Nâng cấp từ vựng – IELTS Vocab Booster 2 – Test 3- READING PASSAGE 1
ANT INTELLIGENCE
When we think of intelligent members of the animal kingdom, the creatures that spring immediately to mind are apes and monkeys. But in fact the social lives of some members of the insect kingdom are sufficiently complex to suggest more than a hint of intelligence.
Among these, the world of the ant has come in for considerable scrutiny lately, and the idea that ants demonstrate sparks of cognition has certainly not been rejected by those involved in these investigations.
Ants store food, repel attackers and use chemical signals to contact one another in case of attack. Such chemical communication can be compared to the human use of visual and auditory channels (as in religious chants, advertising images and jingles, political slogans and martial music) to arouse and propagate moods and attitudes. The biologist Lewis Thomas wrote, Ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrassment. They farm fungi, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies to war, use chemical sprays to alarm and confuse enemies, capture slaves, engage in child labour, exchange information ceaselessly. They do everything but watch television.’
However, in ants there is no cultural transmission – everything must be encoded in the genes – whereas in humans the opposite is true. Only basic instincts are carried in the genes of a newborn baby, other skills being learned from others in the community as the child grows up. It may seem that this cultural continuity gives us a huge advantage over ants. They have never mastered fire nor progressed. Their fungus farming and aphid herding crafts are sophisticated when compared to the agricultural skills of humans five thousand years ago but have been totally overtaken by modem human agribusiness.
Or have they? The farming methods of ants are at least sustainable. They do not ruin environments or use enormous amounts of energy. Moreover, recent evidence suggests that the crop farming of ants may be more sophisticated and adaptable than was thought.
Ants were farmers fifty million years before humans were. Ants can’t digest the cellulose in leaves – but some fungi can. The ants therefore cultivate these fungi in their nests, bringing them leaves to feed on, and then use them as a source of food. Farmer ants secrete antibiotics to control other fungi that might act as ‘weeds’, and spread waste to fertilise the crop.
It was once thought that the fungus that ants cultivate was a single type that they had propagated, essentially unchanged from the distant past. Not so. Ulrich Mueller of Maryland and his colleagues genetically screened 862 different types of fungi taken from ants’ nests. These turned out to be highly diverse: it seems that ants are continually domesticating new species. Even more impressively, DNA analysis of the fungi suggests that the ants improve or modify the fungi by regularly swapping and sharing strains with neighbouring ant colonies.
Whereas prehistoric man had no exposure to urban lifestyles – the forcing house of intelligence – the evidence suggests that ants have lived in urban settings for close on a hundred million years, developing and maintaining underground cities of specialised chambers and tunnels.
When we survey Mexico City, Tokyo, Los Angeles, we are amazed at what has been accomplished by humans. Yet Hoelldobler and Wilson’s magnificent work for ant lovers, The Ants, describes a supercolony of the ant Formica yessensis on the Ishikari Coast of Hokkaido. This ‘megalopolis’ was reported to be composed of 360 million workers and a million queens living in 4,500 interconnected nests across a territory of 2.7 square kilometres.
Such enduring and intricately meshed levels of technical achievement outstrip by far anything achieved by our distant ancestors. We hail as masterpieces the cave paintings in southern France and elsewhere, dating back some 20,000 years. Ant societies existed in something like their present form more than seventy million years ago. Beside this, prehistoric man looks technologically primitive. Is this then some kind of intelligence, albeit of a different kind?
Research conducted at Oxford, Sussex and Zurich Universities has shown that when desert ants return from a foraging trip, they navigate by integrating bearings and distances, which they continuously update in their heads. They combine the evidence of visual landmarks with a mental library of local directions, all within a framework which is consulted and updated. So ants can learn too.
And in a twelve-year programme of work, Ryabko and Reznikova have found evidence that ants can transmit very complex messages. Scouts who had located food in a maze returned to mobilise their foraging teams. They engaged in contact sessions, at the end of which the scout was removed in order to observe what her team might do. Often the foragers proceeded to the exact spot in the maze where the food had been. Elaborate precautions were taken to prevent the foraging team using odour clues. Discussion now centres on whether the route through the maze is communicated as a ‘left- right’ sequence of turns or as a ‘compass bearing and distance’ message.
