Read Text A, and then answer Questions 1(a)–(e) on the question paper.
Text A: Bees
A bee colony is populated by a queen, about 200 male drones and thousands of underdeveloped female
workers. The queen is the largest member of the colony due to the workers having fed her a special diet.
The queen is the mother of all the workers and also the male drones in the hive. She remains inside,
attended by the workers who groom and feed her. The sole purpose of the drone is to mate with her so
that the hive continues.
Bees have different characteristics that make them suited to pollinating certain plants. For example, the
early bumblebee’s small size and agility allow it to enter plants with drooping flowers. The larger garden
bumblebee is better at pollinating the deep flowers because its longer tongue can reach deep inside
them.
Plants can only grow because of pollination. Bees’ transference of pollen between flowering plants
enables a plant to reproduce and produce food. The cycle of a plant’s life keeps turning in this way.
So thanks to these small creatures, we enjoy a range of foods from orchard fruits to coffee and vanilla.
And if you are wearing cotton, that’s because a cotton plant was pollinated. Maybe in your lessons at
school you have come across bees too. This would be because many poets, artists, authors and scientists
have found them a fascinating subject to study.
But bees are in trouble. Nowadays, many of us are aware of how human decisions impact on bee
populations. A few organisations try to educate the public on how the pesticides we use on crops to
make our food safer and more prolific are toxic to bees, damaging their mental capacities and ability to
reproduce. Bee habitats, such as ponds, trees and flowers, are wiped out by our need to urbanise and
build houses and by intensive farming methods. We really need to ask ourselves how much our
thoughtlessness and selfishness might be costing us all.
Read Text A, Bees, in the insert and then answer Questions 1(a)–(e) on this question paper.
Question 1 (a) Which bee is the biggest in a colony, according to paragraph 1?
The queen bee.
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(b) Using your own words, explain what the text means by:
More nutritious food than the others.
(i) ‘special diet’ (line 3) ................................................................................................................................
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(ii) ‘sole purpose’ (line 5).
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Only reason
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(c) Re-read paragraph 3 (‘Bees have different ... deep inside them.’).
Give two characteristics that make the early bumblebee and the garden bumblebee different. •
Early Bumblebee: small size, agile
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Garden Bumblebee: Longer tongue can reach deeper inside flowers [2]
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(d) Re-read paragraphs 4 and 5 (‘Plants can ... subject to study.’).
(i) Identify two ways in which bee pollination is needed for plants. •
Bees transference of pollen is needed for plants to 1) grow and 2)• reproduce
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(ii) Explain how humans have benefited from the existence of bees.
Humans gain access to all sorts of natural items, like honey, cotton, coffee because of bee pollination.
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(e) Re-read paragraph 6 (‘But bees ... costing us all.’).
Why might some humans disregard the threats to bees?
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Because to the humans in charge, the need to urbanise areas and use modern techniques of agricultu
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is more important than the safety of bees.
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