【推荐3】I've spent all my adult life working with trees. Recently, our fundraising team was looking for novel suggestions to raise money to help________ the giant redwoods in Benmore. Some of the staff_________ I do a sponsored tree huggathon.

They knew I'd been a tree hugger since a very early age. Still,I wasn’t ________ people would be interested enough to_________ money. But my colleagues thought it was worth a_________. So I agreed to hug 350 trees in a year.

My tree hugging practice is simple: making maximum contact.This means wrapping my arms as________ round as they'll go.

________, there were a few raised eyebrows from passers-by. Some people________ quietly, maybe they thought it was a(n) ________ and old-fashioned Scottish custom. I was played jokes on among my family, too,but everyone understood it was for a________ cause.

I'm delighted that we_________ to raise more than double the original________ to help save our own splendid redwoods, which were planted in 1863 by a wealthy American.

Tree hugging is a wonderful way of reconnecting with_________.on a deep level. That's something I think we all need more of, with the________ pace of modern life. Tree hugging can help us slow down; to appreciate the small things in life. Above all, trees can teach us________.

【推荐1】China has appointed over 1 million “chiefs” to look after its rivers and lakes.

Huo Yan, a Communist Party cadre of a small district in north-east Beijing, was recently ordered by her Party organization at a higher level to _________a second job. Now Ms Huo must find time in her busy _________to conduct weekly patrols along the Bahe river — an ancient canal that flows through her area. She is responsible for protecting the waterway, removing garbage(or hiring others to do so)and keeping an eye out for pollution-causing activities on its banks. The temporary job comes without extra pay.

The “river chief” system began in 2003 in the eastern province of Zhejiang. In 2016 the central government ordered that every lake and river, or section _________larger lakes or rivers, must have someone tasked with keeping them free of visible _________. By the end of June every river had at least one local official appointed as its supervisor.

There are now nearly 1.1 million river chiefs. The government says they will be _________ “for life” for any serious pollution that relate to a fault on their watch, but punishments have yet to be specified. Promotions in their regular jobs will _________their riverine duties. Liu Dengwei, a researcher at the Ministry of Water Resources, says chiefs will not be _________punished for garbage from upstream.

It is a(n) _________assignment. Earlier this year a government report said that surface water in nearly a third of “river sections” surveyed was too risky to touch, _________drink. Water in nearly 15% of them was rated too dirty even for __________use. Lakes are worse. The report says that out of 54 large ones surveyed, 29 contained water considered unsafe for human __________.

The chiefs’ appointment may be a sign that the government is worried about public dissatisfaction over its perceived failure to __________the problem. Surveys by the Pew Research Centre found that 37% of respondents in 2016 saw water pollution as a “very big problem”, up from 28% in 2008.

Ministries in charge of bodies of water have __________and sometimes overlapping responsibilities. The result has been buck-passing (推卸责任) and finger-pointing, says Mr Liu. This will be more difficult now that named individuals are accountable for water quality, the theory goes. Whether this is really so may become clearer years later, when the government is expected to __________data from the first nationwide water-quality survey since rivers got their chiefs. But evidence based on personal experiences is __________. A man fishing in the Bahe river recounts how the water was “opaque (浑浊) green” and smelly just two years ago. Today it is clear and has no smell. He credits the river-chief system.

【推荐2】In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919), America’s 26th president, signed the American Antiquities Act. The law ______ him—and future presidents—to take immediate action to protect important cultural or natural ______. During his time ______ (1901-1909), he established five new national parks and 18 national monuments. He became ______ as “the conservationist (环境保护主义者) president”.

Roosevelt’s______ for the land and environment came from the time he spent in the Dakota Territory. In 1883, he came to Dakota in ______ of hunting huge animals called bison and had a great ______ in the Western frontier lifestyle.

