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  3. Through a series of experiments, an American scientist has obtained an understanding of the social structure of the most complex

Through a series of experiments, an American scientist has obtained an understanding of the social structure of the most complex

admin2010-05-26  77
问题     Through a series of experiments, an American scientist has obtained an understanding of the social structure of the most complex of ant societies. The ants examined are the only creatures other than man to have given up hunting and collecting for a completely agricultural way of life. In their underground nests they cultivate gardens on soil made from finely chopped leaves. This is a complex operation requiring considerable division of labor. The workers of this type of ant can be divided into four groups according to size. Each of the groups performs a particular set of jobs.
    The making and care of the gardens and the nursing of the young ants are done by the smallest workers.  Slightly larger workers are responsible for chopping up leaves to make them suitable for use in the gardens and for cleaning the nest. A third group of still larger ants do the construction work and collect fresh leaves from outside the nest. The largest are the soldier ants, responsible for defending the nest.
    To find out how good the various size-groups are at different tasks, the scientist measured the amount of work done by the ants against the amount of energy they used. He examined first the gathering and carrying of leaves. He selected one of the size-groups, and then measured how efficiently these ants could find leaves and run back to the nest. Then he repeated the experiment for each of the other size-groups. In this way he could see whether any group could do the job more efficiently than the group normally undertaking it.
    The intermediate-sized ants that normally perform this task proved to be the most efficient for their energy costs, but when the scientist examined the whole set of jobs performed by each group of ants it appeared  that some sizes of worker ant were not ideally suited to the particular jobs they performed.
It seems that smaller ants perform more of the______.
选项 A、construction tasks
B、domestic tasks
C、defensive work
D、heavy work
答案B
解析 细节题。本题问的是：小个蚂蚁似乎更多地从事一些______。依据文章第2段“The making and care of the gardens and the nursing of file young ants are done by file smallest workers. Slightly larger workers are responsible for chopping up leaves to make them suitable for use in the gardens and for cleaning the nest. A third group of still larger ants do the construction work and collect fresh leaves from outside the nest. The largest are the soldier ants, responsible for defending the nest" 可知，最小的蚂蚁负责照管园地和看护幼蚁，较大的蚂蚁负责弄碎树叶和清理巢穴，再大些的蚂蚁负责建筑和从外面搬运树叶进巢穴，最大的蚂蚁负责保卫巢穴。由此可见，选项B 为正确答案。
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