In 2016, a young British father was trampled (踩踏) to death by an elephant on the island of Koh Samui (苏梅岛) in Thailand. The     1     once again raised questions over whether it is ethical to use these giant animals as entertainment.

For many visitors, the chance to     2     with elephants is at the top of their holiday wish list. There’s no shortage of opportunities to do so, from taking photos of baby elephants on the beach, to riding them through the jungle, to watching them balance on tightropes and dance.

But what most visitors don’t realize is these animals are involved in     3     cruel methods to make them behave. They are often kept in terrible conditions. This includes being     4     up when not performing, without interaction with other elephants, a poor diet, etc. They are also subjected to training practices including beating and stabbing (刺,戳) with hooks.

Away from their natural habitat and forced to repeat the same routines day in day out, the torture continues throughout their     5     shortened lives. It’s not exactly the stuff that holiday dreams are made of.

Unfortunately, riding elephants is still one of the most popular tourist activities in Asia. The World Animal Protection     6     3,000 elephants at tourist sites across Southeast Asia in 2017. The study found that 77% of them were living in“severely cruel”conditions. It also found that there had been a 30% rise in the number of elephants at tourism venues in Thailand since 2010.   

Many parks     7     themselves as sanctuaries (庇护所) but they are not. Real sanctuaries will     8     contact with the elephants and visitors can only observe them from a distance most of the time.

The tour sector needs to play a much bigger role in restricting elephant tourism. As travelers, please avoid any place offering riding or allowing interacting sessions with elephants. When you see abuse (虐待)     9    , do your bit by leaving your review on review sites and social media to warn other tourists. It really does work—many parks are now becoming     10     as a result of pressure from tourists, the industry and the media.

Flood-hit Venice’s shrinking population faces mounting problems

Venetians(威尼斯人) are fed up with what they see as inadequate responses to the city’s mounting problems: record-breaking flooding, environmental and safety threats from cruise ship traffic and the burden on services from over-tourism.

They feel largely left to their own devices, with ever-fewer Venetians living in the historic part of the city to    1    its interests and keep it from becoming mainly a tourist land.

The historic flooding this week---marked by three floods over 1.5 meters (nearly 5 feet) and the highest in 53 years at 1.87 meters(6 feet, 1 inch)---has    2    calls to create an administration that recognizes the uniqueness of Venice, for both its concentration of treasures and its    3    vulnerability.

Flood damage has been    4    estimated at hundreds of millions of Euros (dollars), but the true range will only become clear with time. The frustration goes far beyond the failure to complete and    5    78 underwater barriers that were designed to prevent just the kind of damage that Venice has    6    this week. With the system not yet completed or even    7    tested after 16 years of work and 5 billion Euros ($5.5 billion) invested, many are suspicious it will even work.

At the public level, proposals for better administering the city including    8    some level of autonomy(自制) to Venice, already enjoyed by some Italian regions like Trentino-Alto-Adige with its German-speaking minority, or offering tax    9    to encourage Venice’s repopulation.

Just 53,000 people live in the historic part of the city that tourists know as Venice, down by a third from a generation ago and dropping by about 1,000 people a year. That means fewer people watching the neighborhood, monitoring for public maintenance    10    or neighbors in need. Many leave because of the increased expense or the daily difficulties in living in a city of canals, which can make even a simple errand a hard journey.

Can Indoor Plants Really Purify the Air?

Plants are very important to human life. Through photosynthesis (光合作用), they transform carbon dioxide into fresh oxygen. They are said to     1     toxins from the air we breathe — but is this true?

One famous NASA experiment, published in 1989, found that indoor plants can clean the air by removing cancer-causing pollutants like formaldehyde and benzene. Later research has found that soil micro-organisms in potted plants also play a part in cleaning indoor air.

Based on this research, some scientists say house plants are     2     air purifiers, and the bigger and leafier the plant, the better. “The amount of leaf surface area can     3     the rate of air purification,” says Bill Wolverton, a former NASA research scientist who conducted that 1989 plant study.

Other experts, however, say the     4     that plants can effectively accomplish this feat is far from conclusive.

“There are no definitive studies to show that having indoor plants can     5     increase the air quality in your home,” says Luz Claudio, a professor of environmental medicine and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. There’s no question that plants are capable of removing volatile chemical toxins from the air “under laboratory conditions,” according to Claudio. But in the real world — in your home or in your office space — the notion that putting a few plants together can     6     your air doesn’t have much hard science to back it up.

Most research efforts to date, including the NASA study, placed indoor plants in small, sealed environments in order to     7     how much air-purifying power they have. But those studies aren’t really     8     to what happens in a house, says Stanley Kays, a professor of horticulture at the University of Georgia.

