I was invited to a cookout on an old friend’s farm in western Washington. I parked my car outside the farm and walked past a milking house which had apparently not been used in many years. A noise at a window caught my attention, so I entered it. It was a hummingbird (蜂鸟), desperately trying to escape. She was covered in spider-webs (蛛网) and was barely able to move her wings. She ceased her struggle the instant I picked her up.
With the bird in my cupped hand, I looked around to see how she had gotten in. The broken window glass was the likely answer. I stuffed a piece of cloth into the hole and took her outside, closing the door securely behind me.
When I opened my hand, the bird did not fly away; she sat looking at me with her bright eyes. I removed the sticky spider-webs that covered her head and wings. Still, she made no attempt to fly. Perhaps she had been struggling against the window too long and was too tired? Or too thirsty?
As I carried her up the blackberry-lined path toward my car where I kept a water bottle, she began to move. I stopped, and she soon took wing but did not immediately fly away.
Hovering (悬停), she approached within six inches of my face. For a very long moment, this tiny creature looked into my eyes, turning her head from side to side. Then she flew quickly out of sight.
During the cookout, I told my hosts about the hummingbird incident. They promised to fix the window. As I was departing, my friends walked me to my car. I was standing by the car when a hummingbird flew to the center of our group and began hovering. She turned from person to person until she came to me. She again looked directly into my eyes, then let out a squeaking call and was gone. For a moment, all were speechless. Then someone said, “She must have come to say goodbye.”
注意：1. 续写词数应为 150 左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题纸的相应位置作答。
A few weeks later, I went to the farm again.
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________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . I met the Man of the Trees in summer ten years ago, when I was visiting Uncle Jita.
Those were difficult times. People were cutting down our forest, and there was often flooding. Sometimes our water supply was dirty. When our pump(水泵)did have clean water, we had to wait in line for ages. When the pump wasn’t working, we had to walk five kilometres to the closest stream.
But I was happy. I was going to see my favorite uncle. When the day finally arrived, Dad drove me to Uncle Jita’s house and left. Once he saw me, Uncle Jita announced, “Tomorrow we’re going to explore a magical place. Here is my camera, Amy. You can take photos of what you see.”
The following day, we woke up and left early on a boat. The trip was exciting. But when we got off, there was ... nothing in front of us. “I don’t want to take pictures of this,” I complained.
Uncle laughed,“Start walking, Amy. I promise you’ll be surprised.” After some time, I could see the outline of a forest in the distance. A little closer, there was a man waving to us.
“That’s Kabir. The forest you see is his. He planted every single tree.” As we walked towards Kabir, Uncle explained that thirty years ago, the whole area was a wasteland. But one day Kabir decided to change all that and started planting trees. Thanks to him, part of the wasteland is now a paradise(天堂).
Uncle introduced me to Kabir, who had gray hair and a determined face. “Jita told me you like animals. Are you ready to see some?” he asked. “Of course!” I replied. We continued walking and soon were under the trees. I turned my head and was amazed at the difference between the two places. All because of the efforts of one man.
Like Uncle said, Kabir’s forest was magical. We saw deer, rhinos, and even tigers. During lunchtime, Kabir explained how, by planting trees, it was possible to stop the land from eroding(侵蚀).
注意：1．续写词数应为150左右；
2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Hearing this, I turned to my uncle, “I think we can plant trees too ”
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________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________As the world sees more and more extreme weather patterns, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the effects of climate change. It is now a common topic of discussion and it has even found its way into the books we read. Because of this, a genre called climate fiction. or cli-fi, has found new life.
As the name suggests, climate fiction refers to stories with a central theme of climate change or global warming. These kinds of books can help us imagine what the world might be like in the future because of major climate change events. Adeline Johns-Putra is a professor of literature at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou and has edited many books on climate fiction. “It’s part of a pattern,” Johns-Putra told Smithsonian Magazine. “It’s a feedback loop, as these books feed into our awareness and that feeds into our demand to read these books.”
