The first domestic chickens we have found lived no earlier than 3,670 years ago, suggesting they have a far shorter history than we thought. These birds don’t seem to have been raised for their meat,     1     (make) it unclear what drove domestication. The chickens alive today descend from a wild bird native to South-East Asia     2     (call) the red jungle fowl, but exactly     3     domestication occurred was unclear. Some researchers have estimated that the first domestic chicken lived more than 6000 years ago, while others claim     4     (find) chicken bones at 10,000-year-old sites.     5     analysis by Ophelie Lebrasseur at the Centre for Anthropobiology and Genomics of Toulouse in France and her team concludes that the     6     (early) clear evidence of domestic chickens appeared between 1,650 BC and 1,250 BC at a site called Ban Non Wat in central Thailand. Not only     7     (be) chicken bones superabundant at the site, but there are signs that people were buried with the birds,     8     Lebrasseur says makes a domestic relationship clear. Lebrasseur and her team suspect chicken domestication might have been triggered by the       9     (appear) of cereal fanning in South-East Asia. “This created a more open, less tree-covered environment, which is actually an environment where red jungle fowl thrive,” she says, “And they could have fed     10     the waste from human societies.”

It is cold and windy in Moscow and snow is still on the ground.     1     none of that discourages visitors to the famous Moscow Zoo. They want to see the zoo’s two biggest stars: Ru Yi and Ding Ding.

During the summer, more than 30,000 visitors come here on     2     average day. Even during off-peak parts of the year, there is always a crowd in front of the Panda House. Since their arrival, the two pandas     3     (be) the stars of the Moscow Zoo,     4     (attract) thousands of visitors interested to see them,     5     are among the rarest animals in the world.

Pandas’ reproductive rate is extremely low. Females normally give birth to one or two cubs(幼崽). If twins are born, the mother may only raise the     6     (strong) of the cubs. A newborn panda baby only weighs about 0.1 percent of the     7     (weigh) of a fully grown panda, making its survival very difficult.

China and Russia agreed to let both pandas stay here     8     2034, part of a 15-year scientific program. Very soon, Ru Yi and Ding Ding who have been kept in separate suites will     9     (introduce) to each other. And the people of Moscow Zoo hope nature will take     10     (it) course and that baby pandas will be born here soon after.

About 385, 000 people from 192 countries take part in the yearly project to count birds. The event    1    (launch)for the first time 25 years ago.

Steve and Janet Kistler from the American state of Kentucky are among those     2    (involve) themselves in it. They’ve done so every year    3    the now-international tradition started in 1998. For Moira Dalibor,     4     schoolteacher from nearby Lexington, this is her first event. She’s leading a group of students and parents to a garden     5    (collect) data.

Becca Rodomsky-Bish,    6    works at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in New York, is the project’s leader. The Lab organizes the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) along with the National Audubon Society and Birds Canada. “Every year we see increased participation, and 2022 was a big jump,” Becca said. In India, which had the     7    (high) participation outside the US last year, tens of thousands of people submitted bird checklists.

The worldwide data goes into the eBird database used by scientists for research on different bird     8    (population). The GBBC is part of a rise in “citizen science" projects in which volunteers collect data about the    9    (nature) world for use by researchers. The information helps researchers track the numbers of different kinds of birds, which then helps with their     10    (protect).

The planet is facing a crisis. Overuse of resources, like fossil fuels,     1     (combine) with high levels of consumption of goods and the resources needed to make them, is taking our environment to a     2     (break)point.

We live in a disposable culture where we want to keep up     3     the latest trends, but at what cost? Forests     4     (cut) down and minerals mined for objects that will be used for a short amount of time and then thrown away.

Our consumption habits have a direct impact on the planet that we live on, and the lives in different parts of the world. Unsustainable     5     (consume) and production of material goods and food products leads to climate change, which in turn     6     (affect) countries in poverty.

Those methods are     7     (serious)damaging the environment. If we continue     8     (produce) and consume at current rates, using the same methods we will also be affected and it will lead to destructive consequences,for parts of the world already feeling the effects of climate change.

Although we may be from different countries, speak different languages     9     have different cultures, the planet does not recognize the differences we see in each other. Something     10     happens in one part of the world can have great effect on another part of the world many miles away from the event.