GRE Reading Comprehension
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Source: XDF
Typically the queen honeybee is mother to all the bees in a hive; after mating with several male drones from other colonies, she lays fertilized eggs that develop into all-female worker bees and lays unfertilized eggs that become all-male drones. According to natural selection theory, a worker would enhance her fitness --or ability to propagate her genes-by hatching her own eggs in addition to or in place of the queen's. But a typical worker's fitness would be diminished if other workers' sons, who have less genetic material in common with the worker, supplanted the queen's sons (the worker's brothers). Researchers, testing the hypothesis that workers usually somehow block each other's attempts to reproduce, put unfertilized eggs laid by workers and by the queen into a hive. Other workers quickly devoured the workers' eggs while leaving the queen's eggs alone.
The passage best supports which of the following inferences about the fitness of honeybees?
- A Reproduction diminishes any individual honey-bee's fitness.
- B An individual worker's fitness can be maintained without the individual herself reproducing.
- C A hierarchy of stronger and weaker individuals among the worker bees determines which individuals will reproduce when a queen dies.
- D While a queen reigns, the fitness of the worker bees is increased and that of the drones is diminished.
- E Fitness encourages worker bees to hatch honeybee eggs without regard for the relatedness of the young to the "parent".