During the course of this exhaustive study, Reznikova has grown so attached to her laboratory ants that she feels she knows them as individuals – even without the paint spots used to mark them. It’s no surprise that Edward Wilson, in his essay, ‘In the company of ants’, advises readers who ask what to do with the ants in their kitchen to: ‘Watch where you step. Be careful of little lives.’
- Giải thích từ vựng
- Spring to mind: bật ra trong đầu, nghĩ ngay đến
Eg: Say the word “Australia” and a vision of beaches and blue seas immediately springs to mind.
Mention fashion and Kate’s name immediately springs to mind.
- Complex (a) /ˈkɒm.pleks/ phức tạp, rắc rối
Eg: The company has a complex organizational structure.
It’s a very complex issue to which there is no straightforward answer.
Một số từ đồng nghĩa:
- difficult It’s very difficult to find a job in this city.
- Hard The exam was really hard.
- Complicated The instructions were so complicated I just couldn’t follow them.
- Tricky It’s quite tricky getting the puzzle pieces to fit together.
- Scrutiny (n) /ˈskruː.tɪ.ni/ sự xem xét kỹ lưỡng, sự nghiên cứu cẩn thận
Eg: The government’s record will be subjected to scrutiny in the weeks before the election.
Collocation
- be subjected to/come under scrutiny
- In case of (prep) trong trường hợp, trong tình huống
Eg: In case you meet my brother, you can ask him for advice.
The camping area has ready access to water, in case of fire.
- Propagate (v) /ˈprɒp.ə.ɡeɪt/ truyền lại, lan truyền
Eg: The government have tried to propagate the belief that this is a just war.
Propagation (n)
- Arouse (v) /əˈraʊz/ đánh thức, khuấy động, gợi
Eg: It’s a subject that has aroused a lot of interest.
Our suspicions were first aroused when we heard a muffled scream.
Một số từ đồng nghĩa:
- Cause Firefighters determined that a campfire spark caused the wildfire.
- Bring about Many illnesses are brought about by poor diet and lack of exercise.
- Result in The fire resulted in damage to their house.
- Lead to Reducing speed limits has led to fewer deaths on the motorways.
- Make The heat is making me tired.
- Enemy (n) /ˈen.ə.mi/ kẻ thù, kẻ địch, địch thủ; quân địch
Eg: He’s made a few enemies in this company.
Max stole Lee’s girlfriend and they’ve been enemies ever since.
The commandos made a daring raid on the enemy.
- Engage (in sth) (v) làm, tiến hành, tham gia vào
Eg: Most students engage in extracurricular activities after school and on weekends.
The men were engaged in a heated dispute.
- Ceaselessly (adv) /ˈsiːs.ləs.li/ không ngớt, liên tục
Eg: Musicians work ceaselessly to improve.
He was ceaselessly resourceful, cunning, and inventive.
She campaigned ceaselessly against the death penalty.
- Encode (v) /ɪnˈkəʊd/ ghi thành mật mã, mã hóa
Eg: Many satellite broadcasts are encoded so that they can only be received by people who have paid to see them.
Some music CDs are encoded with information about the performers and their music.
- Instinct (n) /ˈɪn.stɪŋkt/ bản năng/ thiên hướng, năng khiếu
Eg: All his instincts told him to stay near the car and wait for help.
Her first instinct was to run.
- Newborn (a) /ˈnjuː.bɔːn/ mới sinh
Eg: Breast-feeding is extremely beneficial to the health of newborn babies.
Một số từ đồng nghĩa:
- new baby Bringing home a new baby can be a confusing time for parents.
- bundle of joy Congratulations on bringing home your little bundle of joy!
- Neonate The doctor headed up a study on perception in neonates.
- Infant Infants under 2 years of age must travel on an adult’s lap.
- Overtake (v) /ˌəʊ.vəˈteɪk/ bắt kịp, vượt
Eg: Our US sales have now overtaken our sales in Europe.