The genre is also gaining popularity with high school and college students because it looks at topics that are relevant to what’s really happening today. Also, many cli-fi novels tend to have dystopian themes, which are very popular in young adult novels. In 2015, cli-fi author Sarah Holding wrote for The Guardian that cli-fi “reconnects young readers with their environment”, which helps them appreciate it more, “especially when today, a large amount of their time is spent in the virtual world”.
Cli-fi has also helped to inspire students to pursue science majors, with some universities even offering courses specifically focusing on climate fiction. “These books aren’t going to save the world in any straight form or way,” Johns-Putra commented. “But they’re certainly going to help us think about how the world gets saved.” As Atwood wrote in her dystopian cli-fi novel MaddAddam, “People need such stories, because however dark, a darkness with voices in it is better than a silent void.”
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Watering is key to growing plants well, so here we look at how to get it just right. This not only means providing the water our gardens need but using it wisely. Water is a precious resource and supplies in the UK are under pressure from the effects of climate change, population increase and the need to protect the environment. Generally, several aspects need to be considered.
When to water
Water in the mornings, if you can, as this is when the sun comes up and plants start to transpire (蒸腾) in sunlight, drawing water from the soil, through their roots, up their stems and to their leaves. Evening watering is also fine, as the cooler conditions mean less water is lost to evaporation (蒸发). Watering in the heat of the day is not a good idea, as much water is lost through evaporation from the surface of the soil. Plants will use water more efficiently if watered in the cooler parts of the day.
How to water
Watering thoroughly matters. It helps get the water down to the deeper root tips where it’s needed. But, equally important, the soil doesn’t have to be really wet all the time because plants roots need air as well as water to grow well. Otherwise, there might be no flower or fruit, and even a worse result might come along.
Other tips
To use water in the most economical way, it’s good to learn different plants’ watering requirements. For example, a container plant in hot sunny weather may need watering daily, whereas a mature shrub might only need a drink in extreme drought. Annual flowers and vegetables produced in the spring are likely to need more watering than self-sown or autumn grown plants as they have new and shallow root systems. So, don’t treat all the plants in the same way.
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Malachi Bradley doesn’t show signs of being panicked or worried when he talks about how he spent 29 hours lost in a rough area of the High Uintas. “I didn’t really feel scared. I was just trying to get back to my family,” the 10-year-old said Tuesday in a quiet, almost matter-of-fact way just one day after he was rescued. When asked what happened to him, he simply replied: “A lot of things. I hiked a long way.”
Malachi confidently believes he could have survived two or three weeks on his own, dressed in only his jeans and his shoes, and with no food, tent or blankets. But the look in the eyes of Malachi’s father, Danny Bradley, told a different story, one of much deeper concern, when he realized his son was missing. “It’s a horrible feeling, just knowing how vast the Uinta Mountains are,” he said, “I quickly felt how severe the situation was.”
Malachi recalled his great adventure Tuesday. He showed no signs of going without food for a day or sleeping between rocks for an hour at night to block the cold wind. But he admitted when he got home to his own bed on Monday night that he was asleep within a minute of his head hitting his pillow and stayed there for 12 hours.
His adventure began Sunday when Malachi, his father, two siblings(兄弟姐妹), and a family friend were about to leave their campsite near Paul Lake to go home. “We were just going to cook up a fish he caught and head out, and,” Danny Bradley paused, “it ended up being a lot longer.”
Malachi said he went to look for mushrooms about 10:30 a.m. He had just walked a long way when he encountered a snake. He was so frightened that he decided to get back but he could no longer see the lake where his campsite was set up. He knew he was lost.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Malachi didn’t have his whistle with him that he normally carries in case he gets lost when exploring.
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But on Monday afternoon, Malachi took off his shoes to take a break in an open area and heard another helicopter nearby.
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Hank was a two-year-old cat. Hank’s big adventure started last November 6. Delores Bushong, his 75-year-old owner, had just returned from a market when she realized Hank didn’t come in for his snacks. She called his name in the streets around her home. Then she heard something. She looked up and spotted Hank on a branch near the top of a neighbor’s tree.
