The Charm of Daffodils

On April 15, 1802, the poet William Wordsworth and his sister were enjoying a spring walk through the hills when they came across a field of daffodils (水仙花). William decided there was nothing for it but to write a poem, which he published in its final     1     in 1815. I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud is, to some people, the most famous     2     on the power of nature —

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

Long     3     as a common field flower, unworthy of serious attention by the artist, poet or gardener, the daffodil enjoyed a revival thanks in part to Wordsworth’s poem. Today, it’s easy to     4     the daffodil for we can find it almost everywhere, in gardens or in art.

The daffodil originated in the ancient Mediterranean, where people associated them with the idea of death and life. Its scientific name comes from the story of Narcissus, a handsome youth falling in love with his own image. The gods     5     him immortality (永生) as a daffodil to save him from death. But it isn’t only Mediterranean cultures that have concentrated on the daffodil’s     6     power of life and death. A variety of the daffodils     7     along the Silk Road to China. There, the flower appeared to express not only the happy     8     of spring, but also other painful emotions such as loss.

The English botanist John Parkinson introduced the traditional yellow variety from Spain in 1618. Aided by a wet but temperate climate, daffodils quickly spread across lawns and fields, causing its     9     origins to be forgotten. By the 19th century they had become     10     British — so much that traders planted bucketfuls of bulbs wherever they went.

People across the UK are set to sizzle on what could be the hottest day of the year so far. Temperatures are expected to reach 33℃ for four consecutive days,     1     concerns there could be hundreds of heat related deaths in the UK.

A Met Office amber weather warning for extreme heat comes into     2     today for almost all of England south of Manchester and parts of eastern Wales. It is expected to last until Sunday with temperatures     3     to climb to 36℃.

Temperatures are not expected to drop below the low 20℃ in some areas, even at night. Older people, young children and those with     4     health conditions are more likely to experience adverse health effects, the Met Office said.

“Compared to the July record-breaking heat, this event will be less     5    , but last longer, which could actually have a greater impact on people’s health,” Hannah Cloke, a professor of hydrology at the University of Reading, said.

Both countryside and urban areas are tinder dry,     6     people to take special care. Ten fire engines and about 70 firefighters were called to a grassfire in Rainham, east London, yesterday, the London Fire Brigade said.

The Met Office’s fire     7     index, an assessment of how severe a fire could become if one were to start, is very high for most of England and Wales. The village of Northend in Oxford shire became the first place in the UK to run dry in the hot     8    . Thames Water, which operates in the area, sent water tankers and handed out bottles. The company has said that as a severe drought has made ground conditions worse for water     9    , it will bring in a hosepipe ban for its 15 million customers across London, Surrey and Gloucestershire in the “coming weeks”.

Experts have also warned that cliff     10     could become more of a risk on south coast beaches. Vanessa Banks, of the British Geological Survey, said that clay-like sediments will shrink as soils experience large changes in volume due to changes in water content.

Save the World

The United Nations issued a report last week warning that humans are destroying nature at such a rate that life on Earth is at risk. When the report came out, it naturally     1     headlines. But obviously it did not hijack the news agenda in the manner of a major terrorist attack or     2     of war.

The report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is clear on what’s at stake and what needs to change. IPBES chair Robert Watson says the “overwhelming evidence”     3     an “ ominous (凶兆的)picture”.   “The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is     4     more rapidly than ever,” Robert Watson said. “We are biting the very     5     of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.” The report says it’s not too late if we make “    6     changes” ----fundamental, system-wide reorganization ----- at every level from local to global, we need to focus on how to make that happen.

First, don’t immerse yourself in despair, because despair leads to inertia (惰性) and doing nothing means certain disaster. Every action to save nature will improve our     7     and personal futures and the only action to respond to a threat of this scale is with     8     action rooted in optimism. Second, we need focus, just like when rescue teams arrive on a scene and use the concept of “triage(伤员鉴别分类)” to ensure the most     9     cases get treated first. Saving the natural world needs that kind of thinking. We don’t have the     10     to do everything at once. We need to make hard choices.

