Every Lunar New Year, China introduces a zodiac(生肖) sign from a cycle of 12 lucky animals. This year, it’s the Year of the Dragon, or more     1     (accurate), ”the Year of the Loong”. Then what’s the difference?

The Western     2     (describe) of dragons as “fire-breathing winged creatures” was inspired by literature such as Beowulf - the Old English epic about a Scandinavian hero     3    contribution was killing monsters, including a dragon. Greek fairy tales also presented dragons    4    violent sea monsters or guards of valuable     5     (possession). By contrast, “loong”, a word    6     (create) in the 19th century, reminds people of strength and fortune, and should    7     (distinguish) from its Western cousin. In Shiji,     8    2, 000-year-old Chinese history book, the emperor’s mother dreamed of a dragon lying on her body,     9     (predict) the birth of a future emperor. Exactly for this reason, Chinese people proudly claim they are “descendants of the Loong” .

Therefore, some culture experts have been calling for a switch to ”loong”     10     (tell) the Chinese dragon from the frightening monsters of Western tales. The call is also in line with the push for cultural confidence to choose the preferred translation of the Mandarin word for a creature long respected in Chinese culture.

Everyone loves a day at the beach, but if you come across litter on the sand, it makes everything worse. One man is doing his part to clean up local beaches, and has invented     1     (innovate) tools to help with that job. Based in Texas, Glenn Morris uses custom grabbers to pick up the rubbish and a remote-controlled car     2     (top) with a waste container to make the process easy and efficient.

Morris     3     (found) the group LitterBuggies a few years ago, and hopes that these remote-controlled cars will make     4     easier for others to keep their surroundings clean. “There are an estimated 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic waste in the ocean     5     have significant impacts     6     marine life. This number is expected     7     (double) within the next ten years,” the litterBuggles website states. “We hope to expand our activities into a larger movement, with the goal of making as big a     8     (different) as possible.”

A couple of days a week, Morris visits local beaches equipped with his grabber and remote-controlled car, and films himself     9     (collect) rubbish littering the shore. It is inspiring to see how Morris     10     (patient) picks up all the waste, leaving behind a clean and tidy beach.

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.

Nature hands us a whole series of rich and varied colors,     1    (literal) on our plates! Not only do we eat pigments (色素),     2     we use some of them as colouring agents. Red, yellow, pink and green are just some of the rainbow of colors in our food.

The color of food has quite     3     impact on our choice of what we eat. We instinctively prefer the colors red, orange and yellow over green and blue, which tend     4    (represent) bitterness. Man is naturally attracted towards sweet food and dislikes all things bitter, a tendency which is evident right from birth. However, such preferences     5    (influence) by our individual experiences and education, cultural criteria and tendencies. The color of a particular foodstuff can also influence our perception of tastes,     6    (flavor) or smells and we often associate certain colors with particular tastes: pink with sweet things, green with     7    (salt) food and the color orange with spicy food.

    8     do carrots, peppers and tomatoes all have in common? They all contain natural coloring agents. Discovery of various coloring techniques spread the centuries. New and creative methods to abstract pigments, mix them and then dye (染色), all add a little color     9     life, simply to please our senses. Nonetheless, colored food also brings micronutrients which are essential for good health. So don’t wait any     10    (long)! Brighten up your plate today!

A new study found that nearly half of bald eagles    1    (test) across the United States show signs of repeated lead (铅) exposure. Researchers examined the blood, bones, feathers and liver tissue (肝脏组织) of l,210 eagles between 2010 and 20l8.

Lead is a poisonous substance     2     affects the nervous system and interferes (妨碍) with the normal function of nerve cells. Even in low amounts, lead can reduce bald eagles’ ability     3     (fly), hunt and reproduce. In high amounts, lead causes     4    (breathe) difficulty and death.

Bald eagles are one of America’s most celebrated conservation success stories. The birds       5    (remove) from the U. S. Endangered Species List in 2007. But scientists say that high lead levels are still     6     concern. Lead exposure also reduces their ability to face future difficulties, such as climate change or infectious diseases.

“Lead is available to these birds more than we     7    ( previous) thought,” said VinceSlabe, a research wildlife biologist at the nonprofit group Conservation Science Global.

The blood samples from live eagles in the new study were taken from birds trapped andstudied     8    other reasons. The bone, feather and liver samples came from eagles killed by vehicles, power lines or other causes.

The researchers also found higher levels of lead exposure in fall     9    winter. During these months, eagles eat animal remains left by hunters. These remains often contain many    10    (piece) of lead ammunition (弹药).

A five-month-old bird has set a new record for long-distance migration(迁徙)after    1    (fly)13,560 kilometers without stopping over a period of 11 days. The previous one was set two years ago by another bird that     2    (cover) about 12,000 kilometers in 11 days.

    3    (million)of birds set for the sky for a long and quite hard journey to get away from the coming cold, feed, and have babies for    4    next few months. A lot of them travel through distances of over 10,000 kilometers. This year, an    5    (astonish) 13,560 kilometers was covered by a bird,    6    set a new Guinness record in the process. This happened last month when the young bird had its     7    (depart) from Alaska to New Zealand for the winter. The bird took off    8    October 13 from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in Alaska, followed the usual route across the Pacific Ocean down to New Caledonia and through the Tas-man Sea, before making an unexpected 90-degree turn towards Tasmania rather than New Zealand.

Scientists had the ability     9    (know) the bird’s record flight with the help of a tiny tracker that only weighed 5 grams. An expert said the bird lost “half or more of its body weight” during the 11-day flight, but it made it arrive at the dry land    10    (safe).

Canada’s national parks are established     1     (protect) and present outstanding representative examples of natural landscapes. These wild places,     2     (locate) in every province and territory, range     3     mountains and plains to forests and lakes. National parks protect the habitats, wildlife and ecosystem     4     (diverse) representative of the natural regions.

Parks Canada is     5     (responsibility) for both protecting the ecosystems of these great natural areas and     6     (manage) them for visitors to understand, appreciate, and enjoy in a way     7     doesn’t compromise their integrity (完整). Parks Canada is working to maintain or restore the ecological integrity of national parks. Maintaining or restoring ecological integrity     8     (be) a challenging task that involves     9     good understanding of the nature of ecosystems and the stresses they face.     10     (addition), it requires cooperation among people whose actions influence the ecosystems.