In many cases, the air in your home     9     turns over — that is, exchanges places with outdoor air — once every hour. “In most instances, air exchange with the outside has a far greater effect on indoor air quality than plants,” Kays says.

Many people may be disappointed by what Kays said, but the professor also made it clear that he believes house plants are     10     — they are not only pleasant living companions, but also provide a number of health benefits. Studies have shown plants can knock out stress by calming the sympathetic nervous system, and can also make people feel happier. More research shows spending time around nature has a positive effect on a person’s mood and energy levels.

Puppy Dog Eyes Are for the Benefits of Humans

Dogs make puppy dog eyes for the benefit of humans and rarely use the pleasing facial expression when on their own, a new study has shown.

It has long been assumed that animal facial expressions are involuntary and dependent on emotional state rather than a way to communicate.

But scientists at the University’s Dog Cognition Centre at Portsmouth University have found that dogs mostly use facial expressions when humans are present, as a direct response to attention.

Puppy dog eyes, in which the     1     is raised to make the eyes appear wider and sadder, was found to be the most     2     used expression in the study. Researchers do not know whether the dogs are aware they look sadder, or have just learned that widening their eyes invites     3     and affection in humans.

Dog cognition expert Dr Juliane Kaminski: “We can now be     4     that the production of facial expressions made by dogs are dependent on the attention state of their audience and are not just a result of dogs being excited.”

“In our study they produced far more expressions when someone was watching, but seeing food     5     did not have the same effect.”

“The findings appear to support evidence dogs are     6     to humans’ attention and that expressions are     7     active attempts to communicate, not simple emotional displays.” The researchers studied 24 dogs of various breeds, aged one to 12. All were family pets. Each dog was tied by a lead a metre away from a person, and the dogs’ faces were     8     throughout a range of exchanges, from the person being oriented towards the dog, to being distracted and with her body turned away from the dog.

They found that when a human was not watching the animal, they     9     facial expressions.

Dr Kaminski said it is possible that dogs’ expressions have evolved as they were     10    .

“Domestic dogs have a unique history –they have lived alongside humans for 30,000 years and during that time selection pressures seem to have acted on dogs’ability to communicate with us, ”she said.

Most of us learn at primary school that there are seven continents, but the next generation of kids may be adding one more to that list.

According to a recent paper published     1     in the Geological Society of American Journal by a group of researchers, “Zealandia” is a new continent that’s hidden beneath the ocean.

Zealandia is     2     to be five million sq. km. Most of this massive area is covered by water, but its highest mountains already have their own name: New Zealand.

The small country is the only part of Zealandia that isn’t underwater, but the paper’s authors want the huge landmass to be recognized worldwide as its own continent.

“The     3     value of classifying Zealandia as a continent is much more than just an extra name on a list,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

Scientists discovered Zealandia all the way back in 1995, then started extensive research on the area     4     underwater and satellite mapping technology. After completing their work, they were     5     able to write a report suggesting that Zealandia be named a continent.

But who decides on what is a continent and what isn’t? There is, in fact, no official organization that does. Some countries’ schools teach that there are six or even five continents. This changes     6     on where in the world school is.

Due to their     7     as a “continuous expanse of land”, some classify Europe and Asia as the same continent --known as Eurasia. Schools in Russia and parts of Eastern Europe teach this.

And to make things even more     8    , France and Greece, as well as other countries, classify North America and South America as simply America.

This     9     over how land is defined has even stretched into outer space. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union（IAU）decided that Pluto was no longer a planet, 76 years after its discovery in 1930. Experts argued that it no longer met the requirements needed to be called a planet alongside the eight others in our solar system. It was therefore renamed a “dwarf planet（矮行星）”，meaning that countless books, models and museum exhibits all over the world had to be     10    .

But will the world take the same notice of Zealandia? The best way to tell is to keep an eye on our textbooks.

Mentally and Intellectually Harmful

Last month, the Indian Medical Association declared a public health emergency in New Delhi because of high levels of air pollution. Schools were shut and emergency traffic restrictions put in place.

New Delhi is far from alone. Our research into the    1     of air pollution in China shows that, in addition to the more obvious physical price, air pollution can also have serious negative effects on mental health and cognition (认知),    2     reducing a person’s happiness and their scores in verbal and mathematical tests.

Such harmful mental effects have serious negative consequences for livelihoods and human capital development, suggesting that development    3     should go beyond the traditional focus of boosting GDP in the developing world.

India's recent pollution emergency is the most    4     incidence(发生率)of dangerous air pollution, but smoggy skies have been a cause of growing    5     in most developing countries.

