Listen to part of a lecture in a biology class. The professor is discussing the behavior of honeybees.
Professor: Today, we're going to talk about honeybees and their remarkable communication system. You've probably heard of the famous 'waggle dance.' When a forager bee discovers a good food source, it returns to the hive and performs this dance on the vertical surface of the honeycomb. The dance conveys two critical pieces of information: the direction and the distance of the food. The direction is indicated by the angle of the dance relative to the vertical, which represents the angle relative to the sun. For example, if the bee dances straight up, it means the food is directly toward the sun. If it dances at a 45-degree angle to the right, the food is 45 degrees to the right of the sun. The distance, on the other hand, is encoded in the duration of the waggle run – the longer the run, the farther the food source. Interestingly, this dance is not just a simple signal; it's a symbolic language that allows the colony to efficiently exploit resources. Now, there's a debate about whether this is truly a form of 'language' or just a sophisticated stimulus-response mechanism. But whatever the conclusion, the waggle dance is a fascinating example of animal cognition.
❓ Pregunta According to the professor, what does the angle of the waggle dance indicate?
A. A. The distance to the food source.
B. B. The quality of the food source.
C. C. The direction of the food source relative to the sun.
D. D. The number of other bees needed to collect the food.
✅ Respuesta correcta
C. The direction of the food source relative to the sun.
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