Give yourself 3 minutes to read the passage.
Reading Time: 3 minutes
Originally from Europe, western honey bees are now responsible for pollinating cultivated crops everywhere except Antarctica. Part of the reason honey bees are so popular with farmers is their tendency to transfer pollen to “conspecific” plants—plants of the same species. This is the most efficient form of pollination for any plant that cannot self-pollinate.
Therefore, it was alarming to many when western honey bee colonies began abandoning their hives for no apparent reason. This phenomenon, called colony collapse disorder, sometimes occurs naturally. But beginning around 2000, it began multiplying worldwide. First observed in North America, the trend was soon observed in many countries in Europe and parts of Asia.
The cause of colony collapse disorder remains unknown. There are two promising hypotheses, however: the pesticide theory and the multi-factor theory. At this time, it appears that the pesticide theory is the more likely explanation of colony collapse disorder globally.
First, a certain pesticide that can have adverse effects on bees began to be used in the 1990s. A 2013 report from the United States Department of Agriculture proved that these chemicals—in normal quantities—harm bees directly. This also helps explain why colony collapse disorder proliferated first in North America and only later spread to Europe and some parts of Asia. These other regions did not start using the pesticide until later than North America.
Second, fungicides can have serious impacts on bees. They can stifle their development into adult workers and can alter their behavior in some circumstances. If worker bees are underdeveloped, or if their behavior is altered, many vital functions within the colony may not be attended to properly. These fungicides do not kill bees directly. However, they may cause a colony to be inefficient or even completely nonfunctional. If this happens, honey bees have a natural tendency to abandon the colony, rather than continue to serve one that isn’t working.
Listen to Track 273.
You have 20 minutes to plan and write your response. Your response will be judged on the basis of the quality of your writing and on how well your response presents the points in the lecture and their relationship to the reading passage. Typically, an effective response will be 150 to 225 words.
Response Time: 20 minutes
Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they challenge the specific points made in the reading passage.