BEAUTIFUL BEES
Bees are fascinating creatures and hugely important pollinators. Next time you nibble on an almond or bite into an apple, you might want to say a quiet thank you to these industrious little marvels of nature. Bees are one of nature’s finest examples of teamwork.
Photo by Dustin Humes at Unsplash
A) FUN FACTS ABOUT BEES
Fill the gaps with the following words:
estimated, key, fans, species, gathering, mate, teaspoon, raccoons, duties, intruders, lay
There are around 20,000 a) ____________ of bee in the world but only eight are honey bees.
The queen bee’s sole job is to b) ____________ and c) ____________ eggs. She can produce as many as 1,500 to 2,000 eggs a day.
The worker bees are female and make up most of the colony. They have many d) ____________, such as keeping the hive clean, feeding the young and the queen, e) ____________ pollen and nectar from flowering plants, and they help to make honey.
Worker bees have another duty: to guard the hive or colony from f) ____________ like wasps, bears or g) ____________. They position themselves at the entrance, a bit like bouncers!
The drones are the male bees – their life is a little more leisurely – they have one h) ____________ role and that is to breed with a queen.
Only the female bees, the workers and the queen, are armed with a stinger.
When the hive gets too hot, the worker bees bring water and they’ll use their wings as i) ____________ to cool things down.
Once a bee has finished foraging (=collecting food) it takes a direct route back to the colony, hence the expression ‘to make a beeline’.
In her lifetime a honey bee will only make about a twelfth of a j) ____________ of honey.
It’s k) ____________ that just to make half a kilo of honey, bees have to visit around two million flowers, totalling about 90,000 air miles!
Now, go look online and find another interesting piece of trivia about bees and share it with your fellow students or a friend or study buddy (or you can tell me on my EnglishSmarts Twitter).
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B) BEE IDIOMS
Oh no! These idioms have got mixed up! Can you BEE a dear 😜, and put the words in italics in the right place?
1. As soon as we asked for volunteers to help clean up after the party, everyone made a buzz for the door.
2. Alice has a bee in her beeline about cars driving too fast down her street. She keeps phoning the council about it but she says they haven’t done a thing about it.
3. That guy at the bar was really annoying me. I told him to beeswax off.
4. “Sam says you kissed someone at the party. Who was it? Come on, tell me!” – “No, it’s none of your bonnet.”
Photo by Andy Holmes at Unsplash.com
ANSWERS
A)
a) species
b) mate
c) lay
d) duties
e) gathering
f) intruders
g) raccoons
h) key
i) fans
j) teaspoon
k) estimated
B)
1. As soon as we asked for volunteers to help clean up after the party, everyone made a beeline (=went directly) for the door.
2. Alice has a bee in her bonnet (= she’s obsessed) about cars driving too fast down her street. She keeps phoning the council about it but she says they haven’t done a thing about it.
3. That guy at the bar was really annoying me. I told him to buzz off (= go away (impolite))
4. “Sam says you kissed someone at the party. Who was it? Come on, tell me!” – “No, it’s none of your beeswax.” (= it’s none of your business, it’s not your concern (impolite))
I love Idioms (1) – Body Parts
I love Idioms (2) – Animals
Idioms with Make (1)
Idioms with Make (2)
Idioms with Keep