Anh ngữ đặc biệt: Number of honeybees declining (VOA)

Phương pháp học tiếng Anh hiệu quả, nhanh chóng: Các chương trình học tiếng Anh của Ban Việt ngữ VOA (VOA Learning English for Vietnamese) có thể giúp các bạn cải tiến kỹ năng nghe, hiểu rõ cấu trúc và ngữ pháp, và sử dụng Anh ngữ một cách chính xác.

Luyện nghe nói tiếng Anh qua video: Chương trình học tiếng Anh của VOA: Special English Agriculture Report. Xin hãy vào http://www.voatiengviet.com/section/hoc-tieng-anh/2693.html để xem các bài kế tiếp.

From VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report.

A decline in the number of honeybees is a growing problem worldwide. The decreasing bee population could contribute to an increase in prices for crops that depend on pollination by honeybees. Researchers continue to study the decline, while beekeepers like Terrence Ingram struggle to keep their bee colonies alive. He says he loves being at the center of a swarm of bees. He has raised honeybees since 1954, in managed colonies behind his house in rural Apple River, Illinois. He had 250 hives at one time and sold five or six tons of honey a year. But that number is declining. He says he is now down to probably about four tons. Not because the 73-year-old beekeeper is slowing down, but because there are fewer bees producing honey.

He says the decline in his bee population began in 1996. He blames that decline on the use of insecticides and herbicides on the farmland surrounding his property. By the end of the year, he says, he did not have any of my 250 hives left. That caught the attention of researchers like Christian Krupke, a professor at Purdue University. Experts say there are many reasons for the worldwide bee decline, not just insecticides. But in this case, Professor Krupke and his colleagues thought insecticides might be the cause. So they studied insecticides known as neonicotinoids that are applied to seeds as they are planted in the ground, rather than sprayed from above. This December, the European Union plans to ban the use of some insecticides that researchers have linked to bee deaths.