Bushong believed Hank came out through a fence’s cracks (缝隙) and then became scared by some dogs. The more scared he got, the higher he climbed. “Cats have an amazing ability to climb up trees, but actually they aren’t good at climbing down,” said Dan D’Eramo, director of the Humane Rescue Alliance (HRA).
Bushong, worried about Hank, asked the HRA to help her. HRA called the fire department, but the tree’s branches weren’t stable enough to support a climb. And the position of the tree made a firetruck ladder useless. Then Bushong called a construction company to rent scaffolding (脚手架) but was told she should book the equipment 10 days in advance. Bushong was upset. “It is frustrating to realize something you love is in trouble but you personally can’t do anything about it,” she said.
To her delight, the neighbors came to help. Ed Baptiste, whose tree Hank had climbed, let Bushong sit in his backyard and called to Hank. One neighbor called a local business, EJ’s Pest Control, which had a tall ladder. Unfortunately, the 42-foot ladder proved too short. Another neighbor donated a can of fish, hoping it might attract the hungry cat to come down. Nearby dog owners took their pets away on walks instead of letting them out in their yards to avoid further frightening Hank.
By the fifth day, nothing had worked. That’s when Robert, a veterinary (兽医) assistant at HRA, came up with an idea. He asked Bushong to fill a special bag with some of Hank’s favorite things: cat food and a soft blanket. They called it Hank’s party pack. Robert wanted to save Hank with it.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Then Robert tied the pack to a long bamboo pole.
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Bushong told the kind acts to a local newspaper office.
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I didn’t see the thin plastic tape running across the bread bag when I put the bread in my shopping cart or when I checked out. It wasn’t until I unpacked the bread at home that I realized that I’d broken the rules again.
That stupid plastic tape joined the long list of mistakes I made in just one week of trying to eat plastic-free. Last month, I challenged myself to purchase a week’s worth of food without bringing home any plastic. That meant no yogurt containers or plastic packages.
I chose a budget of $115 (roughly half-way between the average weekly grocery bill for a family of two in Massachusetts). On Saturday afternoon, I pulled into the parking lot of a well-known zero-waste shopping center.
I started in the produce section, where I typically got a plastic bag of organic baby carrots. This time, I could not go there because every vegetable in the organic section was packed in plastic containers. But I found some beautiful carrots among the non-organic produce. Then I saw the plastic price labels hanging off their rubber bands. I rolled my cart past the green beans and grapes, all inside the plastic. I weighed loose apples, onions and sweet potatoes. My anxiety kicked in — a feeling that I wouldn’t have enough. So, I bought a head of cabbage.
I tapped prices into the calculator on my phone. Leaving the produce section, I was in good shape, at $32. It was time to search for protein.
I headed to the meat counter. Again, everything was prepackaged in plastic. But the man behind the glass kindly agreed to put some chicken and meat, separately, in paper bags. Together they were $21.
Tofu, cheese, yogurt and pretty much everything in the dairy section were prepackaged in plastic. Even the bottled milk had a plastic cap. But there were lots of eggs in those paper bags.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
At checkout, I still had $62 left but I could not find anything else without plastic.
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At the moment, I realized that perhaps I shouldn’t have had aimed too high.
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Nike was a wheel dog who was directly in front of the sled (雪橇) and take most of the force. Whether little Nike had been named after the athletic shoe or the Greek goddess of victory, I would never know. He came into my life due to an injury in one of his legs which prevented him from making the team for the Trail Sled Dog Race.
My lifelong dream was to become a mountain man. So this winter, my wife Cheryl and I headed into the mountains with supplies to live for five months. In January, we had begun pushing east toward an untraveled area of the Yukon River. The trapping prospects there looked promising. We returned to our main cabin and made plans for me to use Cheryl’s dogs, hooking (钩) them together to form a large team. The idea was to bring supplies several miles down the river and establish a permanent camp.
That meant I’d be traveling alone and driving a sled loaded with around 300 pounds of goods, which meant extra hard work for my wheeler, Nike. The first serious challenge in our trip came where the path went down a steep valley that led to the river. As we started down, I stood on the brake with all of my weight in an attempt to keep balance. But the heavy sled began overtaking the dogs, and they picked up their pace to stay ahead of it. The sled became faster and faster until we came to a sharp turn at the bottom of the hill.
