(课时作业)必修第一册 Unit 6 At one with nature-2023版新高考英语【红对勾】大一轮复习讲与练全新方案(外研版)

必修第一册　　　　　　　 At one with nature 答案 P576 (2022·河北省九校第二次联考) Anyone who commutes ( 通 勤 ) by car knows that traffic jams are an unavoidable part of life. But humans are not alone in facing potential jams. Ants also commute—between their nests and sources of food. The survival of their colonies de- pends on doing this efficiently. When humans commute, there􀆳s a point at which cars become dense (稠密的) enough to slow down the flow of traffic,causing a jam. Re- searchers wanted to know if ants on the move could also get stuck. So they regulated traffic den- sity by constructing bridges of various widths be- tween a colony of Argentine ants and a source of food. Then they waited and watched,trying to find out at what point they were going to have a traffic jam. But it appeared that that never happened. They always managed to avoid a traffic jam. The flow of ants did increase in the beginning as ants started to fill the bridge and then levelled off at high density. But it never slowed down or stopped,even when the bridge was nearly filled with ants. The researchers then took a closer look at how the behaviour of individual ants impacted traffic as a whole. And they found that when ants sense overcrowding, they adjust their speeds and avoid entering high-density areas,which prevents jams. Their behaviour may be promoted by phero- mones,chemicals that can tell other ants where a trail is. The ants also manage to avoid colliding (碰撞) with each other at high density,which could really slow them down. Can ants help us