The Inevitable Plastics Revolution

The Guardian once called plastic “Man’s worst invention”. One of the lesser-known uses of plastic is to reduce carbon emissions. For example, plastics make vehicles lighter thereby increasing their     1    ; it also increases the shelf life of foods, reducing food waste and the need to transport more. So plastics have an important role to play in creating a     2     future.

Currently that isn’t the case. Of the 24.5 million tons of plastic waste     3     in Europe each year, only 14 per cent is recycled. The rest is burned, buried or lost on land or at sea. Indeed, the European plastics industry emits 95 million tons of CO2 each year, about 3.7 per cent of total     4    . One-third of this comes from the burning of waste plastics.

That has to change, says Marc, one of the world’s leading chemicals and plastics manufacturers. “With a     5     population, we need to find a way to make better use of our resources.” In     6     with the recycling technology company, Mura Technology, it wants to     7     the plastics economy by dramatically increasing the amount of plastic that is recycled while also reducing carbon emissions. The approach will change the way we make plastic.

Today most plastic is made from petrochemicals, using processes     8     by fossil fuels. While a great deal is thrown away, a large proportion of plastics waste can be collected and sent to be     9     recycled. This involves washing, drying and grinding the material, then heating and     10     it into a new product. But at no stage is the chemical structure of the plastic changed. In order to reduce pollution, the plastics manufacturing sector needs technological innovation.

More recent research has shown that many kinds of amphibians(两栖动物) are declining or have become extinct. Amphibians are animals, such as frogs, that live partly in water and partly on land. And they have been around for over 350 million years. They have     1     three mass extinctions, including the     2     of the dinosaurs. Why are they dying out now?

The most serious aspect of amphibian loss, however, goes beyond the amphibians themselves. Scientists are beginning to think about what amphibian     3     means for the planet as a whole. If the earth is becoming unlivable for amphibians, is it also becoming unlivable for other kinds of animals and human beings as well?

Scientists now believe that amphibian decline is due to several environmental factors. One of these factors is the     4     of habitat, the natural area where an animal lives. Amphibians are very     5     to changes in their habitat. If they cannot find the right conditions, they will not lay their eggs. These days, as wild areas are covered with houses, roads, farms, or factories, many kinds of amphibians are no longer laying eggs.

There are a number of other factors in amphibian decline. Pollution is one of them. In many industrial areas, air pollution has     6     the rain, which then falls on ponds and kills the frogs that live there. In farming areas, the heavy use of     7     on crops has also killed off amphibians. Another factor is that air pollution has led to    8     levels of ultraviolet (UV) light. This endangers amphibians, which seem to be     9     sensitive to UV light.

All these reasons for the disappearance of amphibians are also good reasons for more general     10     . These factors affect human beings, too.

The race to the South Pole is a famous story. Captain Scott and a Norwegian     1     called Ronald Amundsen both wanted to get there first. They both prepared for many months, but in the end their    2     for reaching the pole were very different：Amundsen used dogs to    3     his sleds and Scott used motorized sleds and horses. Amundsen had good weather during his     4    , but Scott had bad weather. When Scott’s team     5     from the hut on 1 November 1911, there were     6     snowstorms and the sleds broke     7    . After a few weeks, the horse died and most of his team turned back. In the end, only five men     8    on to the South Pole: Scott, Oates, Evans, Bowers and Wilson.

On 17 January 1912, Scott’s team reached the Pole and came     9     the Norwegian flag——Amundsen’s team were there before them and were already racing back to tell the world. Tired and     10    , Scott’s team made their way back home, but they     11     food and got lost in snowstorms; they did not     12     it.

In Scott’s Hut, there is still    13     old explorer’s boots. Scott wore these boots for years and they are dirty and broken, but they’re very special too. They tell us Scott’s story--that he was hard-working, ambitious and     14    , and that he pushed himself to the limit. Although the attempt was unsuccessful, Scott never gave up, and that’s an amazing     15    .

Ball- Rolling Bumble Bees Just Wanna Have Fun

Playtime isn’ t just for children. Lab- kept bumble bees roll small wooden balls around for no

    1     purpose other than fun, a new study reveals. It supports evidence that bees experience pleasure,    2     the importance of protecting them in the wild and treating them well in their natural habitats.

“It is super cool,” says Elizabeth Tibbetts, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Michigan. “We usually think about insects as being so different that they lack complex behaviors.” But not everyone is convinced the behavior is in fact play.

