The brain of an insect isn’t very big. But insects are somehow still able to make lots of important decisions. Bees, ants and roaches(蟑螂) build hives with thousands of workers doing specialized work. The jobs are done without a head or even a plan. How do insects manage this? To solve the mystery, scientists in Belgium spent months building robotic roaches and then putting them among real roaches. The final goal of the research is to find out how the simple behavior of individuals gives rise to a collective(集体的) decision. The roach is a good starting point for trying to answer the big question because its social system is simple enough for scientists to study. The first step was to build robots that real roaches would accept as their own. Although the robotic roaches don’t look much like the real thing, they have similarities with them in three key ways: they naturally head toward dark areas, they are influenced by the behavior of other roaches, and even more importantly, they smell like roaches. The next step was getting the robotic and real roaches to work together on common tasks. In experiments, the robots would collectively head towards a dark place, copying the behavior of natural roaches. That got the researchers wondering: if you program the robotic roaches to go toward the lighted place, will the real roaches follow, going against their natural instincts.(本能) ? They will – it turned out. Many of the real roaches followed the robots to a lighter shelter. But influence turned out to be a two- way street. On occasion, the real roaches were able to override the programming of the robot roaches and get them to turn into dark hiding places. Being social creatures, both the robotic and natural roaches were paying attention to and following the example set by others. In theory, it would be possible to create a robot that could influence collective decision-making in humans. To do this, researchers would have to invent a robot that people would accept. Fortunately, the technology isn’t there yet. 69. Why do scientists choose the roaches to study? A. Their social system is simple B. They are social creatures. C. They are able to build their hives quite well. D. It is easy to create robotic ones. 70. The robotic roaches are accepted by real ones because of all the following EXCEPT that ______ . A. they smell like real ones B. they look exactly like real ones C. what they do are somewhat influenced by other roaches D. they naturally head toward dark areas 71. What’s the author’s attitude to creating a robot that would influence collective decision-making in humans? A. Uninterested B. Positive C. Negative D. Doubtful 72. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage ? A. Scientists’ Research B. Robotic Roaches C. Amazing Insects D. Insects’ Social System |