Lesson 54 PART B
Instinct or cleverness？
Last summer I spent days in the garden watching thousands of ants crawling up the trunk of my prize peach tree. The tree has grown against a warm wall on a sheltered side of the house. (1)_______________________. During the summer, I noticed that the leaves of the tree were beginning to wither. Clusters of tiny insects called aphids were to be found on the underside of the leaves. They were visited by a large colony of ants which obtained a sort of honey from them. (2)_______________________. I bound the base of the tree with sticky tape, making it impossible for the ants to reach the aphids. The tape was so sticky that they did not dare to cross it . For a long time, I watched them scurrying around the base of the tree in bewilderment . (3)_______________________. I got up early next morning hoping to find that the ants had given up in despair. Instead, I saw that they had discovered a new route. They were climbing up the wall of the house and then on to the leaves of the tree. I realized sadly that I had been completely defeated by their ingenuity. The ants had been quick to find an answer to my thoroughly unscientific methods!
