2 . Earth’s oceans are changing color and climate breakdown is probably to blame, according to a research. The deep blue sea is actually becoming steadily greener over time, according to the study, with areas in the low latitudes(纬度)near the equator especially affected.

“The reason why we care about this is not that we care about the color, but that the color is a reflection of the changes in the state of the ecosystem,” said BB Cael, a scientist and author of the study published in Nature.

The previous research focused on changes in the greenness of the ocean to learn about trends in the changing climate. But Cael’s team pored over 20 years of observations by NASA’s Modis-Aqua satellite, a comprehensive database, and looked for patterns of change in the ocean’s color through a fuller color spectrum(色谱)including red and blue.

The changes have been detected in over 56% of the world’s oceans. In most areas there’s a clear “greening effect”, Cael said, but he added that there are also places where red or blue colorings are rising or falling. “These are not massive ecosystem-destroying changes. They may be mild,” said Cael. “But this gives us an additional piece of evidence that human activity is likely affecting large parts of the global biosphere(生物圈)in a way that we haven’t been able to understand. ”

Although this discovery firmly documents another consequence of a changing climate, what is not yet clear is how strong these changes are and what is happening inside the ocean to cause them, according to Michael J Behrenfeld, a researcher of ocean productivity, who was not involved in the research.

NASA will be launching an advanced satellite mission in January 2024 called Pace which will also measure hundreds of colors in the ocean instead of a handful, progressing studies like these further. “Making more meaningful inferences about what the changes actually are is definitely a big next step,” said Cael.

3 . Researchers following tiger sharks off the southern coast of Belize couldn’t believe their eyes when they recently caught a different kind of fish. It turned out to be a Greenland shark, which is typically found in the Arctic and can live to be about 400 years old.

The team of scientists thought the shark was dead when they finally pulled it to the surface. Unlike the tiger sharks they saw, this particular shark had black, worn-looking skin and pale blue eyes. Devanshi Kasana, a Ph.D. candidate at the Florida International University’s Predator Ecology & Conservation Lab, said the shark looked “really old”.

There was no doubt that the discovery was unexpected. Kasana said, “As soon as it entered our field of vision, we saw a black figure that was getting bigger and bigger. When it came to the surface, none of the crew with all of their combined fishing experience had seen anything like that.” She said the discovery was especially exciting. She wondered how on earth these sharks, which were thought to mainly exist in the Arctic, could be found in the tropics as well.

Greenland sharks can be several hundred years old. The reason for their long life may have something to do with their speed of growth, which is very slow. Greenland sharks grow approximately one-third of an inch per year and can grow to more than 20 feet in length. And researchers believe the sharks don’t reach sexual maturity until sometime after the first 100 years of their life.

According to Kasana, some scientists have theorized that the Greenland sharks can be found across the globe, if one knows where to look. They love cold water, which is why they’re found in the Arctic. However, they’ve also been discovered as far south as off the coast of Georgia, thousands of feet beneath the ocean surface.

The theory is that the closer the sharks are to the equator, the deeper researchers have to go to find them. And they go deep over 7,000 feet down, according to NOAA.

4 . If you’re not at least a bit terrified by the climate and ecological breakdown unfolding before our eyes, you haven’t grasped the scale of the crisis. Eco-anxiety, defined as “a chronic(长期的)fear of environmental doom”, is on the rise. But redirecting this anxiety into anger and collective action might just pull humanity back from the brink.

We don’t yet know how deeply eco-anxiety affects people, but we can learn not to repeat the mistakes of long-gone societies lost to environmental collapse. Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed uncovers the common driver that led to the fall of ancient civilizations such as the Central American Mayan, the remote Pacific Easter Island, and the Mycenae: People accidentally destroyed the environmental resources on which their societies depended.

Today, we are living in a new climate and ecological age. The new normal is one that humans have never before experienced on earth, and that has occurred within a single generation. We can’t claim ignorance. Numerous scientific reports show: unprecedented(空前的)wildfires in the Arctic, heatwaves annually breaking records, the Amazon shrinking and drying, and species extinction rates accelerating. Nature’s dangerous decline is unprecedented.

So, it’s not surprising that eco-anxiety is on the rise. Anxiety is often a private emotional state: We feel alone, stuck inside our own heads, and our emotions stop us from doing the things we want. But anger, directed appropriately, can fuel powerful collective action for change.

We are on a pathway to destroy the global conditions for human survival. Unlike previous civilizations, we have the science and technology to understand our danger and chart a new pathway. This is a moment for all of us to channel our eco-anxiety, fear and anger into energy for change.

5 . Try Making Them into Treats

It’s fine to shop at farmers’ markets and grocery stores for recipe ingredients（原料）. But what if you could gather some of them by yourselves, and at the same time, help rid your region of non-native plant species that are harming the ecosystems?

According to the National Wildlife Federation, about 42 percent of today’s threatened or endangered species are at risk because of invasive（有侵略性的）species. Here are four invasive plants and ideas for serving them up.

KUDZU

Brought to the US from Japan, the kudau vine can grow a foot a day, robbing other plants of sunlight. Its beautiful flowers bloom from July to September, but its leaves, roots, and vine tips are more readily available. Pick flowers to use in making drinks.

