2 . There has, in recent years, been an outpouring of information about the impact of buildings on the natural environment. Information which explains and promotes green construction design strives to _________ others of its effectiveness and warns of the dangers of ignoring the issue. Seldom do these documents offer any advice to practitioners, such as those designing mechanical and electrical systems for a building, on how to use this knowledge on a _________ level.

Although there are a good many advocates of “green” construction in the architectural industry, able to list enough reasons why buildings should be designed in a (n) _________ way, that doesn’t translate into a booming green construction industry. Likewise, the fact that plenty of architectural firms have experience in green design is not enough to make green construction _________. The driving force behind whether a building is constructed with minimal environmental impact _________ the owner of the building; that is, the person financing the project. If the owner considers green design unimportant, or of secondary importance, then more than likely, it will not be _________ into the design.

The commissioning (委任) process plays a key role in _________ the owner gets the building he wants, in terms of design, costs and risk. Owners who _________ the commissioning process, or fail to take “green” issues into account when doing so, often run into trouble once their building is up and running. Materials and equipment are installed as planned, and, at first glance, appear to fulfil their purpose adequately. _________, in time, the owner realizes that operational and maintenance costs are higher than necessary, and that the occupants are dissatisfied with the results. These factors in turn lead to higher ownership costs as well as increased environmental impact.

In some cases, an owner may be __________ of the latest trends in green building design, which, however, does not necessarily lead to an interpretation that the client already has an idea of how green he intends the structure to be. Indeed, this initial interaction between owner and firm is the ideal time for a designer to outline and __________ the ways that green design can meet the client’s objectives. In this way, he may turn a project originally not   __________green design into a potential candidate.

Typically, when condiering whether or not to adopt a green __________, an owner will ask about additional costs or return for investment. In a typical project, landscape architects, mechanical and electrical engineers are not involved until a much later stage. However, in green design, they have a role to play from they outset, since green design demands__________between these disciplines, which requires additional cost. However, there are examples of green design which have demonstrated__________costs for long-term operation, ownership and even construnction.

4 . Goodish News of Climate Change

Emissions of carbon dioxide (related to energy production) have stabilized, for now.

Is it a peak, a stutter or just a brief pause? Time will tell. But whatever it is, on February 11th the International Energy Agency (IEA), an intergovernmental ________ which collects such data, announced that emissions of carbon dioxide in 2019 which were ________ to energy had remained the same (33.3bn tonnes) as the previous year’s.

Energy-related emissions, which include those (produced by electricity generation), heating and transport, ________ more than 70% of the world’s industrial CO₂ pollution. The reason why the emissions remained the same was that there was a(n) ________ in coal use, particularly in rich countries, combined with an increase in the use of renewable power.

As a result of this the CO₂-intensity of electricity generation—a(n) ________ of how much of the gas is emitted per kilowatt hour of petrol produced—fell by nearly 6.5%, to 340 grams of CO₂ per kilowatt hour. It had already been ________, but this is three times the average for the past decade. Such declines more than offset (抵消) the ________ of increased electricity production. The average emission-intensity of power generation in 2019 was “lower than all but the most efficient gas-power plants”, according to the IEA.

This is not the first time energy related emissions have plateaued (保持稳定). Between 2013 and 2016 they hovered around 32.2bn tonnes a year, before rising again in 2017 as the use of coal to ________ developing economies increased. This ________ plateau was accompanied by excited declarations that such emissions had peaked. Similar ________ have been made this week, perhaps also prematurely. Besides changes in coal use, a ________ economy may have played a part and the data show that milder than usual weather caused a perceptible drop in emissions from several countries with large, carbon-hungry economies.

________, the latest data from the Amazon rainforest also make us feel relieved. This, one of the world’s largest woodlands, has acted ________ as an absorbing sponge (海绵) for CO₂ by removing it from the atmosphere through photo-synthesis. Researchers at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research have shown that a vast part of the south-east of the Amazon, about one fifth of its area, has lost its ________ to absorb the gas and is now a net source of emissions into the atmosphere instead. This land has been widely deforested, so the result is little ________. But it is disappointing.

