This passage is adapted from Sharon Tregaskis,
"What Bees Tell Us About Global Climate Change,"©
2010 by Johns Hopkins Magazine.
Standing in the ​apiary ​on the grounds of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Bee Research
Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, Wayne Esaias
digs through the ​canvas ​shoulder bag leaning against
his leg in search of the cable he uses to download
data. It's dusk as he runs the cord from his laptop –
precariously ​perched ​on the ​beam ​of a cast-iron
platform scale-to a small, battery operated data
logger attached to the spring inside the scale's steel
column. In the 1800s, a scale like this would have
weighed ​sacks of grain​ or ​crates of apples​, peaches,
and melons. Since arriving at the USDA's bee lab in
January 2007, this scale has been loaded with a
single item: a colony of Apis mell(fera, the fuzzy,
black-and-yellow honey bee. An attached, 12-bit
recorder captures the hive's weight to within a 10th of
a pound, along with a daily register of relative
ambient ​humidity ​and temperature.
On this late January afternoon, during a
comparatively ​balmy ​respite ​between the ​blizzards
that dumped several feet of snow on the Middle
Atlantic states, the bees, their honey, and the
wooden boxes in which they live weigh 94.5 pounds.
In mid-July, as last year's unusually long nectar flow
finally ​ebbed​, the whole ​contraption ​topped out at
275 pounds, including nearly 150 pounds of honey.
"Right now, the colony is in a cluster about the size of
a soccer ball," says Esaias, who's kept bees for
nearly two decades and knows without lifting the lid
what's going on inside this hive. "The center of the
cluster is where the queen is, and they' re keeping
her at 93 degrees-the rest are just hanging there,
tensing their flight muscles to generate heat."
Provided that they have enough calories to fuel their
winter workout, a healthy colony can survive as far
north as Anchorage, Alaska. "They slowly eat their
way up through the winter," he says. "It's a race: Will
they eat all their honey before the nectar flows, or
not?" To make sure their charges win that race,
apiarists have long relied on scale hives for vital
management clues. By tracking daily weight
variations, a beekeeper can ​discern ​when the colony
needs a nutritional boost to carry it through lean
times, whether to add extra combs for honey storage
and even detect ​incursions ​by ​marauding ​robber
bees-all without disturbing the colony. A graph of the
hive's weight-which can
Go to: ​Related Vocabulary
increase by as much as 35 pounds a day in some
parts of the United States during peak nectar flow -
reveals the date on which the bees' foraging was
most productive and provides a direct record of
successful pollination. "Around here, the bees make
their living in the month of May," says Esaias, noting
that his bees often achieve daily spikes of 25 pounds,
the maximum in Maryland. "There's almost no nectar
coming in for the rest of the year." A scientist by
training and career oceanographer at NASA, Esaias
established the Mink Hollow Apiary in his Highland,
Maryland, backyard in 1992 with a trio of hand-me
down hives and an antique platform scale much like
the one at the Beltsville bee lab. Ever since, he's
maintained a ​meticulous ​record of the bees' daily
weight, as well as weather patterns and such details
as his efforts to keep them healthy. In late 2006,
honey bees nationwide began disappearing in an
ongoing syndrome ​dubbed ​colony collapse disorder
(CCD). Entire hives went empty as bees ​inexplicably
abandoned their young and their honey. Commercial
beekeepers reported losses up to 90 percent, and
the large-scale farmers who rely on honey bees to
ensure rich harvests of almonds, apples, and
sunflowers became very, very nervous. Looking for
clues, Esaias turned to his own records. While the
resulting graphs threw no light on the cause of CCD,
a ​staggering ​trend ​emerged​: In the span of just 15
seasons, the date on which his Mink Hollow bees
brought home the most nectar had shifted by two
weeks-from late May to the middle of the month. "I
was shocked when I plotted this up," he says. "It was
right under my nose, going on the whole time." The
epiphany ​would lead Esaias to launch a series of
research ​collaborations​, featuring honey bees and
other ​pollinators​, to investigate the relationships
among plants, pollinators, and weather patterns.
Already, the work has begun to reveal ​insights ​into
the often ​unintended ​consequences of human
interventions in natural and agricultural ecosystems,
and exposed significant gaps in how we understand
the effect climate change will have on everything
from food production to ​terrestrial ​ecology.
 
