CAMBRIDGE IELTS 1
PRACTICE TEST 2
READING
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions
13-27 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.
MIGRATORY BEEKEEPING
To eke out a
full-time living from their honeybees,
about half the nation’s 2,000 commercial beekeepers pull up
stakes each spring, migrating north to find more flowers
for their bees. Besides turning floral nectar into honey, these
hardworking insects also pollinate crops for farmers -for
a fee. As autumn approaches, the beekeepers pack up their
hives and go south, scrambling for pollination contracts
in hot spots like California’s fertile Central Valley.
Of the 2,000
commercial beekeepers in the United States about half migrate This pays off
in two ways Moving north in the summer and south in the winter lets bees work
a longer blooming season, making more honey — and money — for their keepers.
Second, beekeepers can carry their hives to farmers who need bees to
pollinate their crops. Every spring a migratory beekeeper in California may
move up to 160 million bees to flowering fields in Minnesota and every winter
his family may haul the hives back to California, where farmers will rent the
bees to pollinate almond and cherry trees.
Migratory
beekeeping is nothing new. The ancient Egyptians moved clay hives, probably
on rafts, down the Nile to follow the bloom and nectar flow as it moved
toward Cairo. In the 1880s North American beekeepers experimented with the
same idea, moving bees on barges along the Mississippi and on waterways in
Florida, but their lighter, wooden hives kept falling into the water. Other
keepers tried the railroad and horse-drawn wagons, but that didn’t prove
practical. Not until the 1920s when cars and trucks became affordable and
roads improved, did migratory beekeeping begin to catch on.
For the
Californian beekeeper, the pollination season begins in February. At this
time, the beehives are in particular demand by farmers who have almond
groves; they need two hives an acre. For the three-week long bloom, beekeepers
can hire out their hives for $32 each. It’s a bonanza for the bees too. Most
people consider almond honey too bitter to eat so the bees get to keep it for
themselves.
By early
March it is time to move the bees. It can take up to seven nights to pack the
4,000 or so hives that a beekeeper may own. These are not moved in the middle
of the day because too many of the bees would end up homeless. But at night,
the hives are stacked onto wooden pallets, back-to-back in sets of four, and
lifted onto a truck. It is not necessary to wear gloves or a beekeeper’s veil
because the hives are not being opened and the bees should remain relatively
quiet. Just in case some are still lively, bees can be pacified with a few
puffs of smoke blown into each hive’s narrow entrance.
In their new
location, the beekeeper will pay the farmer to allow his bees to feed in such
places as orange groves. The honey produced here is fragrant and sweet and
can be sold by the beekeepers. To encourage the bees to produce as much honey
as possible during this period, the beekeepers open the hives and stack extra
boxes called supers on top. These temporary hive extensions contain frames of
empty comb for the bees to fill with honey. In the brood chamber below, the bees
will stash honey to eat later. To prevent the queen from crawling up to the
top and laying eggs, a screen can be inserted between the brood chamber and
the supers. Three weeks later the honey can be gathered.
Foul
smelling chemicals are often used to irritate the bees and drive them down
into the hive’s bottom boxes, leaving the honey-filled supers more or less
bee free. These can then be pulled off the hive. They are heavy with honey
and may weigh up to 90 pounds each. The supers are taken to a warehouse. In
the extracting room, the frames are lilted out and lowered into an “uncapper”
where rotating blades shave away the wax that covers each cell. The uncapped
frames are put in a carousel that sits on the bottom of a large stainless
steel drum. The carousel is filled to capacity with 72 frames. A switch is
flipped and the frames begin to whirl at 300 revolutions per minute;
centrifugal force throws the honey out of the combs. Finally the honey is
poured into barrels for shipment.
After this,
approximately a quarter of the hives weakened by disease, mites, or an ageing
or dead queen, will have to be replaced. To create new colonies, a healthy double
hive, teeming with bees, can be separated into two boxes. One half will hold the
queen and a young, already mated queen can be put in the other half, to make
two hives from one. By the time the flowers bloom, the new queens will be
laying eggs, filling each hive with young worker bees. The beekeeper’s family
will then migrate with them to their summer location.
Adapted from
“America's Beekeepers:
Hives for Hire”
by Alan Mairson,
National
Geographic.
|
Questions 13-19
The flow chart below outlines the
movements of the migratory beekeeper as described in
Reading Passage 2
Complete the flow chart Choose
your answers from the box at the bottom of the page and write your
answers in boxes 13 19 on your answer sheet.
BEEKEEPER
MOVEMENTS
Example
Answer
In February,
Californian farmers hire bees to help ..................... pollinate......................almond
trees.
|
|
In March, beekeepers ... (13) ... for
migration at night when the hives are ... (14) ... and the bees are
generally tranquil. A little ... (15) ... can ensure that this is the
case.
|
|
They transport their hives to orange
groves where farmers ... (16) ... beekeepers for placing them on their
land. Here the bees make honey.
|
|
After three weeks, the supers can be
taken to a warehouse where ... (17) ... are used to remove the wax and
extract the honey from the ... (18) ... .
|
|
After the honey collection, the old
hives are rejected. Good double hives are ... (19) ... and re-queened
and the beekeeper transports them to their summer base.
|
Questions 20-23
Label the diagram below Choose ONE
OR TWO WORDS from the
Reading Passage for
each answer Write your answers in boxes 20-23 on your answer sheet.
Questions 24-27
Do the following statements agree
with the information given in Reading Passage 2? In boxes 24-27 write.
YES
|
if the statement agrees with the
information given
|
NO
|
if the statement contradicts the
information given
|
NOT
GIVEN
|
if there is no information about
this
|
24
|
The Egyptians keep bees on the banks of
the Nile
|
25
|
First attempts at migratory beekeeping
in America were unsuccessful.
|
26
|
Bees keep honey for themselves in the
bottom of the hive.
|
27
|
The honey is spun to make it liquid.
|
ANSWER
KEY
Question
|
Answer
|
Location
of answer in text
|
13
|
prepare
|
gist
of paragraph 4
|
14
|
full
|
“These
are not moved in the middle of the day because too many of the bees would end
up homeless.”
|
15
|
smoke
|
“…
bees can be pacified with a few puffs of smoke …”
|
16
|
charge
|
“…
the beekeeper will pay the farmer to allow his bees to feed
|
17
|
machines
|
paraphrase
of “uncapper” and “carousel”
|
18
|
combs
|
“…
centrifugal force throws the honey out of the combs .”
|
19
|
split
|
“…
a healthy double hive canbe separated into two boxes.”
|
Question
|
Answer
|
20
|
(hexagonal)
cells//comb
|
21
|
frames
(of comb)
|
22
|
screen
|
23
|
brood
chamber
|
24
|
NOT
GIVEN
|
25
|
YES
|
26
|
YES
|
27
|
NO
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