【推荐1】What do you do with clothes you don’t want to wear anymore? You may donate them or give them to other people. What happens next? Where do these clothes end up?

Sadly, the beaches of Ghana, a country in West Africa, are among these places. Now, the beaches are covered with clothing waste.

People from all over the world donate clothes to charity. However, charity shops only sell up to 20 percent of donated clothes, said The Guardian. The unsold clothes are then put in large bags and travel to other countries to be sold again or for waste disposal (处理).

The Kantamanto market in Accra, the capital of Ghana, is one of the world’s largest secondhand clothing markets. Every week, 20 million pieces of clothes arrive at Kantamanto. But about 40 percent of them leave the market as waste.

Workers either burn the waste or put it underground. However, the city is near the sea, so there’s not enough space for landfills. This is why a lot of clothing waste ends up on the beach.

As it goes into the sea, fish and other sea life are in danger. Sea turtles (海龟) can’t get to the land, and fish can’t grow because they may get caught in the clothes.

The waste is also hurting the economy (经济), Ernest Ijawan, a worker at a landfill in Ghana, told Forbes. Fishers can’t catch as many fish as before since most of the things they catch are clothes.

【推荐2】Upcycling is the process of changing old materials into something useful and often beautiful.

So, is it the same as recycling? No. Recycling takes materials-paper or glass-and breaks them down so their base materials can be remade into a new product. When you upcycle an item(物品), you are not breaking down the material,

you are simply refashioning it. For example, you might make shoes out of old tyres. Also, the upcycled item is typically of the same, or even better, quality(质量) than the original.

Upcycling isn’t a new idea. Some of the best examples of modern-day upcycling come from the 1930s to 1940s when families didn’t have enough materials. In those days, things were repurposed over and over until there were no longer useful. For example, an old door can be made into a new dining table. Economising(节约) is still a trend(趋势) today and a big reason why more and more people upcycle. But an even bigger reason for the rebirth of upcycling is its good influence on the environment.

Upcycling is green. The plain and simple fact of the matter is that upcycling is much better for the planet than throwing things away. When you upcycle, that's one item less that ends upon the waste mountain. Upcycling is also considerably more environmentally friendly than recycling, which needs energy or water to break down materials. Upcycling just needs your own creativity and effort.

Grace Robinson, from the UK, takes used tea bags and turns them into dresses, shoes and even hats. Every day she drinks some tea, and then dries out the tea bags with the tea still in them. When they are dry, she takes the tea out and sews the bags together to make clothes. This can take a long time- maybe months for a single dress -so Grace gets friends to help her by drinking tea too and passing their tea bags on to her.

There are two ways to support the upcycling movement. Sort(分类)through your wardrobe or recycling bin and create items yourself, or buy ready-made items from upcycled materials. Both ways benefit the environment and in return, you get something that’s both attractive and practical.

【推荐3】President Xi Jinping says “clear waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets（绿水青山就是金山银山）”. With the efforts of China’s government and its people, the rate of forest coverage（森林覆盖率）in China has increased by 17.91%, compared to 5.05% forty years ago, according to a recent report from the State Forestry and Grassland Administration (SFGA).

Over the past forty years, China planted billions of trees as part of its fight against expanding（延伸的）deserts, mostly in its north. Each year, people sow seedlings（播种）over an area nearly the size of Ireland, according to Nature.

In 1978, China began a nationwide tree-planting programme known as the Three North Shelterbelt Forest Programme, also known as “the Great Green Wall”. It has helped to plant more than 66 billion trees across 13 provinces in the country’s north to act as windbreaks（防风林）, according to China Daily.

Since 2018, SFGA has made more efforts to build a greener country. Its purpose is to grow at least 6.7 million hectares（公顷）of forest every year in the next 15 years. Besides planting more trees, China has tried to bring back grasslands. It has also used strict forest protection methods and banned（禁止）all commercial logging（商业伐木）since last August.

The high-speed growth of forests cannot happen without public participation（参与）. For example, Ant Forest, an Alipay mobile payment app, plants real trees for users who get “green energy” by taking part in low-carbon（低碳）activities. Since 2016, it has helped to plant about 122 million trees in China’s driest areas.

China was praised as “one of the most successful countries worldwide in greening the desert” by United Nations Environment Programme Executive Director Erik Solheim.

    1    Philip is a 14-year-old boy. He likes animals. He keeps some pets at home. He often learns about animals on the Internet. He wants to go to the zoo and know more animals.

    2     Miss Brown has lots of books. She doesn’t like some of these books because they are old for her. She wants to read more books but she doesn’t have much money.

    3    Jack likes listening to music after dinner. There are lots of music CDs in the bookcase. He is really a music fan. He wants to buy the latest CDs.

    4    Mrs. White eats apples every day. She always says ,“ An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Apples are usually expensive in spring. She wants to find a store to buy cheap apples.

    5    Mr. Miller is a manager. He is very busy on weekends. He wants to find a quiet restaurant. He wants to have some coffee and cakes together with his wife at 9: 30 on Sunday morning.