英語聽力文摘 蜜蜂怎樣過冬？
一只蜜蜂無法度過嚴(yán)寒的冬天。一群蜜蜂則不同。據(jù)說蜂箱中的蜜蜂要過冬的時候，往往要抱成一團(tuán)。最外面的一層是工蜂，它們拼命地煽動著翅膀，像厚厚的衣服一樣阻隔著外面的寒冷。在這樣嚴(yán)嚴(yán)實(shí)實(shí)的“包裹”之下，里邊的溫度恒定在攝氏13度左右，舒適如春。被工蜂“包裹”在里邊的不僅有蜂王和雄蜂，還有另外的工蜂。餓了，它們依靠夏天采集來的蜜獲得足夠的能量。但里面的工蜂并不總在里面呆著，它們還需要到外面來“換崗”。就這樣，蜜蜂的家族度過了寒冬。
Many insects hibernate or migrate during the winter, but honeybees are more like us, they bundle up and wait for spring.
When winter comes, honeybees form a ball deep in their hive to regulate the hive temperature. This means they stay close together, vibrating their wing muscles to generate heat and keep the center of the hive around eighty-six to ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit. If the core temperature drops too low, the colony will die.
Bees also eat a lot of honey to stay warm, and the fastest way to kill off a hive if you’re a beekeeper is to take out too much honey, too late in the season. Healthy beehives have at least twenty-thousand bees, and that’s a lot of mouths to feed.
Some bees on the outside of the ball will not stay warm enough and will die over the course of the winter, but its for the good of the colony. (Fortunately, we humans have central heat.)
With bees one always talks about the colony as a single entity. This is because each bee has a very specific role, but together they work as a unit. You could say each bee functions like a cell in your body. Honeybees start out cleaning the hive and feeding larvae, but will progress to collectors and foragers, and even hive guardians.
Honeybees try their best to keep the hive clean, so on a warm winter day, they clean house and fly a few hundred yards away to use the bathroom! This can be dangerous, though, because if it’s colder out than they thought, the bees might not make it back.
譯文：
許多昆蟲在冬天的時候冬眠或者遷徙，但是蜜蜂和人類一樣，它們也把自己弄的暖暖和和的，等待春天的到來。
當(dāng)冬天來臨的時候，工蜂會在蜂巢的深處形成一個球來調(diào)節(jié)蜂巢的溫度。這就意味著它們擠在一起，震動他們的翅肌來增加熱量，以至把蜂巢中心的溫度控制在華氏86到85度。如果中心溫度降的太低，整個蜂群就會死掉。
蜜蜂也吃很多蜂蜜來保持熱量，如果你是一個養(yǎng)蜂人，消滅一個蜂房最快的方法就是在深冬從蜂房中取出大部分蜂蜜。健康的蜂窩里面大概會有2萬只蜜蜂，它們需要很多的食物來生存。
一些靠近蜂球外圍的蜜蜂會因?yàn)椴荒鼙３譁嘏诼L的冬天里死去，但是這也是為了整個群體的利益(幸好我們?nèi)祟愑屑泄┡?。
對于蜜蜂來說，我們經(jīng)常把它們看成一個單獨(dú)的個體，這是因?yàn)?，它們每一個都有一個非常特殊的角色，但是它們作為一個整體工作。你可以把單個蜜蜂的作用比作人身體中的一個細(xì)胞。蜜蜂要從清理蜂巢和喂養(yǎng)幼蜂做起，漸漸地就可以去采集蜂蜜和食物，甚至成為蜂巢的警衛(wèi)員。
蜜蜂不惜一切的保持巢穴清潔，所以它們會在冬天比較溫暖的日子里清潔巢穴并飛到幾百碼以外的地方“洗澡”。這樣做是很危險的，因?yàn)樘鞖獗人鼈冾A(yù)計(jì)的更冷，這些蜜蜂可能會一去不返。