5 . Though people have discussed the relationship between science and nature for many years, there is no consensual(统一的) explanation. While some view science as a powerful tool in ______ nature’s source of power, others view it as a danger. One example is Barry Commoner’s article, Unraveling(解开) the DNA Myth, which explains the recent developments in DNA technology and expresses ______. Another example is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, The Birthmark. It is a tale about a famous scientist, Aylmer, who seems to be unraveling nature’s deepest secrets one by one. Despite all of his ______ and vast understanding of science, Aylmer is unable to direct that knowledge into ______ free from nature’s grasp. He was unable to rid his wife of her birthmark and, in the end, killed her.

Despite the different presentations of the concepts, though time separated the two men, both pieces express a similar view on the relationship between science and nature. Both pieces suggest that nature is ______ and holds wonders, secrets, and powers that many scientists constantly dream about discovering. Although there is a gap of one hundred and sixty years, Commoner still shares and gives evidence to Hawthorne’s beliefs that there is a unique ______ in nature that cannot be discovered or understood through science and that the ______ to uncover nature’s secrets are ______ and can lead to disaster. According to Commoner, nature’s universal power continues to prevent and control their discoveries. Commoner criticizes and ______ doubt on the true power of science.

As Commoner’s article suggests, nature only allows science to have limited power and success. Both men believe that complete trust in science is ______, however wonderful and groundbreaking some scientific discoveries are. Commoner believes that people only seem to focus on the few achievements, while avoiding and ignoring all of the laws. For example, “most clones exhibit developmental failure before or soon after birth”. By stressing all of the ______ and shortcomings of science, he conveys the notion that nature’s secrets are well kept and far from being understood and ______ by man. The government and private companies have invested billions of dollars in mapping the human genome, but we still have no ______ for it. Such a discovery is useless, however interesting it might be.

Commoner’s article clearly represents science as weak and useless, but more importantly, dangerous. It gives evidence to support the suggested dangers ______ with science’s attempts to discover nature’s power. If the result is not ______ dangerous, it can still have harmful side effects.

8 . The beauty, majesty, and timelessness of a primary rainforest are indescribable. It is impossible to _______ on film, to describe in words, or to explain to those who have never had the awe-inspiring experience of standing in the heart of a primary rainforest.

Rainforests have _______ over millions of years to turn into the incredibly complex environments they are today. Rainforests represent a store of living and _______ renewable natural resources that for an immeasurably long period of time, by virtue of their richness in both animal and plant species, have _______ a wealth of resources for the survival and well-being of humankind. These resources have included basic food supplies, clothing, shelter, fuel, spices, industrial raw materials, and medicine for all those who have lived in the majesty of the forest. _______, the inner dynamics (动力学；相互作用的方式) of a tropical rainforest is a complex and fragile system. Everything is so _______ that upsetting one part can lead to unknown damage or even destruction of the whole. Sadly, it has taken only a century of human intervention to destroy what nature designed to _______ forever.

The scale of human _______ on ecosystems everywhere has increased enormously in the last few decades. Since 1980 the global economy has tripled in size and the world population has increased by 30 percent. Consumption of everything on the planet has risen — at a cost to our _______. In 2001, The World Resources Institute estimated that the demand for rice, wheat, and corn is expected to grow by 40% by 2025, increasing irrigation water demands by 50% or more. They further reported that the demand for wood could double by the year 2050; ________, it is still the tropical forests of the world that supply the most part of the world’s demand for wood.

In 1950, about 15 percent of the Earth’s land surface was covered by rainforest. Today, more than half has already gone up in ________. In fewer than fifty years, about half of the world’s tropical rainforests have fallen ________ to fire or deforestation, and the rate of destruction is still ________. Unbelievably, more than 200,000 acres of rainforest are burned every day. That is more than 150 acres lost every minute of every day, and 78 million acres lost every year! More than 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest is already gone, and much more is severely ________ as the destruction continues. If nothing is done to control this ________, the entire Amazon could well be gone within fifty years. Fewer rainforests mean less rain, less oxygen for us to breathe, and an increased threat from global warming.