We’d planned to hold a meeting tomorrow, but events have overtaken us.
I accelerated to overtake the bus.
- Ruin (v) /ˈruː.ɪn/ làm hỏng, làm đổ nát, tàn phá
Eg: Huge modern hotels have ruined this once unspoilt coastline.
Một số từ đồng nghĩa:
- Spoil Don’t spoil the movie by telling me what happens!
- Deface Many of the library books had been defaced.
- Disfigure Her face was disfigured by the scar.
- Sour Our friendship soured after the argument, and we just drifted apart.
- Poison The long dispute has poisoned relations between the two countries.
- Cultivate (v) /ˈkʌl.tɪ.veɪt/ cày cấy, trồng trọt, nuôi dưỡng
Eg: Most of the land there is too poor to cultivate.
The villagers cultivate mostly maize and beans.
Cultivation (n)
- Antibiotic (n) /ˌæn.ti.baɪˈɒt.ɪk/ kháng sinh/ thuốc kháng sinh
Eg: My doctor’s put me on a course of antibiotics and I have to stay off work for a week.
Bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics.
- Diverse (a) /daɪˈvɜːs/ gồm nhiều loại khác nhau, đa dạng
Eg: Students from countries as diverse as Colombia and Lithuania use Cambridge textbooks.
We hold very diverse views on the topic.
Linguistics embraces a diverse range of subjects such as phonetics and stylistics.
Một số từ đồng nghĩa:
- Different I like her haircut – it’s different!
- Dissimilar The twins may look alike, but they are quite dissimilar when it comes to personality.
- Diverse London is a culturally diverse city.
- Heterogeneous They tested a heterogeneous population.
- Domesticate (v) /dəˈmes.tɪ.keɪt/ thuần hoá (động vật)
Eg: Dogs were probably the first animals to be domesticated.
- Strain (n) /streɪn/ dòng dõi ; giống (súc vật), loại
Eg: Scientists have discovered a new strain of the virus which is much more dangerous.
A new strain of the virus has been found.
- Colony (n) /ˈkɒl.ə.ni/ (động vật học) bầy, đàn, tập đoàn
Eg: A minimum of 200 colonies were analyzed for each plasmid tested at each temperature.
- Exposure (n) /ɪkˈspəʊ.ʒər/ sự đặt vào (nơi nguy hiểm), sự đặt vào tình thế dễ bị (tai nạn…)
Eg: You should always limit your exposure to the sun.
Even a brief exposure to radiation is very dangerous.
According to received wisdom, exposure to low level radioactivity is harmless.
Collocation
- exposure to sth The bank had relatively little exposure to subprime mortgages, which are issued to people with weak credit histories.
- Territory (n) /ˈter.ɪ.tər.i/ đất đai, địa hạt, lãnh thổ
Eg: He was shot down in enemy territory.
The UN is sending aid to the occupied territories.
We can’t afford to make any false moves once we’re in enemy territory.
- Intricately (adv) /ˈɪn.trɪ.kət.li/ rắc rối, phức tạp
Eg: Morning frost highlights the intricately formed seed heads.
Stonehenge is an intricately planned arrangement of huge stones.
- Outstrip (v) /ˌaʊtˈstrɪp/ bỏ xa, chạy vượt xa/ giỏi hơn, có khả năng hơn
Eg: The demand for food in the war zone now far outstrips supply.
Car dealers worry that demand will outstrip their supply.
- Hail (v) /heɪl/ hoan hô, hoan nghênh
Eg: Heppner has been hailed as one of the finest tenors in the operatic world today.
The conference was hailed as a great success.
Collocation
- be hailed (as) something
- hail somebody/something as something
- Date back (phrasal verb) /deɪt bæk/ đã có từ …., đã tồn tại từ ….
Eg: A large collection of stamps dates back to the 1980s.
- Primitive (a) /ˈprɪm.ɪ.tɪv/ nguyên thuỷ, ban sơ, thô sơ
Eg: Early settlers had to cope with very primitive living conditions.
Twelve thousand years ago, our ancestors were primitive savages living in caves.