Lars Chittka, a behavioral ecologist at Queen Mary University of London, and his colleagues    3     came across the new evidence. The team was studying how bumble bees learn complex behaviors from their comrades by training the insects to move wooden balls to specific locations. If a bee moved a ball to the right place, it got a sugary     4    . The researchers noticed that some bees moved the balls even when no reward was offered. They just seemed to like going back to them and playing around with them and rolling them all over the place. The careful design of the experiments has convinced him the bees are indeed     5     in play.

Because play implies a capacity to experience emotions, documenting it in insects could have    6     implications. Insects are     7     being raised for animal feed, and there are no regulations governing their welfare. Honey bees are also known to become stressed and more     8     to disease and bee communities collapse when industrialized beekeepers transport them long distances on trucks to     9     and vast fields without diverse flowers nearby, Chittka says. The researchers hope their findings might also     10     greater fellow feeling for — and protection of — wild insects.

Floating Cities: The Wave of the Future?

Rainwater pouring into the New York City subway. Towns and roads in Pennsylvania overtaken by floodwater. These dramatic scenes made     1     in September 2021. As many as 40.5 million people have already been     2     by the effects of the climate crisis. Rising sea levels, along with extreme flooding, are putting more and more coastal residents and others at risk. By 2050, more than 1 billion people will live in countries that lack the basic systems and services to     3     sea-level rise, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace. And all these climate refugees will need to seek out new homes on dry land.

One     4     architects and others have been exploring with more urgency in recent years is to build floating cities. In 2019, the United Nations brought together a group of innovators, scientists, and marine engineers to discuss the future of     5     sea-based communities. "As our climate and water ecosystems are changing, the way our cities retake to water needs to change, too." said U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed. "Floating cities are a means of ensuring climate adaption, as buildings can rise along with the sea."

These cities can be designed as climate     6     . They can take advantage of plentiful wind and water power for electricity, and grow food using hydroponics（水耕法）. "From traditional houseboat communities to high-tech experiments, there are many examples to learn from," she added.

Some of these experimental floating cities are already in development. Another planned community that's attracting a lot of attention is Oceanix City, which is     7     to have one-third of its 118 islands below sea level within 60 years.

Plans for Oceanix City     8     groups of hexagon-shaped（六边形）islands powered by solar and water energy. Tied to the seafloor, each human-made island would     9     around 300 people; the islands would be     10     together in communities of about 10,000 residents. Oceanix citizens would drink processed ocean water and extracted humidity from the air, and dine on a ready supply of seafood.

Marvelous Mallorca

Located off the southern coast of Spain, the island of Mallorca is often praised as one of the jewels of the Mediterranean. As the Spanish royal family’s preferred summer vacation spot, Mallorca     1     charms visitors with its beautiful villages and mountains covered in orange and lemon trees.

Since it is a(n)     2     small island, Mallorca is best seen by bicycle. The Serra de Tramuntana Mountain range runs along the island’s north-western coast and covers nearly 30 percent of the island’s     3    , which makes it a cyclist’s dream.The     4     roads that cross the tall peaks and rocky cliffs provide some of the most challenging cycling on the island.

However, most of the island’s visitors come to see Mallorca’s splendid coast. Though there are several busy beach resorts built specifically for tourists, you’re better off     5     the 260 beaches around the island on your own. Along the south coast, you’ll find white sands and clear blue waters seemingly made just for diving. In the east, keep an eye out for hidden bays that     6     for peaceful swimming even in high season.

Although Mallorca’s beaches have been its main attraction for many years, more recently, visitors have begun to appreciate the island’s cultural attractions too. Many of Mallorea’s grand old houses and     7     farms are being turned into resorts where visitors can enjoy the relaxed lifestyle of the Mallorcan countryside.

Palma, Mallorca’s lively capital, is also home to many museums, historic buildings, and galleries. Here you’ll be able to     8     paintings by great Spanish master such as Picasso, Dali, and Miro, whose former house in the city’s western district is open to visitors.

As the day     9     down, spend an evening enjoying a freshly caught supper in one of Palma’s oceanfront restaurants while taking in a beautiful Mallorcan sunset. What better way to wrap up your Spanish     10    ?