Use of English - Multiple Choice

Urban Beekeeping

For many city dwellers, the idea of keeping bees on rooftops once seemed (0) ABSURD. Yet urban beekeeping has, in recent years, become more than a passing trend; it is now widely regarded as a practical response to concerns about biodiversity and food security. Supporters argue that cities, contrary to popular belief, can provide bees with a surprisingly rich (1) .......... of flowering plants, since parks, balconies and private gardens often bloom in succession throughout the year. Critics, however, have (2) .......... doubt on whether increasing the number of managed hives in cities genuinely helps wild pollinators, or merely intensifies competition for limited nectar sources. Much depends on how such projects are carried (3) .......... and whether they form part of a broader ecological strategy. When urban beekeeping is treated as a fashionable gesture, it may do little more than (4) .......... attention from deeper environmental problems. When approached responsibly, by contrast, it can (5) .......... public awareness of pollinator decline and encourage residents to think more carefully about the green spaces around them. In that sense, the hive serves not only as a source of honey, but also as a visible (6) .......... of the fragile relationship between human activity and the natural world. What began as an eccentric hobby has therefore (7) .......... into a serious topic of debate, one that is unlikely to disappear (8) .......... soon.