Typically the queen honeybee is mother to all the bees in a hive;

Question

Typically the queen honeybee is mother to all the bees in a hive; after mating with several male drones from other colonies, she lays fertilized eggs that develop into all-female worker bees and lays unfertilized eggs that become all-male drones. When a queen dies, workers often lay unfertilized eggs that hatch into drones. Yet workers rarely reproduce while a queen reigns. According to natural selection theory, a worker would enhance her fitness—or ability to propagate her genes—by hatching her own eggs in addition to or in place of the queen’s. But a typical worker’s fitness would be diminished if other workers’ sons, who have less genetic material in common with the worker, supplanted the queen’s sons (the worker’s brothers).  Researchers, testing the hypothesis that workers usually somehow block each other’s attempts to reproduce, put unfertilized eggs laid by workers and by the queen into a hive.  Other workers quickly devoured the workers’ eggs while leaving the queen’s eggs alone.    1 
 1. The author refers to the experiment described in lines 16-19 ( Text in Red ) in order to

(A) explain how worker bees are prevented from mating with drones
(B) explain how worker bees hatch and nurture the queen’s young
(C) demonstrate the universality of natural selection
(D) show that worker bees are capable of thwarting each other’s attempts to reproduce
(E) provide a model of daily life in a typical honeybee hive

2 
 2. The inner workings in a honeybee hive that regulate reproduction, as they are described in the passage, are most similar to which of the following types of human societies?

(A) A totalitarian society in which citizens’ “policing” of each other’s actions helps to maintain the status quo.
(B) A pacifist state in which the individuals are strongly opposed to the use of violence or aggression to settle disputes.
(C) A democratic society in which the voice of the majority rules.
(D) A parliamentary society in which a few members, organized as a cabinet wield executive power.
(E) An anarchic state in which order and stable social structures are lacking.

3 
 3. The passage best supports which of the following inferences about the fitness of honeybees?

(A) Reproduction diminishes any individual honeybee’s fitness.
(B) An individual worker’s fitness can be maintained without the individual herself reproducing.
(C) A hierarchy of stronger and weaker individuals among the worker bees determines which individuals will reproduce when a queen dies.
(D) While a queen reigns, the fitness of the worker bees is increased and that of the drones is diminished.
(E) Fitness encourages worker bees to hatch honeybee eggs without regard for the relatedness of the young to the “parent.”

4 
 4. The passage suggests which of the following about the eggs laid by worker bees?

(A) One of the eggs hatches into the next queen.
(B) The eggs are invariably destroyed by other worker bees.
(C) Each worker tries to hide her eggs from the other worker bees.
(D) The eggs hatch only if the worker has mated with a drone from another hive.
(E) The eggs are less likely to be harmed by other workers if the queen is dead.

sting8 · Accepted Answer

1. The author refers to the experiment described in lines 16-19 (Text in Red) in order to

Author tells how natural selection is applicable to the bees.
A typical worker bee would try to hatch her own eggs so that her own genes can be propagated along.
But if other bees are able to reproduce then her own gene propagation is likely to be suppressed.
Researchers wanted to test the hypothesis whether worker bees prevent each other's reproduction.
(A) explain how worker bees are prevented from mating with drones . Nobody is being prevented. Each try to take care of her own eggs
(B) explain how worker bees hatch and nurture the queen’s young . interested in observing behavior among the workers not with the queen.
(C) demonstrate the universality of natural selection . Only talking on the bees, not generalized.
(D) show that worker bees are capable of thwarting each other’s attempts to reproduce.
(E) provide a model of daily life in a typical honeybee hive . Focus is reproduction, not daily life.

2. The inner workings in a honeybee hive that regulate reproduction, as they are described in the passage, are most similar to which of the following types of human societies?

Bees compete with each other's reproduction by feeding on others' eggs but don't affect the queen in any way.
(A) A totalitarian society in which citizens’ “policing” of each other’s actions helps to maintain the status quo. Policing each other is equivalent to attacking eggs and everyone keeping an eye on the other. A totalitarian society has concentrated power without any questions(queen bee holds such power)
(B) A pacifist state in which the individuals are strongly opposed to the use of violence or aggression to settle disputes. OPPOPSITE to worker bees' nature.
(C) A democratic society in which the voice of the majority rules. There is one head(queen bee), with whose eggs nobody messes around. But the usual population(worker bees) compete with one another.
(D) A parliamentary society in which a few members, organized as a cabinet wield executive power. No exclusivity in form of committees, only one single head holds executive power in beehive.
(E) An anarchic state in which order and stable social structures are lacking. There is a social structure in beehive, which everyone conforms to.