Related Vocabulary ​Go to: ​Passage
 apiary ​ o to: ​Passage
g  spring
a place where people keep bees, especially a 2. [ C ] a piece of curved or bent metal that can
collection of ​hives ​(= containers in which bees be pressed into a smaller space but then returns
live) kept to provide honey to its usual shape
The children have jumped on the couch so much
that they've ruined the springs.
 canvas
1. strong, rough cloth used for making tents,
sails, bags, strong clothes, etc.
2. a piece of this cloth used by artists for painting
on, usually with oil paints, or the painting itself
These two canvases by Hockney would sell for
£500 000.
 a sack of grain
 precarious ​ o to: ​Passage
g
1. in a dangerous state because not safe or firmly
fixed
The lorry was lodged in a very precarious way,
with its front wheels hanging over the cliff.
2. A precarious situation is likely to get worse
Many borrowers now find themselves caught in a
precarious financial position.

 perch
1. ​perch in/on, etc. ​sth
perch in/on, etc. ​sth
to sit on or near the edge of something
We perched on bar stools and had a beer.
A blackbird was perching on the gate.
 ambient
(especially of environmental conditions) existing
in the surrounding area
ambient conditions/lighting/noise/temperature

 beam ​ o to: ​Passage

g  humidity
1. a line of light that shines from a bright object 1. the quality of being humid
We could just pick out the path in the weak beam I don't like the humidity of this climate.
of the UK, usually a torch/ US flashlight. 2. a measurement of how much water there is in
The rabbit stopped, mesmerized by the beam o​ f the air
the car's headlights. The temperature is almost eighty degrees, the
humidity in the low thirties.
2. a line of ​radiation ​or ​particles ​flowing in one
direction
a ​laser ​beam  balmy
an ​electron ​beam (of weather) pleasantly warm
beam ​go to: ​Passage a balmy summer ​evening
3. a long thick piece of wood, metal or concrete,
especially used to support weight in a building or  respite
other structure 1. a pause or rest from something difficult or
The sitting room had exposed ​wooden ​beams. unpleasant
We worked for hours without respite.
 blizzard
1. a severe snowstorm with strong winds
We once got s​ tuck in ​a blizzard for six hours.
 ebb
1. When the sea or tide ebbs, it moves away
from the coast and falls to a lower level.
ebb
2. If a physical or emotional feeling ebbs, it
becomes less strong or disappears
He could feel his ​strength ​ebbing (​ away) ​.
 discern
to see, recognize or understand something that is
not clear
I could just discern a figure in the darkness.
It is difficult to discern any pattern in these
figures.
 marauding
going from one place to another killing or using
violence, stealing and destroying
Witnesses reported gangs of marauding soldiers
breaking into people's houses and setting fire to
them.
 incursion
1. a sudden attack on or act of going into a place,
especially across a border
incursions i​ nto e​ nemy territory
 forage
to go from place to place searching, especially
for food
The children had been living on the streets,
foraging f​ or s​ craps and sleeping rough.
The pigs foraged in the woods f​ or ​acorns.
 meticulous
very careful and with great attention to every
detail
Many hours of meticulous preparation have
gone into writing the book.
 dub ​ o to: ​Passage
g
1. to give something or someone a particular
name, especially describing what you think of
them
She was dubbed by the newspapers 'The Angel of
Death'.
dub
2. to change the sounds and speech on a film or
television programme, especially to a different
language
I'd rather watch a film with subtitles than one
dubbed i​ nto ​English.
 staggering ​go to: ​Passage
very shocking and surprising
It costs a staggering $50 000 per week to keep
the museum open to the public.
 emerge
1. to appear by coming out of something or out
from behind something
She emerged ​from ​the sea, blue with cold.
 collaboration ​ o to: ​Passage
g
1. when two or more people work together to
create or achieve the same thing
The two playwrights worked i​ n close
collaboration ( ​with ​each other) on the script.
 insight
(the ability to have) a clear, deep and sometimes
sudden understanding of a complicated problem
or situation
It was an interesting book, full of fascinating
insights i​ nto h​ uman relationships.
 pollinate ​go to: ​Passage
Bees pollinate the plants by carrying the pollen
from one flower to another.
 epiphany ‫اﺳﺘﯿﻌَﺎب‬
ْ  terrestrial ‫ﺳﺎﻛﻦ اﻷرض‬
when you suddenly feel that you understand, or 1. formal relating to the planet Earth
suddenly become conscious of, something that is
very important to you or a powerful religious
 unintended ​ o to: ​Passage
g
experience
not ​intended ​(= planned)
The group argues that many of the proposed
 interfere ‫ﺗﺪاﺧﻞ‬  reforms will have unintended ​consequences .​
to involve yourself in a situation when your
involvement is not wanted or is not helpful
 inexplicable
It's their problem and I'm not going to interfere.
unable to be explained or understood
For some inexplicable reason, he's decided to
 contraption ‫أداة ﻏﺮﯾﺒﺔ اﻟﺸﻜﻞ‬ cancel the project.
a device or machine that looks awkward or
old-fashioned, especially one that you do not
 crates of apples ​go to: ​Passage
know how to use
Whatever's that ​strange ​contraption you've got
in the garage?