HIMALAYAN BLACKBERRY

Native to Armenia, the plant has threatened other species. It blocks access through woods and affects livestock. Its fruit starts to ripen in midsummer and the berries can be added to hake goods such as muffins.

SOW THISTLE

Its roots crowd out useful crops and suck water and nitrogen from the soil. Native to Europe and western Asia, it grows all over North America in spring and summer. Try coking the leaves in olive oil and adding them to a cake.

WATERCRESS

European settlers brought this leafy green to the Colonies. It spreads along waterways, crowding out native plants.

Harvest it from the edge of a running stream in spring and fall to make sandwiches.

7 . Humans are not the only ones who underwent self-domestication. So did our close relatives, the bonobos, and the species we call our best friend. A tiny proportion of the genome differentiates dogs from wolves, and yet millions of dogs are comfortably curled up in our homes, while wolves move around at the edge of extinction.

When our research group began its work almost 20 years ago, we discovered that dogs also have extraordinary intelligence: they can read our gestures better than any other species. Wolves, in contrast, are mysterious and unpredictable. Their home is the wilderness, and that wilderness is shrinking.

But not so long ago the evolutionary race between dogs and wolves was so close, it was unclear who would win. Dogs, in fact, did not descend from wolves. Instead, dogs and wolves shared a wolflike ancestor.

Folklore supposes that humans brought wolf puppies into camp and domesticated them. Or as wolf expert David Mech wrote in 1974, “Evidently early humans tamed wolves and domesticated them, eventually selectively breeding them and finally developing the domestic dog from them.” But this story has not held up. Taming an animal occurs during its lifetime. Domestication happens over generations and involves changes to the genome.

So how did wolves turn into dogs? Back in the Ice Age, as our human populations grew more sedentary, we probably created more rubbish, which we then dumped outside our camps. These leavings would have included tempting pieces of food for hungry wolves. Not every wolf would have been able to scavenge, however. These animals would have had to be unafraid of humans, and if they displayed any aggression toward us, they would have been killed. After generations of selection for friendliness without intentional selection by humans, this special population of wolves would have begun to take on a different appearance. Coat color, ears, tails: all probably started to change.

Animals that could respond to our gestures and voices would be extremely useful as hunting partners and guards. They would have been valuable as well for their warmth and companionship, and slowly we would have allowed them to move from outside our camps to our firesides. We did not domesticate dogs. The friendliest wolves domesticated themselves.

9 . The first astronauts

Since the earliest times, people have looked up at the stars, the moon and the planets. Today people use modern machines ________at the sky. This is very different from the situation________years ago when people could only use their eyes. Perhaps they dreamed of________the universe.

When did humans first go into space? The story began not so very long ago,________the first astronauts were not people﹣they were animals.

Scientists wanted to make travelling to space as ________ as possible for humans. So they decided to experiment with animals and test________ in spaceflights. Insects, mice, frogs, dogs and monkeys were some of the animals________first went into space. Many of them ________, but they helped to make space travel safer for humans. For their great service, we________forget these animals.

Albert Ⅱ was the first monkey to go into space in 1949. Sadly he died ________ his spaceship landed back on Earth.

________ the result was different for Ham the Monkey. His story ended happily when he return to earth________very good health.

Scientists wanted to know the answer to the important question: could ________ animal like Ham do the same things in space as he could do on Earth? The answer came when Ham________ into space in 1961. Yes, he did everything well and lived for ________ 16 years.

10 . For many people, catching a smell of freshly cut grass is a pleasant sign that warmer weather is here to stay. For the grass, however, this scent signals an entirely different story.

The smell we associate with freshly cut grass is actually a chemical SOS, one used by plants to beg nearby creatures to save them from attack. After all, when danger strikes —whether it's gardening equipment or a hungry caterpillar — plants can't lift their roots and run. They must fight where they stand. To protect themselves, plants employ a string of molecular (分子) responses. These chemical communications can be used to poison an enemy, warn surrounding plants of dangers or attract helpful insects to perform needed services.

Clearly, plants can communicate. But does that mean they can feel pain? According to some researchers, plants release gases that are the equivalent of crying out in pain. Using a laser-powered microphone, researchers have picked up sound waves produced by plants releasing gases when cut or injured. Although not audible to the human ear, the secret voices of plants have revealed that cucumbers scream when they are sick, and flowers cry when their leaves are cut.

There's also evidence that plants can hear themselves being eaten. Researches show that plants understand and respond to chewing sounds made by caterpillars dining on them. As soon as the plants hear the noises, they respond with several defense mechanisms.

For some researchers, evidence of these complex communication systems — giving out noises via gas when in pain — signals that plants feel pain. Others argue that there cannot be pain without a brain to register the feeling. Still more scientists infer that plants can exhibit intelligent behavior without possessing a brain or conscious awareness.

As they grow, plants can change their paths to avoid obstacles or reach for support with their tendrils (卷须). This activity comes from a complex biological network distributed through the plants' roots, leaves and stems. This network helps plants reproduce, grow and survive.