Recordings of angry bees are enough to send big, tough African elephants running away, a new study says. Beehives(蜂窝)—either recorded or real—may even prevent elephants from damaging farmers' crops.
In 2002, scientist Lucy King and her team found that elephants avoid certain trees with bees living in them. Today, Lucy wants to see if African honeybees might discourage elephants from eating crops. But before she asked farmers to go to the trouble of setting up beehives on their farms, she needed to find out if the bees would scare elephants away.
Lucy found a wild beehive inside a tree in Northern Kenya and set up a recorder. Then she threw a stone into the beehive, which burst into life. Lucy and her assistant hid in their car until the angry bees had calmed down. Next, Lucy searched out elephant families in Samburu National Reserve in Northern Kenya and put a speaker in a tree close to each family.
From a distance, Lucy switched on the prerecorded sound of angry bees while at the same time recording the elephants with a video camera. Half the elephant groups left the area within ten seconds. Out of a total of 17 groups, only one group ignored the sound of the angry bees. Lucy reported that all the young elephants immediately ran to their mothers to hide under them. When Lucy played the sound of a waterfall(瀑布) instead of the angry bees to many of the same elephant families, the animals were undisturbed. Even after four minutes, most of the groups stayed in one place.
Lucy is now studying whether the elephants will continue to avoid the sound of angry bees after hearing it several times. She hasn't tested enough groups yet to know, but her initial(最初的) results were promising enough to begin trials with farmers. She has now begun placing speakers in the fields to see if elephants are frightened away.
60.We know from the passage that elephants may be frightened of ________.
A.loud noises B.some crops
C.video cameras D.angry bees
61.As mentioned in the passage, Lucy________.
A.works by herself in Africa
B.needs to test more elephant groups
C.has stopped elephants eating crops
D.has got farmers to set up beehives on their farms
62.Why did Lucy throw a stone into a wild beehive?
A.To record the sound of bees.
B.To make a video of elephants.
C.To see if elephants would run away.
D.To find out more about the behaviour of bees.
63.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A.Young elephants ignore African honeybees.
B.Waterfalls can make elephants stay in one place.
C.Elephants do not go near trees with bees living in them.
D.Farmers do not allow Lucy to conduct tests in their fields.
【要点综述】 本文为一篇科技报道。最新研究表明，蜂窝，无论是现实的还是录制的，都能够阻止大象破坏农民的庄稼。
60. D 细节理解题。根据第一段首句可知选D。
61. B 推理判断题。根据最后一段第二句可知选B。根据第三段第三句可知A项错误;根据最后一段最后一句可知C项错误;根据第二段最后一句以及最后一段内容可知D项错误。
62. A 推理判断题。根据第四段Lucy接下来使用这个录制的蜜蜂的愤怒声音去测试象群的反应，可知她用石头砸蜂窝是为了录下蜜蜂的声音。故选A。
63. C 细节理解题。根据第二段首句可知C正确。
