Listen to part of a lecture in a biology class. The professor is discussing the behavior of honeybees.
'Today, I want to talk about communication in honeybees, specifically the famous waggle dance. When a forager bee returns to the hive after finding a good food source, it performs a dance that conveys information about the direction and distance of that food source. The dance is a figure-eight pattern, and the angle of the straight run relative to the vertical indicates the angle of the food source relative to the sun. For example, if the bee runs straight up, that means the food is directly toward the sun. The speed of the dance, or the number of waggles, indicates the distance. But here's the interesting part: recent research suggests that this dance is not just an instinctive behavior. Young bees learn to improve their dance by observing older, experienced foragers. In an experiment, bees that grew up in a hive without older bees performed less accurate dances than those who had the opportunity to learn from experienced dancers. So, the waggle dance is both innate and learned, showing a surprising level of social learning in insects.'
❓ Question What does the professor say about the waggle dance of honeybees?
A. A. The angle of the dance indicates the distance to the food source.
B. B. The dance is purely instinctive and does not change over time.
C. C. Young bees can improve their dance accuracy by observing older bees.
D. D. The speed of the dance indicates the direction of the food source.
✅ Correct Answer
C. Young bees can improve their dance accuracy by observing older bees.
TOEFL Listening Tips
Skim the questions first to predict the content
Watch for signal words in lectures and conversations (however, actually, in fact)
For main idea questions, focus on the beginning; for detail questions, focus on examples and data
For attitude questions, pay attention to the speaker's tone and word choice
Take notes on keywords; don't try to write down every word
