1 . For the first time in about 100 years, a rare bird called the takahē is walking freely along the Lake Whakatipu Waimaori Valley in New Zealand after 18 captive birds were released into the wild. The area is also home to a Maori tribe called Ngai Tahu, which has spent years campaigning for the birds to return to their land. The Maori are New Zealand’s Indigenous people (first people known to live there), and they consider the takahē bird to be “taonga”, meaning a treasure.

Takahē are large, round, flightless birds with red legs, and they have lived in New Zealand since prehistoric times. Like many New Zealand birds, takahē evolved to be flightless because there were no mammals to compete with. When Europeans arrived in New Zealand, however, predators such as cats and ferrets were introduced and killed off many flightless birds. Takahē were declared extinct in 1898, but a small number of the birds were discovered in 1948 in a remote part of the Murchison Mountains.

Since then, conservationists have been trying to restore the takahē population in captivity. They gathered the bird’s eggs in order to keep the chicks safe from predators. The chicks were raised by volunteers, who fed them while wearing sockpuppets on their hands to imitate the parent birds. There are now about 500 takahē birds in captivity. Several pairs of adult birds have been released into the island’s sanctuaries and national parks. Experts will monitor them to see how they adapt to their new environment. If everything goes well, they hope to release seven more birds this month and 10 young birds next year.

Ta Tipene O’Regan, an elder of the Ngai Tahu tribe, helped to release the birds. He told The Guardian newspaper, ”There are few things more beautiful than to watch these large birds running back into lands where they haven’t walked for over a century. ”O’Regan said, “It’s an absolute joy. ”

4 . Dressed in a kachhad, a traditional Nepalese clothes, Umesh Balal walked into his meetings at the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) on climate change in Dubai with a sense of determination.

Balal, who has physical disability, was there to publicly _________ inclusion of disability rights in the climate change conference, an aspect that he said has long been _________ by organizers of the world’s largest annual meeting on climate issues.

As a student, Balal was _________ about science and involved himself in research on environmental science. Those were his first few interactions that _________ the climate related issues to him. Being from a mountainous region, Balal _________ more about how climate change had _________ people there, which led him to develop climate anxiety.

The more Balan _________ himself to climate science, the more he learned about the impact of climate change. People with more resources have better chances of _________ the climate crisis. But the less developed countries, for the _________ communities, usually don’t have the same opportunities, which will push them further into the __________

And it is even harder for people with __________. Many people with disabilities in Nepal don’t have __________ to proper education or opportunities for growth. As a result, they aren’t able to advocate for their rights.   

In an interview, Balan said, “__________, I am honored that I come from a supportive family, where I had a chance of good education which __________ me to grow in life. This is what I __________for others, to change the way they live their lives.”

7 . When gardeners grow varieties of plants in their beautiful gardens, they are happy to see beneficial insects like bees and butterflies surrounding the flowers. But as they take a closer look, they may find some plants are covered in black dots and filled with harmful insects or pests. Some gardeners may immediately reach for chemicals.     1     Although it may stop the insect problem, it will also threaten bees and butterflies which help the plants reproduce.

If you are wise gardeners, you should first take preventive measures to control the harmful insects.     2     Only when there are too many harmful insects, should pest control be considered. The first defense should always be the safest method available.

As a rule, prevention is the best treatment. Inspect plants closely, including their leaves, before buying them from the store.     3    

When planting, space plants out to permit them to grow to their full size. Plants too close together can breed harmful organisms, like bacteria.

    4     They invite pests if permitted to remain on the ground. When you do see pests, wash them away. Use rubbing alcohol to remove some insects, or pick them off the plants.

If you decide a pesticide is necessary, choose it carefully and follow the directions and warnings on the product. Avoid using pesticides in extreme heat, on windy days, or when the plants are wet.     5     At the time, beneficial insects are inactive. You can consider removing flowers from the plants to lessen the risk that beneficial insects will come in contact with the pesticides.

