This past winter, about 30 percent of all the managed honeybees in the U.S. died. That's according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Such a die-off is no longer unusual. About a third of honeybees have ___1___ every winter since 2006.

Given that recent history, USDA entomologist Jeff Pettis characterized this as quote “___2___” given that quote "the problem does not appear to be getting worse."

Of course, the problem has been getting worse since at least the 1980s, when parasitic mites ___3___ the U.S. Our friend Apis mellifera has never recovered. Now so-called "Colony Collapse Disorder" or CCD continues to kill bees--who provide some $15-billion worth of economic good via pollination.

To really solve the problem would require much more than solving the mystery of CCD. It would require a ___4___ from the widespread use of pesticides that unintentionally impact bees and a ___4___ from the large-scale agriculture that forces them to ___5___ a single type of flower rather than their usual diverse diet. Plus, there's the globalization that allows bee-killing disorders to spread rapidly and easily. What a buzz kill.
【视听版科学小组荣誉出品】
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据美国农业部透露，去年冬天，美国有30％的养殖蜜蜂死亡。对此，人们已见怪不怪了，因为自2006年以来，每年冬天蜜蜂数量就会锐减30％。 美国农业部昆虫学家杰夫佩蒂斯称之为“少许鼓励”因为“这个问题并没有恶化的趋势”。 众所周知，少说从20世纪80年代寄生螨首次入侵美国开始，这个问题就一直在恶化。可怜的意大利蜜蜂从那以后就再也没摆脱过厄运。“蜂群崩溃综合症”（CCD）至今仍是蜜蜂的杀手，勤劳的小蜜蜂传粉采蜜的经济贡献约合150亿的经济商品呢。 要想真正挽救小蜜蜂，光解决蜂群崩溃综合症是远远不够的。我们需要停止使用杀虫剂，因为它们无形之中就会影响到蜜蜂的生存；还需要减少大规模农业，因为这样会使得蜜蜂传粉采蜜对象过于单一。此外，在全球化的影响下，引发蜜蜂死亡的病症极易传播。哎～尸横遍野咯～