Roosevelt soon developed an interest in ______ cattle. He entered the business and ______ $14, 000 to build the Maltese Cross Ranch (牧场). Roosevelt returned to New York while workers constructed the ranch. But, in 1884, he experienced two great ______ losses. His mother and wife ______ illnesses on the same day.

Roosevelt again ______ west and sought to ______ the reminders of his recent losses. Roosevelt ______ between New York and Dakota. In 1885, Roosevelt published his first book about his ______ as a rancher and hunter. In it, he predicted that the cattle industry was not sustainable (可持续性的). In other words, it would not ______.

Roosevelt was right. Severe weather ______ the area in 1886 and 1887. In the winter, a terrible ______ killed many cattle. The animals that survived the cold soon starved. The experience, however, influenced Roosevelt’s beliefs about the need for ______ in America. Those beliefs, in turn, helped ______ his policies as president.

【推荐1】Researchers came to the conclusion that having two daughters is the key to a happy and harmonious family life after examining the lives of families with different combinations of children, both male and female.

The results show of all the variations, two girls make for the most harmonious family life as they are unlikely to fight, will play nicely and are generally a _______ to be around.

It also emerged that two girls rarely _______ their parents, make limited noise, often trust in their parents and are unlikely to wind each other up or_______ each other.

_______, doubling the number of daughters is likely to lead to a whole world of pain, the report found. Mums and dads with four girls _______ out to be the least happy with family life overall. Parents of four girls also admitted to having to _______ an average of four fights or arguments a day, the study of 2,116 families_______.

The study looked into families with twelve different combinations of children, _______ only children but including everything from a brother and sister to four of the same _______.

Mums and dads were asked to rank their children’s behavior. Two girls ________ highly in every category. They were “easy to reason with”, “helped around the house” and ________ “liked each other”.

In fact, mums and dads with four children of any gender found it harder, the results showed. ________, sixty-two per cent of parents with this combination would have exactly the same number of children if they had their time again.

“Every child is a blessing and there are lots of things parents can do to ________ family life is as harmonious as possible.”

“Making sure quality time is spent with all children, ________ them how lucky they are to have siblings and creating family ________such as eating and playing together can all help everyone to get the most out of family life together.”

【推荐2】Coffee is increasingly earning scientists’ approval. Studies continue to suggest that the beverage (饮料) may have some __________ effects on health.

In the latest analysis, published in the BMJ, researchers scanned nearly 220 studies on coffee and found that__________, coffee drinkers may enjoy more health benefits than people who don’t drink the brew.

Scientists learned that people who drank coffee were 17% less likely to die early during the study period from any__________, 19% less likely to die of heart disease and 18% less likely to develop cancer, compared to people who did not drink coffee. Research group found that the strongest benefit __________ among people who drank around three cups of coffee a day.

Other studies have tried to figure out which ingredients in coffee __________ to its health benefits. Those might include its antioxidants (抗氧化剂), which can combat cancer, and anti-inflammatory (抗炎的) compounds, which can reduce the __________ of chronic (慢性的) diseases such as heart conditions and even nerve disorders like Alzheimer’s, __________ that of liver diseases.

__________ research results support moderate coffee drinking as a relatively healthy habit, some experts say the findings don’t go far enough to __________ the changes of their coffee-drinking habits in the hopes of improving their health. The study did not confirm, for example, that people who do not __________ drink coffee should start adding a cup or two a day in order to lower health risk. The __________ also do not support the idea that current coffee drinkers should drink even more coffee to enhance whatever benefits they might be receiving. Too much coffee, the survey suggested, starts to bend the benefit curve back down.

The only negative health effects the review found were __________ women, who were at slightly higher risk of developing cracks in the bones if they drank more coffee. Pregnant women who drank more coffee __________ have higher rates of miscarriage, more premature births and more babies born with low birthweight than women who drank less coffee, the study found.

The findings should be reassuring for coffee drinkers, as long as they drink__________. Further studies will hopefully look deeper into the type and __________ of coffee that brings the most health benefit.