About 70 women “married” some trees in a ceremony against the building plans for 166 apartments,     1     could see the trees’ removal in Bristol, UK.

The “brides” participating wore wedding dresses from different cultures and symbolically (象征性地) married 74 trees in a ceremony     2     (hold) by a celebrant. Event organizers said their     3     (inspire) came from the Chipko women in India in the 1970s, who threw their arms around trees in the Himalayas to protect forests from     4     (destroy) by logging. 

“Wedding ceremony” initiator Siobhan Kierans expressed the hope     5     the “marriage” ceremony showed trees are human’s partners for life.

A “bride”, Suzan Hackett said: “Marrying a tree is an absolute privilege, not just an emotional gesture,     6     highly significant and symbolic. Trees are pure examples of unconditional love, and it fits in so     7     (beautiful) with the whole idea of marriage. Marriage is for life; breathing is for life.”

The application, which remains     8     (approve), acknowledges that some of the trees need removing for the 166 apartments. Owners of the Baltic Wharf Caravan Site, where the 74 trees     9     (locate), have been informed by the city council to leave.

Prof John Tarlton said: “We cannot afford to lose these 74 trees. It is an enormous number of mature trees and in a part of Bristol that needs them most. So we must do something     10     advance.”

A Couple Fighting Sand in Inner Mongolia

After an early autumn rain, Bao Hua couldn’t wait to check on her trees in the desert. She was     1     (satisfy) to see the trees turning green again. The     2     (time) rain saved around 80,000 yuan for her. A monthly watering of their trees usually     3     (cost) 200,000 yuan.

In 2000, Bao, along     4     around 80 households of herdsmen (牧民) and farmers, moved to a village in the desert in response to the government’s call for returning pastures (牧场) to forest and grassland. The village, not far from both the Badain Jaran Desert, the     5     (three) largest desert in the world, and the Tengger Desert,     6     (trouble) by sandstorms in the spring then, driving farmers and herders home to deal with potential economic losses.

But Bao, a tough Mongolian, made up her mind     7     (stay) and deal with desertification. After they talked with experts and residents, she and her husband used their own savings to plant saxaul trees,     8     can survive in dry conditions and withstand strong winds.

Before sunrise, they wear thick coats and hats and plant small trees in the strong, cold wind.     9     (lack) watering equipment, they carry water to each tree, one by one. Over the past two decades, they have planted some 33,000 hectares of trees. With a son and a daughter both now grown up and independent, Bao is free to enjoy her life. But she still leads     10     busy life, getting up as early as 5 am to run errands (差事) every day.

Facial recognition technology,     1     has been widely used in identifying an individual’s identity, is now moving beyond human faces.

At a digital monitoring center of the Yellow River Delta national nature reserve in Dongying, Shandong province, a variety of data is on display on a large screen, showing the real-time situations of     2     (it) biodiversity. In the past, the vast nature reserve with a diverse bird population     3     (pose) lots of challenges for scientists in tracking the biodiversity and conducting on-site monitoring. Today staff members at the reserve can monitor and record the biodiversity situation in real time     4     (simple) through an intelligent monitoring platform.

The monitoring platform takes advantage of information technologies such as big data, remote sensing and artificial intelligence     5     (establish) an integrated sky-to-ground monitoring network. After terminal collection devices send data to the cloud via a well-covered 5G network, AI performs real-time identification and annotation (注释), presenting results on the monitoring platform while     6     (conduct) a series of data analyses.

The use of science and technology plays     7     significant role in the biodiversity conservation. It helps the reserve with intelligent species recognition and provides real-time monitoring without too much human involvement, effectively enhancing conservation management and the efficiency of     8     (decide) making and problem solving. Seeing     9     disturbing, guarding without interfering (干涉) — that is the     10     (great) respect humankind can show nature.