阅读理解

(2019·湖北省八校第一次联考)

Pesticides might just be a bee's worst enemy.They harm their brains, slow down their reproduction, and even kill their buzz.Now it seems they damage their social lives and reduce their ability to care for their young.

While previous studies have shown that commonly used neonicotinoid(新烟碱类) pesticides make bees sick and affect how they search for food and navigate, a new study gives more of an idea of how these chemicals affect the internal workings of a colony.Studying these effects has proved difficult, so the team employed a new technique.They stuck tiny QR codes to the backs of bumblebees and tracked their movements using a robotic camera.

The researchers looked at 12 colonies housed in a lab，giving some the same level of imidacloprid—the world's most commonly used pesticide—that they'd be exposed to in the wild while keeping others pesticide­free as controls.They checked on them for a few minutes 12 times a day.The findings are published in the journal Science.

Unfortunately, the researchers found a number of obvious differences between the bees exposed to the pesticide and the controls.The bees given neonicotinoids spent less time interacting with other bees and more time resting.This lull(间歇)in activity tended to happen more at night，but the researchers aren't sure why.

“Bees actually have a very strong circadian rhythm(生理节奏), “lead author James Crall explained in a statement.“So what we found was that，during the day，there was no statistically observable effect，but at night，we could see that they were crashing.We don't know yet whether the pesticides are destroying circadian gene regulation or if this is just some，maybe physiological feedback...But it suggests that, just from a practical perspective, if we want to understand or study these compounds, looking at effects overnight matters a lot.”

【语篇解读】　本文是一篇科普说明文。研究发现，杀虫剂对蜜蜂有着严重的影响，在杀虫剂的作用下，它们的大脑受到损害，其繁殖能力会下降；它们的社会生活遭到损害，照看新生蜜蜂的能力也会降低。