A man made his living by collecting coconuts (椰子) in the countryside. One day, he went to a small village that he had never been before. Towards the end of the day, his wagon (马车) was filled with coconuts. He decided to head home because it was getting dark.

He saw an old man along the roadside and stopped to ask for the way to his home. “Could you please tell me how long it will take to get to Carson from this village?” The old man said, “If you go slowly, it will take only a short while for you to get home. But if you go quickly, it will take a long time.” The man didn’t believe the old man’s suggestion was friendly. He gave the man an angry look and hit his horse to make it hurry. The horse began to run quickly. But soon, coconuts began to fall from the wagon. Each time, the man got off to collect the fallen coconuts and put them back into his wagon.

The faster he went, the more coconuts fell from his wagon, and the more time he had to take to pick them up.

So he went home very late at last. However, if he had travelled slowly, maybe none of the coconuts would have fallen , and the man would have arrived home much earlier. And so, as the old man said, go slowly and it will take only a short while.

In the last few years, we have seen environmental disasters such as earthquakes, floods and forest fires. We must do something to protect the environment. But what are the main problems we face?

The greenhouse effect (温室效应)

The atmosphere (大气层) around the earth is necessary for all living things. It is like the glass of a greenhouse, letting sunlight in and keeping heat from getting out.     16     When we burn oil and coal, we produce a gas called carbon dioxide (CO₂). Too much of this gas pollutes the atmosphere, and causes it to keep in too much heat (热量).

As a result of the greenhouse effect, the earth’s temperature is increasing, and the sea level is rising too.     17    

Cutting down forests

Every year, we do harm to nature by cutting down huge areas of forests. This makes the greenhouse effect worse because trees take in carbon dioxide (CO₂) and produce oxygen (O₂).     18     What’s more, it also causes the land to be easily washed away by rain.

Bad habits

Many of our habits cause pollution.     19     This creates mountains of rubbish and pollutes our land and seas.

In order to protect the environment, we need to take action. We should become green people. This means that we should only buy and use products that are friendly to the environment. We should recycle as many things as we can. We can reuse things for the same purpose as before, or we can use them for new purposes.     20     For example, we can use cloth bags instead of paper bags or plastic ones.