Known as a ”living fossil“,the Chinese sturgeon(鲟)is a very precious species. It     1     (believe)to have lived alongside the dinosaurs more than 140 million years ago.

Although dinosaurs are long since gone, the Chinese sturgeon still exists to this day.     2    ,the species has been listed as ”Critically Endangered“ on the Red List of Threatened Species. According to CGTN, dams and overfishing affect     3     (it)reproduction.

On May 14,Shanghai legislators(立法委员)passed a new law protecting the Chinese sturgeon,    4    (stress)”regional cooperation“,according to China Daily.

”This is the first local legislation in the country     5    (protect)one endangered fish,“ said Ding Wei, director of the legislative affairs committee.

The protection of the Chinese sturgeon is     6     (urgently). China began the artificial propagation(繁殖)and release of the fish in 1984. However, very few of     7     farmed fish have survived in the wild.

    8     this species can be preserved depends on the natural population. If the natural population is not well protected, the Chinese sturgeon is in     9    (dangerous)of extinction.

Since January 1 of this year, a 10-year fishing ban on key     10    (area)of the Yangtze River basin has been issued, covering 332 nature reserves, which include Shanghai’s Chinese sturgeon nature reserve.

9 . It was around 3 p.m. I was lined up at the train ticket counter to reserve a trip to Nagoya to_______ some photos for a magazine called “Today Fashion”. It was then that I felt the ground moving slightly like a subway shooting through a tunnel far beneath my feet. It was so mild that I_______it, as did everyone around me. Seconds later,a(n)   _______shake occurred. Things started falling over to the ground, and signs hanging from the ceiling began swinging violently. An elderly man next to me smiled at me_______and just said one word: “Earthquake.”

I _______ for the door, about 60 feet away. The ground was shaking so violently that it was_______to run in a straight line. My heart was still pounding so wildly_______.I reached the street. I longed to get as far away from these buildings as possible, but in Tokyo, finding any truly open space is actually_______.Ultimately, I stood in a_______for a good two hours as did most everyone else. During this time, the ground of the spacious park continued to________less violently. I would________later that afternoon that the quake was a magnitude 8.9, the strongest earthquake in recorded history. There were a few women________with people pointing up at the buildings as they shook, ________many others appeared calm and relaxed. Even though I have witnessed many big events in the world, I really________Japanese for their calmness and timely________.

10 . Lots of young mammals and birds engage in behaviour that provides no obvious adaptive outcome such as access to food, shelter or a mate, is voluntary and rewarding in itself and appears to be conducted pleasantly when the animal is relaxed.

What about bumblebees (大黄蜂)? Apparently they play too, according to work just published in Animal Behaviour by Galpayage Dona and Lars Chittka. The idea of asking whether bumblebees like to play came to Chittka during a previous study in which he trained them to roll wooden balls around in order to gain access to food. He noticed that, during this experiment, they would often roll the balls for no apparent reason. They just seemed to enjoy it.

A perfect PhD project for an ambitious student. And Ms Galpayage Dona stepped up to the mark. She created an field, put pollen (花粉) and sugar solution in it to arrest the bees, and connected it via a plastic tube to a bumblebee nest in Dr Chittka’s laboratory. In one part of the field, nine of the balls were fixed to the floor. In another, the balls could be rolled around. Ms Dona tagged 45 bees, between one and 23 days old, so that they could be followed as individuals. She then opened the door to the field for three hours a day for 18 days and recorded on video what happened.

The recordings suggested that the bees did enjoy this experiment. All of the tagged bees rolled a ball at least once during the experiment. Most did so many times. One particular enthusiast managed 117 rolls. Overall, the camera recorded 910 incidents of ball—rolling by tagged insects. Also young bees played more often than old ones. All that they seemingly need now is some goalposts and a referee (裁判), and bumblebee social behaviour will take off to the next level.