A Weather Report in Australia

2 . On a September night almost anywhere in southern Europe, you might see beech trees rustle (发出沙沙声) with activity. If you shine a light into the branches，you may see animals with large eyes and bushy tails.

They are called fat dormice. Despite their name, all types of dormice are more closely related to squirrels than mice. That explains their bushy tails and why they hang out in trees and bushes. But most squirrels are active during the day. Like other dormice, fat dormice come out at night.

Once the sun sets, fat dormice go to work filling themselves with beech seeds until they grow fat. These animals add at least half their body weight in just a few weeks. They’re preparing for a winter sleep. Lots of animals hibernate (冬眠),but fat dormice do so for seven or eight months. After putting on plenty of eight, a fat dormouse makes a nest. There it will spend the winter. Its body uses the stored fat for energy while it hibernates. But seven months is a long time,so the dormouse needs to use its energy slowly.

Everything in a fat dormouse’s body slows down when it hibernates. That’s true of all hibernating animals. They breathe more slowly and their hearts beat less often. Those changes help the animals survive several months without eating. But in fat dormice, the bodies slow down even more than the bodies of other hibernating animals that live in similar environments. At temperatures well above freezing (15℃), hibernating fat dormice may breathe only once every 10 minutes. During a midwinter freeze, they breathe only once an hour. Hibernators such as little brown bats and squirrels breathe more often. Their hearts beat more often, too. But those animals hibernate for only five or six months. Fat dormice have to stretch their energy supply for two or three months longer.

Over seven or eight months, the fat dormouse slowly uses up the fat it stored in the fall. In May, it finally wakes up. It is much thinner, very hungry, and ready to make the most of its short summer before it is time to hibernate again.

3 . In the wild, monkeys need to watch out for all sorts of dangers，like leopards (豹），eagles and snakes. But the green monkeys studied by Julia Fischer of the German Primate Center have an additional challenge: they also have to scan the skies for drones (无人机). "Why do we fly a drone over green monkeys?" one may ask. The answer is that Fischer and her colleagues are interested in how monkeys communicate.

In a classic study back in the 1980s, scientists showed that African vervet monkeys (长尾黑频猴) produce alarm calls that are specific to the hunters they meet. For example，vervet monkeys hearing a leopard alarm might climb up a tree hurriedly, whereas the eagle call sends them running for cover under the closest bush.

Now，the green monkeys that live in Senegal share a similar system to warn of leopards and snakes. But they aren’t known to raise much noise in response to bird hunters. Therefore，the researchers decided to fly a drone over them. They treated 80 green monkeys to a show of drones. How did the animals react to these unfamiliar drones?   “These monkeys did respond. And they responded with alarm calls，and they responded by running away,” Fischer said.

Here’s where things get really interesting: the calls the green monkeys made after spotting the drones were different from the ones they used to signal leopards or snakes. But what's even more interesting is that when the researchers did an analysis of the sound，they found that these alarm calls were almost strangely similar to the ones of the African vervets. And the findings are described in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

The fact that the two monkey species seem to speak similar language, even though they separated from their last common ancestor some 3 million years ago，suggests that this kind of warning system is unchanged. So if you hear a monkey make alarm calls like that, watch out for a hungry bird, or check to see if your drone has delivered your package.

6 . Technology is likely to play a big part in reaching its climate goals in the future.

Fusion is the process that fires the sun. But some experts say it could someday power our homes. Fusion happens when the nuclei (核) of two atoms are subjected to extreme heat. This leads to the formation of a new larger atom and large amounts of energy. One problem is the process itself requires a large amount of energy. Developers of the technology haven’t yet performed a fusion reaction that releases more energy than it requires. In addition, running an electric power plant of fusion would require the resulting heat to be contained in an economical way.

Advanced nuclear plants would be smaller than today’s massive nuclear reactors. Experts say they could be used in rural areas and could take over for wind and solar power when the sun goes down or the wind dies. But advanced nuclear reactors are difficult and costly to build. Critics say they would also create more waste. And they would run on uranium (铀), which could make some advanced reactors more appealing to militants (激进分子) seeking materials to make weapons.

Currently, there are 15 direct air capture plants operating worldwide, getting CO directly from the air and puts the gas underground. The costs are currently high. But supporters say those costs will fall as the technology improves. They also say tax breaks for businesses could help the technology. But critics say offering large credits could actually lead to more plants continuing to burn fossil fuels.

Hydrogen (氢) can be mixed with natural gas to make a cleaner-burning fuel. This could power a fuel cell vehicle. Such a vehicle would release environmentally friendly water vapors.

