We went to Tibet to observe Tibetan antelopes with Zhaxi as our guide. Luckily, on the plain in front of us, we saw a herd of antelopes     1    (move) slowly across the green grass. These beautiful animals reminded me     2    the danger they are in because every year many of them are hunted     3    (legal) for their valuable fur. Especially in     4    1980s and 1990s, their population dropped by more than 50 percent. In order     5    (save) this species from extinction, the Chinese government placed it under national protection and set up the Changtang National Nature Reserve    6    Zhaxi works. These measures were     7    (effect) and the antelope population     8    (have) recovered. However，the government doesn’t intend to stop the protection programmes, since the threats to the Tibetan antelopes     9    (not disappear). Only when we learn to exist in harmony with nature     10    we stop being a threat to wildlife and to our planet.

【推荐2】As the world’s population grows, a lot of wild animals     1     (force) to leave their natural home. Many wild animals are in danger. People kill them for food or fur, or because they compete with humans for food supplies.       2     (lucky), animal rescue organizations are working hard     3     (preserve) endangered animals and give them help. More and more people are realizing the importance of protecting wild animals.

Despite many laws and national parks protecting tigers, their habitats continue to be destroyed and they are still being hunted.     1     (honest) speaking, tigers are among the most endangered species in the world nowadays. Altogether, there are no more than 5,000 tigers     2    (leave) in the wild. Some think that the tiger is already to the point of     3     (extinct) in the wild. There are many reasons for this, like habitat loss and hunting.

Actually, over the last few decades, a number of steps     4     (take) to help preserve the tiger. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)was set up to protect wildlife and their habitats in     5     early 2000s. Today WCS is carrying out work in 53 nations across the world, protecting a great variety of species from butterflies to tigers. In 2010, WCS started Tigers Forever,     6     aim was to increase the number of tigers in the world     7     50 percent in the next 10 years.     8     (achieve) their goals, they are working together with not only governments     9     other organizations to protect tigers and other wild species.

Right now the tiger population is increasing steadily under this program in India and in Far East Russia. Thanks to the hard work of WCS, these large cats have a     10     (good) chance of survival in their natural environments than ever, not just in zoos.

【推荐2】Styrofoam is plastic     1     a bad reputation.

It cannot be recycled without releasing (释放) dangerous pollutants into the air. The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency     2     (say) it is the fifth largest creator of dangerous waste.

Scientists from the U. S. and China have discovered that mealworms can digest plastic. One mealworm can digest a pill-sized amount of plastic a day.

Study co-author Wei-Min Wu says that in 24 hours, the plastic     3    (turn) into carbon dioxide.

Are the worms hurt by     4    (eat) plastic? The study found that worms eating Styrofoam were as     5     (health) as worms eating bran (糠).

Styrofoam is a lightweight material, about 95 percent air, with very good insulation properties (绝缘性), according to Earthsource.org. It is used in products from     6     (cup) that keep your drinks hot or cold to packaging materials     7     protect items during shipping.

“Solving     8     problem of plastic pollution is important. Landfill space is becoming limited,” says Wu, a Stanford University environmental engineering instructor.

About 33 million tons of plastic are thrown away in the United States every year. Plastic plates, cups and containers take     9     25 percent to 30 percent of space in America’s landfills. One Styrofoam cup takes more than 1 million years     10     (recycle) in a landfill, according to Cleveland State University.

The total wealth of the world’s 26 richest people is equal to the total wealth of the 3.8 billion poorest. This     1     (shock) gap is in a report from the charity Oxfam. It says that since 2008, the number of billionaires       2     (double). They are also getting $2.5 billion richer every day. This is in contrast to the poorest half of the planet. Their wealth is       3     (gradual) shrinking as prices and rents rise and wages fall. Oxfam’s report shows the growing gap       4     the world’s rich and poor and the increasing gap in wealth       5     (equal).

The report says that most of the world’s wealthy people made       6     (they) money from technology companies. The world’s richest person, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos,       7     (be) worth $100 billion. This is 100 times more       8     Ethiopia’s annual health budget. Oxfam says it is time       9     (fix) this imbalance in wealth. It wants fairer levels of income tax, and more tax on personal earnings and company profits. It also wants an end to tax avoidance plans       10     big companies and the super-rich often use. It says that in many countries, only the rich could afford quality education and healthcare.

More than twenty American states ban smoking in public.     1     study has proved that smoke-free laws can reduce a major effect of tobacco—heart disease.The study     2     (take) place in Pueblo, Colorado several years ago. In some states, there were 396 heart attack     3     (patient) in the year before the ban in hospitals.

However,18 months     4     the ban, the number was 237. Smoking in enclosed (封闭的) places is very     5     (harm) to non-smoke. Adults may think they are     6     (actual) protecting their children from second-hand smoke when they smoke outside their homes, or when the children are not there. However, researchers     7     (warn) of what they call “third-hand smoke” so far. When you smoke they say, dangerous matter from tobacco smoke gets into     8     (you) hair and clothing. Then, when you touch a baby, the baby comes into contact with that poisonous matter. The researchers also found that people,     9     agreed that smoke was bad for children’s health, were more likely to have restriction on     10     (smoke) in their homes than others.