9 . The World Needs Zoos

ZOOS play an important role in the world for conservation and education. They are particularly important for endangered species. Many animals are critically endangered and may go extinct in the wild, but in zoos, they are going strong. Many others are already extinct in the wild and only survive thanks to populations kept in captivity (圈养). Even those critical of zoos often recognize that it is better to have species preserved somewhere than lose them altogether.       1    

Take the ring-tailed lemur (环尾狐猴) of Madagascar for example. This animal is almost ubiquitous in zoos as they breed well in captivity and the public are fond of them. However, despite their high numbers in collections around the world, they are the most threatened mammalian group on the planet. A recent survey suggests that up to 95 percent of the wild populations have been lost since 2000.     2     One bad year or a new disease could wipe out those that are left.

Such trends are not isolated. The giraffe is another very common species in zoos. Unlike the lemurs, giraffes are widespread in the countries across much of sub-Saharan Africa. Yet giraffe populations have gone down by a third in the last thirty years. While less dramatic than the drop in lemur numbers, this is obviously a major loss and again, whole populations (which some scientists think are of unique subspecies) are on the verge of extinction.

    3     Ongoing and future issues from climate change can have unexpected effects on wildlife. It will become more difficult for conservationists to predict which species might be at risk. As it is, experts are struggling to continue monitoring the species that are already known to be vulnerable, so it is easy to see why common species might be overlooked. People might not take a great local loss seriously on the assumption that these animals are heavily populated elsewhere.

There will, I suspect, always be resistance to the argument for keeping animals in captivity and I will not defend the zoos that are bad and in desperate need of improvement or closure.     4     If even common species can lose a huge percentage of their populations in a few years, it may be too late to save them with even the best breeding programs or conservation efforts in the wild.

10 . El Nino, a Spanish term for “the Christ child”, was named by South American fisherman who noticed that the global weather pattern, which happens every two to seven years, reduced the amount of fishes caught around Christmas. El Nino sees warm water, collected over several years in the western Pacific, flow back eastwards when winds that normally blow westwards weaken, or sometimes the other way round.

The weather effects both good and bad, are felt in many places. Rich countries gain more from powerful Nino, on balance, than they lose. A study found that a strong Nino in 1997 helped American’s economy grow by 15 billion, partly because of better agricultural harvest, farmers in the Midwest gained from extra rain. The total rise in agricultural in rich countries in growth than the fall in poor ones.

But in Indonesia extremely dry forests are in flames. A multi-year drought (干旱）in south-east Brazil is becoming worse. Though heavy rains brought about by El Nino may relieve the drought in California, they are likely to cause surface flooding and other disasters.

The most recent powerful Nino, in 1997-98, killed around 21,000 people and caused damage worth $36 billion around the globe. But such Ninos come with months of warning, and so much is known about how they happen that governments can prepare. According to the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), however, just 12% of disaster-relief funding in the past two decades has gone on reducing risks in advance, rather than recovery and rebuilding afterwards. This is despite evidence that a dollar spent on risk-reduction saves at least two on reconstruction.

Simple improvements to infrastructure (基础设施）can reduce the spread of disease. Better sewers (下水道）make it less likely that heavy rain is followed by an outbreak of the disease of bad stomach. Stronger bridges mean villages are less likely to be left without food and medicine after floods. According to a paper in 2011 by Mr Hsiang and co-authors, civil conflict is related to El Nino’s harmful effects—and the poorer the country, the stronger the link. Though the relationship may not be causal, helping divided communities to prepare for disasters would at least reduce the risk that those disasters are followed by killing and wounding people. Since the poorest are least likely to make up for their losses from disasters linked to El Nino, reducing their losses needs to be the priority.