3. The passage best supports which of the following inferences about the fitness of honeybees?

(A) Reproduction diminishes any individual honeybee’s fitness. Bees want to reproduce to propagate their genes, thus reproduction enhances "fitness"
(B) An individual worker’s fitness can be maintained without the individual herself reproducing. Workers start to reproduce only after queen dies, thus their fitness remains adequate, without reproduction, while the queen reigns.
(C) A hierarchy of stronger and weaker individuals among the worker bees determines which individuals will reproduce when a queen dies. Not mentioned.
(D) While a queen reigns, the fitness of the worker bees is increased and that of the drones is diminished. Irrelevant.
(E) Fitness encourages worker bees to hatch honeybee eggs without regard for the relatedness of the young to the “parent.” If this was true, then queen's eggs should also have been eaten.

4. The passage suggests which of the following about the eggs laid by worker bees?

(A) One of the eggs hatches into the next queen. Irrelevant
(B) The eggs are invariably destroyed by other worker bees. Extreme
(C) Each worker tries to hide her eggs from the other worker bees. I don't have a concrete reasoning for eliminating this

(D) The eggs hatch only if the worker has mated with a drone from another hive. Irrelevant
(E) The eggs are less likely to be harmed by other workers if the queen is dead. After queen is dead, no issues with storing eggs, workers reproduce after her death.

Please feel free to elaborate on the explanations, especially Q4.

(D) The eggs hatch only if the worker has mated with a drone from another hive. Irrelevant (E) The eggs are less likely to be harmed by other workers if the queen is dead. After queen is dead, no issues with storing eggs, workers reproduce after her death. Please feel free to elaborate on the explanations, especially Q4.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Explanation

4. The passage suggests which of the following about the eggs laid by worker bees?

Difficulty Level:   700+

Explanation

(A) One of the eggs hatches into the next queen.

From 161 words of this passage we cannot infer  option (A)  so this is the easiest to eliminate.

(B) The eggs are invariably destroyed by other worker bees.

(B)  is extreme and the word  "invariably"  makes it extreme.  (B)  says that every time the egg of one worker bee will be destroyed by another worker bee. Although the passage supports that the eggs of one worker bee are destroyed by another worker bee, we cannot infer  "every time" .  (B)  is out.

(C) Each worker tries to hide her eggs from the other worker bees.

(C)  is the same like  (A) , cannot be inffered.

(D) The eggs hatch only if the worker has mated with a drone from another hive.

This is not discussed so is out of scope.

(E) The eggs are less likely to be harmed by other workers if the queen is dead.

This one best among the five. There is no specific text which suggests this but the overall passage and especially the last few lines point this out in implicit words.

Answer: E

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Explanation

3. The passage best supports which of the following inferences about the fitness of honeybees?

Explanation

(A) Reproduction diminishes any individual honeybee’s fitness. 
This answer choice is not supported by the passage. The passage does not state that reproduction diminishes an individual honeybee's fitness. It focuses on the worker bees' behavior and the potential conflicts between their own reproduction and the reproduction of the queen.

(B) An individual worker’s fitness can be maintained without the individual herself reproducing.  
This answer choice is supported by the passage. The passage mentions that workers rarely reproduce while a queen is present. If the worker bees' fitness depended solely on their own reproduction, they would be expected to lay eggs. However, the passage suggests that workers can still maintain their fitness without personally reproducing, possibly by contributing to the survival and success of their siblings (the queen's sons).

(C) A hierarchy of stronger and weaker individuals among the worker bees determines which individuals will reproduce when a queen dies. 
This answer choice is not supported by the passage. The passage does not mention a hierarchy of stronger and weaker individuals among the worker bees that determines which individuals will reproduce when a queen dies. It focuses more on the workers' inhibition of each other's reproduction.

(D) While a queen reigns, the fitness of the worker bees is increased and that of the drones is diminished. 
This answer choice is not directly supported by the passage. The passage discusses the reproductive behaviors of the queen and workers but does not explicitly state that the fitness of worker bees is increased while a queen reigns. It also does not mention the fitness of the drones.

(E) Fitness encourages worker bees to hatch honeybee eggs without regard for the relatedness of the young to the "parent." 
This answer choice is not supported by the passage. The passage mentions that workers devoured the unfertilized eggs laid by other workers while leaving the queen's eggs alone. This suggests that worker bees do consider relatedness when it comes to the survival of their own genetic material.

Answer: B

Typically the queen honeybee is mother to all the bees in a hive;

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GMAT Reading Comprehension (RC) Questions

Typically the queen honeybee is mother to all the bees in a hive;

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