7 . Molai grew up in a tiny village in India. The village lay near some wetlands which became his second ______. He learned the value and beauty of ______ there from a very young age.

When he was 16, Molai began to notice something ______ happening around his home. A flood had hit the area earlier that year and the ______ it caused had driven away a number of birds.   ______ , the number of snakes had declined as well. He ______ that it was because there weren’t enough trees to protect them from the ______. The solution, of course, was to plant trees so the animals could seek   ______ during the daytime. He turned to the ______ department for help but was told that nothing would grow there. However, Molai went looking on his own and ______ a nearby island where he began to plant trees.

______ young plants in the dry season was ______for a lone boy. Molai built at the ______ of each sapling (幼树) a bamboo platform, where he placed earthen pots with small holes to______rainwater. The water would then drip (滴落) on the plants below.

Molai ______ to plant trees for the next 37 years. His efforts have resulted in 1,360 acres of naturally-grown land that has become home to many plants and animals.

10 . Arctic sea ice has been steadily decreasing since the beginning of satellite records in 1979, but a new study comes with a warming prediction: By the end of this century, Arctic sea ice may disappear during the summer, which could drive polar bears and other ice-dependent species extinction.

Scientists thought the “Last Ice Area”, a region containing the oldest, thickest Arctic ice, would last for decades. But now, under both the most optimistic and pessimistic scenarios (可能出现的情况) for warming linked to climate change, the sea ice will dramatically thin by 2050. The most optimistic situation, in which carbon emissions are immediately and dramatically curbed to prevent the worst warming, could result in a limited part of the ice surviving in the region. In the most pessimistic situation, in which emissions continue at their current rate of increase, the summer ice and the polar bears and seals that live on it could disappear by 2100, researchers reported in a new study.

“Unfortunately, this is a massive experiment we’re doing,” study co-author Robert Newton, a senior research scientist, said in a statement. “If the year-round ice goes away, entire ice-dependent ecosystems will collapse, and something new will begin.”

As carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases increasingly contribute to the warming of the atmosphere, the past 15 years has brought the lowest 15 sea-ice extents in the satellite record, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Worse still, the NSIDC reports that the amount of older, thicker Arctic ice that has survived at least one melt season is at a record low. A more dramatic decrease in ice coverage could have a serious effect on the lives of the animals that live on, or under, the shifting ice network, including fish, seals, polar bears and so on.