Although there are about 20,000 different species of bees in the world, only the honeybee makes the kind of honey we eat. These bees ………. (1) to feed themselves, which makes them different from creatures that eat things like fruits, nuts and other insects. Honeybees make honey to ………. (2) food for colder months when they are not able to leave their hive as often and they can’t gather as much food because there are not as many flowers in the fields and the forests. 

You might be asking if honeybees make honey for their own nourishment, is it OK for humans to ………. (3), too? The answer is yes since these bees actually make about two to three times more honey each year than they need to ………. (4).

Honeybees live together in colonies which can consist of around 60,000 bees. In fact, a single honeybee will only create about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its whole life! That is not even enough to ………. (5)!

A. making sweet and delicious
B. produce honey         
C. search for flowers    
D. store and save    
E. suck nectar out of plants
F. survive the winter     
G. sweeten a cup of tea            
H. take it and eat it

source: pestworldforkids.org

Key:

1.B 2.D 3.H 4.F 5.G

1. Honey bees are super-important pollinators for flowers, fruits and vegetables. This means that they help other plants grow! Bees transfer pollen between the male and female parts, allowing plants to grow seeds and fruit.
2. Honey bees live in hives (or colonies). The members of the hive are divided into three types:

     Queen: One queen runs the whole hive. Her job is to lay the eggs that will spawn the hive’s next generation of bees. The queen also produces chemicals that guide the behaviour of the other bees.

     Workers: these are all female and their roles are to forage for food (pollen and nectar from flowers), build and protect the hive, clean and circulate air by beating their wings. Workers are the only bees most people ever see flying around outside the hive.

     Drones: These are the male bees, and their purpose is to mate with the new queen. Several hundred live in each hive during the spring and summer. But come winter, when the hive goes into survival mode, the drones are kicked out!

3. What are these buzzing bugs most famous for? Delicious honey! But did you know they produce honey as food stores for the hive during winter? Luckily for us, these efficient little workers produce 2-3 time more honey than they need, so we get to enjoy the tasty treat, too!
4. If the queen bee dies, workers will create a new queen by selecting a young larva (the newly hatched baby insects) and feeding it a special food called “royal jelly“. This enables the larva to develop into a fertile queen.
5. Honey bees are fab flyers. They fly at a speed of around 25km per hour and beat their wings 200 times per second!
6. Each bee has 170 odorant receptors, which means they have one serious sense of smell! They use this to communicate within the hive and to recognise different types of flowers when looking for food.
7. The average worker bee lives for just five to six weeks. During this time, she’ll produce around a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.
8. The queen can live up to five years. She is busiest in the summer months, when she can lay up to 2,500 eggs a day!
9. Honey bees are also brilliant boogiers! To share information about the best food sources, they perform their ‘waggle dance’. When the worker returns to the hive, it moves in a figure-of-eight and waggles its body to indicate the direction of the food source. Cool, huh?

10. Sadly, over the past 15 years, colonies of bees have been disappearing, and the reason remains unknown. Referred to as ‘colony collapse disorder’, billions of honey bees across the world are leaving their hives, never to return. In some regions, up to 90% of bees have disappeared!

We can all do our bit to support these brilliant bugs, gang! Why not plant flowers rich in nectar, such as lavender and bluebells, which will help bees find the food they need? Also, be sure to choose local honey, too, which will support our honey bees and their beekeepers!

source (article; video and picture): National Geographic Kids, Angelina Jolie Covered In Bees: It ‘Felt Lovely’, Access; Youtube

A cikk elolvasása után próbáld megtalálni, melyik ponthoz (1-10), melyik kérdés (A-L) tartozik. Vigyázz, mert van két kérdés, amikre nincs szükség.

A.What is the special ability of honey bees?

B.Why are honey bees vital in nature?

C.What is the minor purpose of a queen bee?

D.What are these buzzing bugs most famous for?

E.What do honey bees use their special sense of smell for?

F.Why is ‘bee dance’ informative?

G.What’s life inside a beehive?

H.What is the lifespan of a queen?

I.What has happened to bees recently?

J.How is would-be-queen bee nurtured?

K.What is the lifespan of a bee worker?

L.Why are honey bees said to be fabulous?

keys/megoldások: 1. B; 2. G.; 3. D.; 4. J.; 5. L.; 6. E.; 7. K.; 8. H.; 9. F; 10. I.; extrák: C;  A.

A videó megnézése után egészítsd ki a mondatokat a videóban elhangzott információk alapján. Próbáld pontosan azt a szót használni, amit hallasz az adott mondatnál.

1.The Hollywood superstar was covered in … for an important …

2. She teamed up with National Geographic to …awareness about
   bee conservation and to champion …beekeepers.
3. The campaign is in honor of world …Day on May ….
4. This is problem that we can we can …we can certainly do our …and
   we can do much better.
5. Despite how calm she looked while the …swarmed all over her,
   at least one got a little too …for comfort.
6. ’It stayed there the entire time we were doing the …and then
   when I lifted the skirt, he went …luckily.’
7. Angelina …felt as though she was in any ….
8. ’It felt lovely to be that …to these beautiful ….’
9. Angelina has long been …for her work empowering …across the globe.
10. Playing a female …in her new movie symbolizes how
    she’s faced and …personal challenges throughout her life.

keys/megoldások:
1. bees, cause; 2. raise, female;
3. Bee, 20^th; 4. manage, part;
5. insects, close; 6. shoot, away;
7. never, danger; 8.  connected; creatures;
9.  known, women; 10. firefighter, overcome

The Grand Beedapest Hotel has rooms dedicated to different flavored teas, and the company gives credit where credit is due, noting that there would be no tea without the buzzy brood. There’s the “Lemongrass and Ginger Bar,” the “Rose Lemonade Restaurant” and the “Sour Cherry Bedroom.” Each vibrant space matches the flavor to a paint that, according to scientific research, helps to attract the bees.

“Bees are so important in helping to provide great flavor, but less attention has been paid to show how urban areas can be made more pollinator-friendly,’ said Kate Halloran of Taylors of Harrogate in a press release. “The aim of the bee hotel is to not only educate and entertain, but to also inspire action, from the peppermint leaf gym for a complete wing work out, through to the luxury sweet rhubarb suite with its decadent rhubarb sugar water bath and UV disco, their every need will be taken care of.”

It isn’t just for looks, though. The luxurious hotel has all the bells and whistles of a five-star hotel. Inside, bees can find bedrooms, a gym, a pool, and even a dance floor. Each has a bee-friendly spin, making them very inviting to the fuzzy yellow insects. For example, the rose lemonade restaurant serves pollen, while the peppermint leaf gym and spa has sugar water. The furniture is made from balsa wood and the bedrooms have hollow tubes for the bees to nest in. Best of all, there is some pretty great artwork on the walls. We spotted Magritte’s The Son of Man, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, and a portrait of Beyoncé in the Sweet Rhubarb Queen Bee Suite.

source: mentalfloss

Insects in English. Which one is which? Can you make pairs?

Key

1. c.

2. a.

3. f.

4. b.

5. d.

6. e.