So-called clean hydrogen can be produced using energy methods such as wind and solar. But those methods are more costly than “grey hydrogen”, which is made with fossil fuels. Geothermal power plants capture heat up to 370 degrees Celsius far below the earth’s surface. The heat creates steam that can turn turbines (涡轮机) to produce electricity. But the technology would need to greatly expand to become a major alternative to fossil fuels.

8 . From littering the highest mountain peak to the deepest sea, we have messed up the environment and not left a single spot clean. Plastic pollution was also the theme for the last year’s Environment Day, but has anything changed?

With a “hope” to change things, a 150 feet long and 12 feet high “Wall of Hope” has been constructed using 15,000 discarded bottles collected from various sources such as streets and roads in Mussoorie and the surrounding region, which encourages the tourists to keep the surroundings clean.

Mussoorie attracts armies of visitors from neighboring cities every month so that it sometimes gets choked by over-tourism. But then, people hardly paid attention to the “saving the environment” cried these days. So, in order to convey this message in a meaningful and beautiful way, the locals of Mussoorie came up with this unique concept to remind travelers of the litter they leave behind.

The wall was built by over 50 volunteers that are basically school and college students who stepped forward to help bring this idea to life. For establishing this, plastic bottles of different shapes, sizes, and colors have been collected and fixed in this wall. Seeing their tireless efforts, the village locals also joined in later to help turn this project into a success story and then it spread like wildfire. They are actually admiring this new addition to the landscapes of Mussoorie, saying that the town looks even more beautiful now!

The wall was designed by Subodh Kerkar, founder of the private art gallery Museum of Goa. Talking to Hindustan Times, Kerkar said, “The wall will draw structural strength from steel pillars (柱子) being fixed two feet deep into the ground. The structure is completely rain and wind proof. I hope the wall will inspire a sense of beauty and will add color to the peaceful background of the hills.”

9 . In India, there are many ironing vendors (商贩) who _________ people’s clothes for a living. Their main tool is an iron box _________ by charcoal (木炭).

India’s science and technology department _________ that there are about 10 million ironing carts in the county. Each of them uses more than 5 kilograms of charcoal each day on average, Reuters reported.

After seeing her _________ ironing vendors throw the _________ charcoal away on the street side, Vinisha Umashankar, 15, told NPR that she started to “think about the amount of charcoal burned every day and the damage it does to the _________”. Burning charcoal releases greenhouse _________ such as carbon dioxide, which leads to climate change.

Vinisha, a student from Tamil Nadu, India, had the idea of creating a renewable energy source to _________ charcoal.

She spent six months designing a wheeled cant. The cant has solar panels which _________ sunlight to provide electricity that fuels the iron. Surplus energy can be __________ in a battery for use on cloudy days, according to Time magazine. Five hours of bright sunshine is enough to operate the iron for six hours.

To complete the invention, Vinisha devoted herself to reading college-level physics textbooks to __________ how solar panels work. Then, she submitted her concept to the National Innovation Foundation, run by the Indian government. __________ there helped her build a full-scale working prototype (原型) and apply for a patent, NPR reported.

Now, her innovation is getting __________ recognition. In this September, Vinisha was invited by Prince William to __________ a speech at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP 26) in Glasgow, UK, in November.

“I am not just a girl from India. I am a girl from Earth,” Vinisha said in her speech. “All of us should understand that environmental issues are real and can’t be __________ at a later date,” Vinish a continued. “There is no stop button. There is no magic fix.”

In Northwest China's Gansu Province     1     (lie) Zhangye National Geopark, which is blessed with a spectacular Danxia (red cloud) landform area     2     (cover) about 19 square miles. The Danxia landforms are     3     masterpiece of nature. The colorful mountain ridges are just like an overturned palette from heaven. Bands of fiery red, creamy orange, rich green and bright yellow streak across the mountain, forming     4     is known as the most beautiful rainbow mountain.

The incredible landscapes were created by sandstone and minerals piling on top of one another over the years due to tectonic plate movements. Wind, rain, and tine then carved the rock formations and rolling hills into     5     (vary) extraordinary shapes, including towers, pillars and valleys.

    6     (declare) a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2010 and a national geopark in 2011, the landform has become a top tourist     7     (attract). The park features a series of boardwalks that allow visitors to walk around the colorful sandstone landscapes. There are viewing platforms     8    (special) designed, enabling tourists to get close to the hills and feast their eyes     9     the magnificent sights without damaging the fragile ecosystem. Shuttle bus service is available, making     10     easy for tourists to get around the park.