- Forage (v) /ˈfɒr.ɪdʒ/ lục lọi, tìm tòi, kiếm ăn
Eg: The children had been living on the streets, foraging for scraps.
The pigs foraged in the woods for acorns.
- Consult (v) /kənˈsʌlt/ hỏi ý kiến, thỉnh thị, thăm dò
Eg: If the symptoms get worse, consult your doctor.
Một số từ đồng nghĩa:
- Ask I asked him what time the museum opened, but he didn’t know.
- Inquire She called to inquire when her car would be ready.
- Ask around I’ll ask around and see if anyone knows of a good carpenter.
- Question The police are questioning him about the robbery.
- Interview After the race, she was interviewed by journalists.
- Proceed (v) /prəˈsiːd/ tiến lên; theo đuổi; đi đến
Eg: His lawyers have decided not to proceed with the case.
Preparations for the festival are now proceeding smoothly.
- Luyện tập
Bài 1: Chọn từ trong khung để hoàn thành các câu bên dưới
| arouses | In case | spring | engage | instinct |
| propagates | scrutiny | enemy | encoded | ceaselessly |
- The figures are likely to come under close ………………………………….
- Australian locations ……………………………………. to mind, such as Alice Springs, Uluru and Kata Tjuta.
- Television advertising ……………………………….. a false image of the ideal family.
- The troops had camouflaged themselves so effectively that the …………………. didn’t notice them approaching.
- ……………………….. of emergency, you had better call 113
- He doesn’t care for the rap music that his children play ……………………………..
- Football …………………………………. a good deal of passion among its supporters.
- Each box of medicine has a label …………………………. with a unique ID number linked to a database.
- figurative Bob seems to have an …………………….. for knowing which products will sell.
- She tried desperately to ……………………………………. him in conversation.
Bài 2: Chọn đáp án đúng để điền vào chỗ trống
- A continuous white line in the middle of the road means no …………………………. A. overtaking B. ruining
- In those days doctors gave out …………………….. to patients all the time, so they became less effective. A. antibiotics B. instincts
- ………………………. babies are not able to focus their eyes fully for the first few weeks of life. A. diverse B. newborn
- I put too much salt in the sauce and …………………………….. it. A. ruined B. cultivated
- H5N1 is a ………………………………… of avian influenza. A. colony B. strain
- Corn was ……………………………. more than 6 000 years ago. A.domesticated B. cultivated
- Some of the insects will leave to form a new …………………………. A. exposure B. colony
- The traditional friendship between our two countries …………………… to ancient days. A. dates back B. engages in
- For years the two nations battled over …………………………………….. A.strain B. territory
- Corn, or maize, is indigenous to Mexico and has been …………………. there for some 6,000 years. A. cultivated B. ruined
- We need to recognise that we live in a culturally ………………………….. society. A. primitive B. diverse
- She gradually became deaf after lengthy ……………………………. to noise in the workplace. A. exposure B. territory
- The conditions at the campsite were rather …………………………….. A. primitive B. complex
- Supplies of goods and services are ………………………………… demand. A. domesticating B. outstripping
- Teenager Matt Brown is being ……………………………. a hero for saving a young child from drowning. A. hailed B. foraged
- The committee will ……………………………….. people in the neighborhood before making a recommendation. A. forage B. consult
- Passengers for Madrid should …………………………………. to gate 26 for boarding. A. proceed B. propagate
- The pigs are allowed to …………………………………… around in a large orchard. A. forage B. outstrip
- These details show how …………………………….. slavery was woven into the country’s economy. A. ceaselessly B. intricately
- Designing a house is a …………………………………. process A. complex B. diverse
- LUYỆN TẬP
Bài 1:
1.scrutiny 2. spring 3. propagates 4. enemy 5. In case
- ceaselessly 7. arouses 8. encoded 9. instinct 10. engage
Bài 2:
1.A 2. A 3. B 4. A 5. B
- A 7. B 8. A 9. B 10. A
- B 12. A 13. A 14. B 15.A
- B 17. A 18. A 19. B 20. A
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