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This is your second GL 11+ English practice paper. This time, the passage is non-fiction — a style you may encounter in the real exam. Read carefully and answer all questions.
Read the following passage carefully.
There are over 20,000 species of bee in the world, but the one we know best is the honeybee. A single honeybee colony can contain up to 60,000 bees, all working together with astonishing precision. It is one of the most remarkable societies in the natural world.
At the centre of every hive is the queen. She is the only bee that lays eggs — up to 2,000 a day during the summer months. Despite her title, the queen does not rule the hive. Her role is purely to reproduce. The real decisions are made collectively by the worker bees through a process scientists call "swarm intelligence."
Worker bees are all female. They build the honeycomb, gather nectar, guard the entrance, feed the young, and regulate the temperature of the hive by fanning their wings. A worker bee will visit between 50 and 1,000 flowers in a single foraging trip, and in her entire lifetime — just six weeks in summer — she will produce approximately one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.
When a scout bee discovers a good source of nectar, she returns to the hive and performs a "waggle dance." This extraordinary figure-of-eight movement tells the other bees the direction and distance of the flowers. The angle of the dance indicates the direction relative to the sun, while the duration of the waggle reveals how far away the source is.
Bees are essential to our food supply. They pollinate about one third of everything we eat, including apples, strawberries, almonds, and tomatoes. Without bees, supermarket shelves would look very different. Yet bee populations around the world are declining, threatened by pesticides, habitat loss, and disease. Protecting bees is not just about saving an insect — it is about safeguarding our own future.
Q1. How many species of bee are there in the world? (1 mark)
Q2. How many eggs can a queen bee lay in a day during summer? (1 mark)
Q3. The passage says the queen "does not rule the hive." Explain how decisions are actually made in a bee colony. (2 marks)
Q4. In your own words, explain what a "waggle dance" is and why it is important. (3 marks)
Q5. "In her entire lifetime — just six weeks in summer — she will produce approximately one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey."
What effect does this fact have on the reader? Why do you think the writer included it? (3 marks)
Q6. "Protecting bees is not just about saving an insect — it is about safeguarding our own future."
What does the writer mean by this? (2 marks)
Q7. Which word is closest in meaning to "astonishing" as used in the passage? (1 mark)
(a) Confusing (b) Amazing (c) Frightening (d) Ordinary
Q8. List three threats to bee populations mentioned in the passage. (3 marks)
Q9. This passage is non-fiction. Give two features of the text that show it is non-fiction rather than fiction. (2 marks)
Q10. Why do you think the writer chose the title "The Hidden World of Bees"? (2 marks)
Fill in each gap with the most appropriate word.
The forest was (1) and still. Not a single bird sang in the (2) above. Ella crept forward, her heart (3) in her chest. She could hear nothing except the soft (4) of her own footsteps on the fallen leaves. Somewhere ahead, a twig (5) and she froze. Was someone — or something — (6) her?
She took a deep (7) and forced herself to keep walking. The path (8) through the trees, growing narrower with every step. Just when she thought she could bear it no (9), a clearing appeared ahead, bathed in warm, golden (10).
Write a persuasive paragraph (8–10 sentences) arguing that schools should have a garden where students can grow fruit and vegetables.
Use at least three persuasive techniques from the AFOREST toolkit (Alliteration, Facts, Opinions, Rhetorical questions, Emotive language, Statistics, Three — rule of three).
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