In this fictional narrative, characters live in a world in which all the bees are gone. Life is much different as a result. A whole week, Lindy thought, seven glorious days of rest before it started all over again. "Well, at least we're getting near the end of the green beans," she offered. "My back feels like it's been pulled loose and my hands itch all over. Studying for finals would be way better than this. I sure do miss the bees."
"Understatement," Ben said as he rolled his eyes.
In fact, everyone missed the bees. Only a few years had passed since the die-off, but so much had changed. Before the devastating event, the natural population of honeybees was supported by an additional million hives maintained by beekeepers. The keepers shipped their hives from one field to another to pollinate crops all over the country. It was hard to believe it had been a mere three years since the insects had disappeared.
But it was easy to remember the pure panic that followed. At first, only the farmers understood the seriousness of the problem, but when the stock on store shelves began to shrink, everyone understood. We had become a species whose survival depends on eating the seeds of wheat, rice, corn, and millet. It was shocking to realize how many crops depended on the pollination of honeybees.
Of course there were other insects to naturally pollinate the fields; there just weren't enough of them. The government reacted quickly, ordering school students between the ages of 14 and 17 to spend the spring season manually pollinating the fields of beans, melons, wheat, and corn that stretched through farm country from coast to coast. From April through June, the students' daily routine consisted of brushing pollen grains off of flowers' anthers into a pail and then swabbing it onto other flowers' stigmas. She joined Ben and the others, who each carried a lunch-bucket-sized pail in one hand and a three-pronged swab in the other. Methodically, Ben stooped over a bean plant, dipped his swab into his bucket, and lightly touched the spongy tips to the plant's flowers. Stoop and swab. . .stoop and swab...stoop and swab -- eight hours a day, working in shifts that covered all the daylight hours, every day of the week, all season long. The work was tedious, hot, and boring, but without the students working as pollinators..
change that was deadly to female mosquitoes, genetic engineers were the heroes of the developing world. The genetic variation had been introduced to the insects through a scientifically made virus. The celebration was short-lived, however, when the mutation "jumped species." Whether the virus moved to honeybees through pollen or air or water was unclear - and it didn't matter anyway. The results were the same.
In the first year, the honeybee population was infected; in the second year, the entire species was nearly gone. The following year had massive crop failures. A year after that, the president introduced the temporary "School Service Assignment," until a permanent solution could be found. It all seemed to happen so quickly. Now, the genetic engineers were working frantically -- and in secret -- to produce a honeybee that would be immune to the genetic change.
"Lindy, I know I shouldn't think this way, but how many people used to die of malaria and how many more now starve to death?" His voice was low as he bent to the rhythm of their work. "Don't even go there, Ben. That kind of thinking will make you crazy.

Could the events in this selection really happen? Why or why not? Use details from this piece and your own ideas to support and explain your answer.