REVIEW

Read the following text and then, do the activities based on it.

The civilised insect

Ants number approximately ten thousand trillion worldwide. Each individual ant
scarcely weighs anything but put together they weigh roughly the same as all of
______ (I) mankind. They are also ubiquitous, thriving everywhere except on
icy mountain peaks and around _________ (II) Poles. No one _________(III)
precisely how many species there are, but it is estimated at over 20,000. For an
animal of its size, ants ___________ (IV) incredibly successful, and this success
owes much to the highly sophisticated social behaviour they exhibit.

In colonies that range in size from a few hundred to tens of millions, they organise
their roles with a clear division of labour: a queen or queens whose job it is to
reproduce; some fertile males who die shortly after mating with the queen; and
the rest – sterile females who make up the main population of workers and
soldiers, toiling away in a determined fashion. In some species, the bodies of
these sterile females are adapted to the different jobs they have within the nest:
building and expanding the nest, foraging for food, defending against predators
and so on.

How they achieve this level of organisation and synchronisation is even more
______________ (V). Where we use sound and sight to communicate, ants
depend primarily _________ (VI) pheromones, chemicals emitted by individuals
and smelled or tasted by nestmates. A given species ____________ (VII) just ten
to twenty signals, which unlike human language are entirely instinctive messages.
A pheromone trail left by a foraging ant will lead others straight to where the
food is. When an individual ant comes under attack or ______________ (VIII),
it sends out an alarm pheromone to alert the colony to mobilise as a defence unit.

In fact, when it comes to the art of war, ants are unsurpassed. They are
completely fearless and ____________ (IX) on prey much larger than
themselves, attacking in deadly swarms and overwhelming their target. Such is
their dedication to the common good of the colony that workers _________ (X)
their own lives to help others defeat the enemy.

Behaving in this altruistic and dedicated manner, these little creatures have
flourished on Earth ____________ (XI) more than 140 million years, long
outlasting dinosaurs. Because they think as one, they have a collective
intelligence ______________ (XII) the sum of its individual parts; something you
___________ (XIII) hardly say of most species.

ACTIVITIES

1 – Read the text, and then match the highlighted words to the right definition.

scarcely ubiquitous thriving colonies toiling sterile foraging

trail unsurpassed swarms overwhelming altruistic flourished

a) working very hard and/or for a long time, usually doing hard physical work
____________________

b) seeming to be everywhere or in several places at the same time; very common

____________________

c) caring about the needs and happiness of other people and being willing to do things to
help them, even if it brings no advantage to yourself _________________________

d) a long line or series of marks that is left by somebody/something

____________________

e) only just; almost not ______________________

f) group of plants or animals that live together or grow in the same place
____________________

g) (of a person or an animal) to search widely for food ____________________

h) better or greater than any other __________________

i) to become, and continue to be, successful, strong, healthy, etc.

____________________

j) (of humans or animals) not able to produce children or young animals

____________________

k) to be successful or common; prosper _____________________

l) a large group of insects moving together in the same direction __________________

m) very great or very strong; so powerful that you cannot resist it or decide how to react
____________________

2 – Mark the correct option to complete the gaps in the text.

I – ( ) the ( )a ( ) -

II – ( ) the ( )a ( ) -

III – ( ) know ( ) knows ( ) is knowing

IV – ( ) was ( ) were ( ) have been

V – ( ) amazing ( ) amazed

VI – ( ) of ( ) on ( ) in

VII – ( ) is producing ( ) produces ( ) has produced

VIII – ( ) is dying ( ) dies ( ) has died

IX – ( ) are going to take ( ) will take ( ) are taking

X – ( ) are going to sacrifice ( ) will sacrifice ( ) are sacrificing

XI – ( ) since ( ) for

XII – ( ) greater than ( ) the greatest ( ) more great than

XIII – ( ) could to ( ) able to ( ) could

If you got any of these items wrong, please study these lessons again:

I & II – 3B III – 1A IV – 2A V – 4A VI – 3B VII – 1A & 2A

VIII – 1A & 2A IX – 1A & 1B X – 1A & 1B XI – 2B

XII – 3A XIII – 4A

3 – Read the sentence and then, mark the correct option.

You can find ants everywhere, but not

I – on icy mountain peaks.

II – around the North Pole.

III – around the South Pole.

IV – in colonies.

a) Only I is correct.

b) Only II and III are correct.

c) Only I, II and III are correct.

d) All of them are correct.

e) None of them are correct.

Ants have lived longer than dinosaurs on Earth thanks to their

a) sophisticated individual behavior.

b) altruism, collective intelligence, and dedication.

c) pheromone trails and signals.

d) fertile males, who die shortly after mating with the queen.

e) tiny size and weight.

4 – Answer the questions.

a) How many ants can you find in a colony?

______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

b) What do ants do when helping others defeat an enemy?

______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

5 – Mark T (true) or F (false) and correct the false one(s).

a) All the ants in a colony have the same shape. ( )

b) Ants use chemicals, which are instinctive, to communicate. ( )