Read the following passages and answer the questions that follow:
At the end of 1957 there were about 2740
million people on earth, By A.D. 2000 it is estimated that the world population
will have increased to about 4400 million. The difficulty then will be to feed
all the mouths.
The only other living things that have a way
of life that can be compared with that of man are the bees, ants, wasps and
termites. They are social creatures that have solved the problem of keeping a balance
between population and food supply. How have they done it?
Let us examine the community life of termites
(or white ants as they are commonly called). First of all, we should remember
that termites have been on the earth for something like 200-million years,
while man has existed as a social animal for less than one million years.
Termites have therefore had much longer to deal with
this problem of life and death than we have.
For this reason, too, they are far more advanced than man. Perhaps we should
say, for more ruthless.
The workers and soldiers in a termite nest
are cither males or females that are fed and treated in such a way that they
cannot have any offspring. Only a select few we call males and queens are allowed
to reproduce themselves. But even the latter are not allowed to breed as they
like. During the winter, for instance, the queen
does not lay any eggs at all because she is
not given sufficient food. When warmer weather arrives in spring, she is
well-fed and then days hundreds of eggs. As soon as the workers decide they
have eggs, her food is cut down again and she stops laying. She also Stops
laying in times of drought when little food is coming in.
If the drought is prolonged, the workers eat
any eggs that may be in the nest to prevent the arrival of more mouths to feed.
At times they even become cannibals by devouring some of the young to keep the
rest of the community going.
Of course, human beings cannot imitate
termites in their cold-blooded method of population-control. Man will have to
find some other way of solving the problem.
1. (a) When were there about 2740 million
people on earth?
(b) When will there be about 4400 million
people on earth?
(c) When does the termite queen stop laying
eggs? Name three occasions.
(d) When do termites become cannibals?
2. What will be the chief difficulty by in A,
D. 2000?
3. Which other creatures have a way of life
that is similar to that of human beings?
4. “They are social creatures.” Does this
mean that they are creatures?
(a) that eat one another?
(b) that like to live together ?
(c) that know how to obtain enough food?
(d) that know how to keep down the population
of the nest?
or
(e) that allow only a few of their kind to have
babies?
5. Bees, ants, wasps and termites have found
the answer to a very difficult problem. Which of the following sentences best:
states the nature of the problem?
(a) How to make sure that there will always
be enough food to eat, no matter how many mouths there are to feed?
(b) How to make sure that there is always
just the right amount of food for a certain number of mouths which have to be fed?
(c) How to make sure that there will never be
too many mouths to eat that amount of food which can be obtained at any given
time?
6. Are the following statements about
termites TRUE or FALSE?
(a) They like to live together in large
groups.
(b) They have lived on earth for about one
million years.
(c) Their workers and soldiers cannot have
baby termites.
(d) Only their males and queens are allowed
to have babies.
(e) In winter the queen lays hundreds of
eggs.
(f) Sometimes the queen is not given any food
at all.
(g) Sometimes they attack other grown-up
termites and eat them.
7. Prove that termite males and queens are
not allowed to have as many offspring as they like.
8. Why are termite workers and soldiers
unable to have offspring?
9. Does the writer think that human beings
will one day become cannibals in order to keep their number down?
If you agree, write down the word YES. If you
do not agree, write down the sentence from the extract which tells us that he
does not think so..
10. What other name it often given to
termites?
