Plastic can have both advantages and disadvantages in bees’ nests, the study suggests. The bees that used bits of plastic bags didn’t suffer any parasite outbreaks, which were unable to sting through the plastic, but up to 90 percent of their brood still died because the plastic didn’t let enough dampness escape, encouraging the growth of dangerous viruses. The plastic bags also didn’t stick together as well as leaves do, the researchers note, and easily fell when they were inspected. But the bees took steps to minimize this deficiency, putting plastic pieces only near the end of a series of brood cells.

It’s still unclear why exactly leafcutter bees are using plastic, but as non-biodegradable materials continue piling up in nature, this kind of behavior could become increasingly important. “Although perhaps incidentally collected,” the researchers write, “the novel use of plastics in the nests of bees could reflect ecologically adaptive characteristics necessary for survival in an increasingly human-dominated environment.”

What do researchers discover about the bees?

A. They are much cleverer than other insects.

B. They can use bits of plastic to build nests.

C. They are in great danger of extinction.

D. They can be used to solve plastic pollution problem.

What might the underlined word “deficiency” in Paragraph 5 probably mean?

A. Drawback.       B. Concept.

C. Size.         D. Nest.