In 1865 The Great Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted looked out over the Yosemite Valley and saw a place worth saving. He     1     the California legislature to protect it from crazy development. Olmsted had already designed Central Park City; he was     2     that beautiful green spaces should exist for all people to enjoy. “It is a scientific fact,” he wrote, “that the occasional observation of natural scene of an impressive character…is favorable to the health and vigor of men and especially to the health and vigor of their intellect.”

Olmsted was     3     ; his claim was based less on science than on intuition. But it was intuition with a long history. It went back at least to Cyrus the Great, who some 2500 years ago built gardens for     4     in the busy capital of Persia. Paracelsus, the 16^th century German-Swiss physician, gave voice to that same intuition when he wrote, “that art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician.” In 1798, sitting on the banks of the River Wye, William Wordsworth marveled at how “an eye made quiet by the power of     5     ” offered relief from “the fever of the world” . American writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and John Muir inherited that     6     along with Olmsted, they built the spiritual and emotional case for creating the world’s first national parks by claiming that nature had healing powers.

There wasn’t much evidence then—but there is now:     7     by large-scale public health problems such as obesity, depression, and persuasive nearsightedness, all clearly     8     with time spent indoors. Strayer and other scientists are looking with renewed interest at how nature affects our brains and bodies.

In England researchers from the University of Exeter Medical School recently analyzed mental health data from 10000 city dwellers and used high resolution mapping to     9     where the subjects had lived over 18 years. They found that people living near more green space reported less mental distress, even after adjusting for income, education, and employment (all of which are also correlated with health). In 2016 an international team overlaid health questionnaire responses from more than 31000 Toronto residents onto a map of the city, block by block. Those living on blocks with more trees showed a boost in heart and metabolic health     10     to what one would experience from a $20000 gain in income. Lower mortality and fewer stress hormones circulating in the blood have also been connected to living close to green space.

4 . The Good of Gardening

Do you have a hobby that helps you relax and unwind? For some people, there is no better way to relieve pressure than spending time in the garden. This small private area of green space can be their place of calm.

    1     A survey conducted by the Royal Horticultural Society, found that 82% of people in the UK said that gardening makes them happier. It also found that 70% of them, given the choice, would prefer to spend their working day in the garden with just 9% opting for an office.

For those with green fingers, the pleasure of gardening comes from getting out in the fresh air, in all weathers and communing with nature — even if there are a few too many worms! It can also be seen as a sort of digital-detox — time away from technology.     2    

Dr Christopher Lowry, a neuroscientist at the University of Colorado, injected a bacterium commonly found in soil into mice to see what affection this would have on them.     3     When we dig in soil we absorb this bacterium through our lungs or cuts in our so Br Lowry concluded that since the mice seemed happier when treated with soil bacteria, it’s likely we would be, too.

    4    There’s evidence that recovering alcoholics who have been given the opportunity to plant, grow, and even sell their produce, have managed to stop their addictive habits. Scot Stephenson, for example, got dismissed from school and started a vocational qualification in gardening. He says, “got my NVQ level 2 which is my first qualification and enjoyed it ever since.”

Whatever the reason, there are many therapeutic benefits to getting your hands dirty, doing some physical hard work and then watching your garden grow. Does this sound like your idea of fun?

NOW he has a new computer, Mike is wondering what will happen to the old one. Well, after     1    (break) down into small pieces, it was sent to China by ship.

Things like this happen every day. Last month Hong Kong officers found 131,000 kilograms of broken computers, TVs and phones. They     2    (send) to china illegally. This batch of e-waste was sent back to Japan, but sometimes e-waste gets through.

Computers     3    (fill) with dangerous poisons like mercury (水银) and lead (铅). Every time an old computer breaks down, it needs     4     (deal) with safely. Usually computer parts are buried. E-waste is a problem. Countries like Japan and the US often send their e-waste to China. For years, Guiyu in Guangdong Province     5    (describe) as “the e-waste capital of the world”.

The city has to deal with 1.5 million kilograms of e-waste each year. This earns $75 million,     6     it comes at a cost. Many of the poisons in e-waste find their way     7     the environment. Plastic is burned outdoors and acids are poured into rivers.

Greenpeace, an environmental group, has said that it has found the earth and rivers of Guiyu badly     8     (pollute). Fortunately, laws about waste recycling     9    (make) to solve the problem, After all, the government wants the country to develop, but in a way     10     doesn’t damage the environment and people’s lives.

7 . Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity has used up nature’s annual resources. In 2020, Earth Overshoot Day fell on August 22, three weeks later than 2019’s date of July 29 as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns, meaning that humanity consumed less resources than last year.

According to research conducted by Global Footprint Network, an international research organization, COVID-19- related lockdowns resulted in a 9.3% reduction in humanity’s ecological footprint compared with the same period last year.

However, we would still need 1.6 Earths to keep up with our current use of ecological resources.

While Mathis Wackernagel, president of Global Footprint Network, called this year’s data “encouraging,” he called for further progress to be made “by design, not by disaster.”

CEO of Global Footprint Network Laurel Hanscom adds, “Sustainability requires that both ecological balance and people’s well-being be ensured over the long-term, therefore this year’s sudden Ecological Footprint reduction cannot be mistaken for progress.”

According to the research, Australia used up its resources in the first half year during its 2019/ 2020 forest fire season.

Wackernagel says, “We’re using up the future to pay for the present. We’ve only got one planet and that’s not going to change.”

The research organization says that sustainability of a society depends on the sound management of ecological resources. To do this, we need to change the way we produce our food, we move around, how many children we have and how much land we protect for wildlife. Reducing our overall carbon footprint by 50% would push the date back 93 days, cutting food waste in half, 13 days. And if we push the date back by 5 days each year, humanity would be using less than one planet before 2050.

9 . People living on parts of the south coast of England face a serious problem. In 1993, the owners of a large hotel and of several houses discovered, to their horror, that their gardens had disappeared overnight. The sea had eaten into the soft limestone （石灰岩） cliffs on which they had been built. While experts were studying the problem, the hotel and several houses disappeared altogether, sliding down the cliff and into the sea.

Erosion（侵蚀）of the white cliffs along the south coast of England has always been a problem but it has become more serious in recent years. Dozens of homes have had to be abandoned as the sea has crept farther and farther inland. Experts have studied the areas most affected and have drawn up a map for local people, forecasting the year in which their homes will be swallowed up by the hungry sea.

Angry owners have called on the Government to erect sea defenses to protect their homes. Government surveyors have pointed out that in most cases, this is impossible. New sea walls would cost hundreds of millions of pounds and would merely make the waves and currents go further along the coast, shifting the problem from one area to another. The danger is likely to continue, they say, until the waves reach an inland area of hard rock which will not be eaten as limestone is. Meanwhile, if you want to buy a cheap house with an uncertain future, apply to a house agent in one of the threatened areas on the south coast of England. You can get a house for a knockdown price but it may turn out to be a knockdown home.