Eventually, the dogs got entangled (缠结) with each other and the sled got stuck in a crack in the river ice. I emerged from a large snowdrift and assessed the damage. I expected to find my dogs and a broken sled. But the sled was fine, and the dogs had jumped over each other, freeing themselves from the tangled ropes. Nike emerged from’ the snow, shook himself off, looked at me with encouraging eyes and made me smile.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Now I have to save myself from the icy river.
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I had begun to accept that this was how I was going to die, but Nike wouldn’t have it.
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On a hot September afternoon, Peter and his friend Isabel were on their way to the library. When they passed by Tubman park, Isabel suggested cutting through it to get to the library. As they entered the park, the sight of the swings (秋千) and the merry-go-round brought back a flood of memories of their childhood spent there. But now everything looked so old, sad, and dirty. Litter lay on the ground next to an overflowing trash bin. There were still young schoolchildren playing there but they had to avoid the trash that littered the playground. A little boy told them that the city took the other trash cans away and the remaining one never got emptied often.
As they headed toward the library, the two high school students wrinkled their forehead. In the library, they encountered Mrs. Evans, their kind-hearted fifth-grade teacher, retired yet still passionate. Mrs. Evans listened as Isabel and Peter eagerly explained what they’d seen. Finally, she recommended them to go to the City Hall to voice their concerns.
The next day, Isabel and Peter went into the building of the City Hall but were met with an impatient officer. They were informed that the city couldn’t help with their problem due to a tight budget. Discouraged, they left and turned to Mrs. Evans for help.
Under her guidance, they decided to ask Go Green, a non-profit organization whose goal is to protect the environment, for help. “This group is good at raising money for projects just like yours, ” said Mrs. Evans. She promised to arrange them to present their ideas to Go Green. Hearing this, their face lit up.
Two main tasks remained ahead: researching ways to clean up the park and preparing a convincing presentation. As Isabel was good at researching while Peter always had a talent for speaking, they cooperated quite well. Isabel learned from a science magazine that a new type of trash bin can squeeze the trash down without being emptied often, which saves time, money, and energy. Based on this, Peter practiced his presentation over and over again.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
A week later, Peter stood nervously at the back of the hall where Go Green was meeting.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________After the meeting, Isabel excitedly told Peter the good news.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It was one of the hottest days of the dry season. We had not seen rain in almost a month. The crops were dying. Cows had stopped giving milk. The streams were long gone back into the earth. If we didn’t see any rain soon we would lose everything. It was on that day that I learned the true lesson of sharing and witnessed the only miracle I have seen in my life.
I was in the kitchen making lunch for my husband and his brothers when I saw my six-year old son, Billy, walking toward the woods. I could only see his back. He wasn’t walking in his usual way. He was obviously walking with a great effort, trying to be as still as possible. Minutes after he disappeared into the woods, he came running out again, toward the house. I went back to making sandwiches, thinking that whatever he had been doing was completed. Moments later, however, he was once again walking in that unusual way toward the woods. This activity went on for over an hour: walking cautiously to the woods, then running back to the house. Finally, my curiosity got the best of me. I crept out of the house and followed him on his journey.
He was cupping both hands in front of him as he walked; being very careful not to spill the water he carried. I followed him secretly as he went into the woods. Branches and thorns(刺) slapped his little face but he did not try to avoid them. He might have a much greater purpose, I thought. As I leaned in to spy on him, I saw the most amazing sight. Several large deer appeared threatening in front of him. But Billy walked right up to them, at the sight of which I almost screamed for him to get away. A huge buck(雄鹿) was dangerously close. But the buck didn’t threaten him nor even move as Billy knelt down. And then I saw a baby deer lying on the ground, obviously suffering from thirst and heat, lift its head with great effort to lap (舔)up the water cupped in my beautiful boy’s hands.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在相应的位置作答。
When the water was gone, Billy jumped up to run back to the house.
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Instead of scolding him like his father, I decided to help him.
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