Question shimme
Shimmering is a collective defense behavior that researchers have observed in giant honeybee colonies. When shimmering, different groups of bees flip their bodies up and down in what looks like waves. This defense is initiated when hornets hover near a colony, serving to deter the hornets from approaching the bees. Researchers hypothesize that this behavior is a specialized defense response to hornets, as it is not observed when other, larger predators approach the colony.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
Researchers are unsure how giant honeybees defend against predators larger than hornets.
Researchers think that shimmering in giant honeybees is a specific defense against hornets.
Hornets are known to be the main predator of giant honeybees.
Several different species of insects use shimmering to defend against hornets.
Shimmering is a collective defense behavior that researchers have observed in giant honeybee colonies. When shimmering,
Medium-difficulty · SAT Reading & Writing · Central Ideas and Details — Identify the central idea or thesis. Read the question above, select your answer, and check the full explanation below to understand exactly why the correct choice works.
Answer explanation
Choice B is the best answer. The text describes a study about how giant honeybees use shimmering to defend against hornets, but not other predators. The researchers conclude that shimmering could be a specialized defense response to hornets.
Choice A is incorrect. The text says that giant honeybees don’t appear to use shimmering against other, larger predators. However, it never suggests that researchers don’t know which other defenses giant honeybees do use for those predators. Choice C is incorrect. The text says that hornets are one predator of giant honeybees, but it doesn’t say that hornets are the main predator of giant honeybees. This choice also fails to mention “shimmering,” which is a major focus of the text. Choice D is incorrect. The text only discusses the shimmering of giant honeybees—it doesn’t discuss other insects’ defense responses at all.
More Central Ideas and Details practice questions
- The following text is from Shyam Selvadurai’s 1994 novel Funny Boy. The
- Elizabeth Asiedu has identified a negative correlation between the share of developing
- The following text is from David Barclay Moore’s 2022 novel Holler of the Fireflies
- In 1934 physicist Eugene Wigner posited the existence of a crystal consisting entirely of
- To protect themselves when being attacked, hagfish-jawless marine animals that resemble
- The painter María Izquierdo played an important role in the development of
- The following text is adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s 1849 story
- Xin Wang and colleagues have discovered the earliest known example of a flower bud
Browse all Information and Ideas practice questions or return to the full SAT question bank.