高中三年级英语(人教版)全一册 Unit 14 Reading 1

　　When a marked bee returned to the hive from the feeding table, von Frisch watched through the glass. To his surprise, the bee began to perform a dance on the surface of the honeycomb. First it made a circle to the right, then to the left. It repeated these circles over and over again. But that was not all. The dance seemed to excite the surrounding bees. They trooped behind the first dancer, copying its movements. Then the bees left the hive and went to the feeding place. The circle dance seemed to communicate news of food. But what else?

　　Von Frisch assumed that the dance conveyed more information. To find out whether his assumption was correct, he set up two feeding places. One was close to the hive, the other was much farther away, beyond some trees. He marked all the bees that came to the nearby feeding place blue, and all the bees that went to the far-away place red. When the bees came back to the hive, yon Frisch saw a curious sight. All the bees that had been at the nearby feeding place were doing the circling dance. The bees that had been at the distant feeding place were doing a completely different dance, a wagging dance. The dancer ran in a straight line, wagging from side to side. Then it turned in a semicircle, ran straight again, and turned in another semicircle to the opposite side. It kept repeating the "steps" over and over. Things were clear now. It was evident that the circle dance told the bees about the location of the feeding place. It was also apparent that the wagging dance, where the bee moved sideways, sent another message about the feeding place.