentioned

2. The third paragraph tells us that bees also regard red as a colour.
A. True
B. False
C. Not mentioned

3. The experiment described in the second paragraph aimed to find out that bees are not able to see grey as a colour.
A. True
B. False
C. Not mentioned

4. An artificial rainbow was created for the experiment to see whether bees can recognize the ultra-violet as a colour.
A. True
B. False
C. Not mentioned

5. The fourth paragraph tells us that bees may be harmed by ultra-violet light.
A. True
B. False
C. Not mentioned

6. We can conclude from the passage that bees recognize colours in the same way as human beings.
A. True
B. False
C. Not mentioned

7. Bees are more sensitive to colours than human beings.
A. True
B. False
C. Not mentioned

KEY: ABBACBC



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1 syrup hguzup     
n.糖浆,糖水
参考例句:
  • I skimmed the foam from the boiling syrup.我撇去了煮沸糖浆上的泡沫。
  • Tinned fruit usually has a lot of syrup with it.罐头水果通常都有许多糖浆。
2 spite uv7wD     
n.(用于短语)虽然,不顾,尽管
参考例句:
  • He has modern ideas in spite of his great age.尽管他年事很高,但思想观念却很入时。
  • In spite of his anger,his remarks were restrained.他尽管生气,说的话还是有节制的。
3 brightness 6xxz6I     
n.明亮,亮度,聪颖,光泽度,灯火通明
参考例句:
  • The brightness of the paint has worn off a little.油漆的光泽有些磨损了。
  • Her eyes squinted against the brightness.亮光刺得她眯起眼睛。
4 distinguish GlWzV     
vt.区别,辩明,识别,辨认出;vi.区别,辨别,识别
参考例句:
  • It is not easy to distinguish cultured pearls from genuine pearls.辨别真正的珍珠与养殖的珍珠不容易。
  • Some people find it difficult to distinguish right from wrong.一些人认为很难辨对与错。
5 violet 8h3wm     
adj.紫色的;n.紫罗兰
参考例句:
  • She likes to wear violet dresses.他喜欢穿紫色的衣服。
  • Violet is the color of wisdom,peace and strength.紫色是智慧的,和平的和力量的颜色。
6 invisible L4Dx0     
adj.看不见的,无形的
参考例句:
  • The air is full of millions of invisible germs.空气中充满了许多看不见的细菌。
  • Many stars are invisible without a telescope.许多星辰不用望远镜便看不见。
7 spectrum Trhy6     
n.谱,光谱,频谱;范围,幅度,系列
参考例句:
  • This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
  • We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成,我们已了解不少。
8 artificial iNuz6     
adj.人工的,人造的,人为的;做作的,假装的
参考例句:
  • The new dam will form a large artificial lake behind it.新筑的水坝将会在后面形成一个人工湖。
  • We don't use any artificial flavourings in our products.我们的产品不使用任何人工调味剂。
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