Major cities across the developing world---from Thailand to Brazil, to Nigeria---    6     experience pollution at several times the WHO safe limits. In fact, 98% of cities with more than 100.000    7     in low and middle-income countries fail to meet the WHO’s air quality guidelines.

India’s extreme levels of air pollution are well recognized, and examining the effects provides clear warnings for other countries seeking fast growth through rapid industrialization.

We used nationally     8     longitudinal (纵向)surveys on mental health and cognition, matched with daily air quality data for the time and place of interviews, to see what pollution does in a given time to individual happiness and cognitive performance. Because each person in our survey was     9    multiple times, we can control for the effect of individual characteristics on the outcome variables.

We found that worsening air quality led to a decrease in happiness that day    10    to about 10 percent of the reduced happiness one would experience form a negative major life event such as divorce.

World leaders get some face-to-face time at the U.N. climate summit

Sometimes in diplomacy, the sideline(副业) is where all the action is. That was the case at the     1     of the Paris climate summit on Nov. 30, where nearly 150 world leaders met in one of the largest such     2     in history. They were ostensibly(表面的) there to talk about   global   warming,   but   with   Paris   less   than   three   weeks   removed   from   a     3     terrorists attack and the Middle East in chaos, presidents and prime ministers took the opportunity to discuss global security     4     just offstage of the summit. So president Obama sat down with Russian President Vladimir Putin to talk about the     5     in Syria and Ukraine, and with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss the possibility of broader anti-terrorism     6    . Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinan Authority President Mahmoud Abbas----sharply at     7     this year even found time to exchange a rare handshake at the summit.

The threat of terrorism     8     the sideline discussions----so much so that some critics asked why it wasn’t the main event. But climate change and terrorism are part of the same threat. National security experts have warned for years that climate change     9     to the social instability that in turn feeds extremist groups like ISIS. Before leaving Paris, Obama made the same point: “This one     10    , climate change, affects all trends.” And it will only be stopped by global action.

Now, let me say a few words to our American friends: Climate change is one of the major     1     of our time. It is already changing our daily lives but it is global. Everyone is impacted. And if we do nothing, our children will know a world of     2    , of wars, of shortage, a dangerous world. It is not the future we want for ourselves. It is not the future we want for our children. It is not the future we want for our world.

Today, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced his decision to     3     the United States from the Paris Agreement. I do respect his decision, but I do think it is a(n)     4     mistake both for the US and for our planet.

I just said it to President Trump, in a few words a few minutes ago this     5    . Tonight, I wish to tell the United States: France believes in you. The world believes in you. I know that you are a great nation. I know your history, our common history.

To all the scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and responsible citizens who were disappointed by the decision of the president of the United States, I want to say they will find in France a second homeland. I call on them --- come and work here with us, to work together on     6     solutions for our climate, our environment. I can assure you: France will not give up the fight.

I reaffirm clearly that Paris agreement will remain     7     and will be     8     not just by France, but by all the other nations. Over the coming hours, I will have the opportunity to speak with our main partners to define a common strategy and to launch new     9    . I already know that I can count on them.

I call on you to remain confident. We will succeed, because we are     10    , because wherever we live, whoever we are, we all share the same responsibility to make our planet great again.

Thank you.

A drop in the sun’s radiation can cause cold winters in parts of North America and Europe, scientists say, a finding that could improve long-range forecasts and help countries     1     for storms.

Scientists have known for a long time that the sun has an 11-year cycle during which radiation from the sun reaches a(n)     2     then falls. But detecting a clear link of the cycle to the weather has proved much     3    .

“Our research notices a link between solar activities and regional winter climate,” lead author Sarah Ineson of the UK Met Office told the reporters in an email.

Her team focused on the data from the recent minimum solar radiation period during 2008-10, which was a(n)     4     calm period for the sun but at the same time,     5     winters in the U.S and Europe were recorded which brought troubles to many businesses and made people’s lives difficult.

The researchers found that a reduction in radiation from the sun can affect wind patterns,     6     cold winters.

“While radiation levels won’t tell us what the day-to-day weather will be, they provide the exciting     7     of improved prediction for winter conditions for months and even years ahead. These predictions play an important role in long-term weather planning,” Ineson said.

Ineson’s team used the data in a complex computer to     8     long-term weather patterns. It successfully reproduced what scientists had observed happening in the upper atmosphere during changes in solar radiation. More study was needed, though. The key     9     in the experiment lay in the satellite data used, because it spans (跨度) only a few years.” So there are still questions concerning whether the current research results are accurate and whether they can be     10     to other solar cycles,” she said.