When scientists accidentally killed     1    turned out to be the world’s oldest living creature, it was bad enough. Now, their mistake has been worsened after further research found it was even older – at 507 years.

The ocean quahog, a type of deep-sea clam, was dredged (捕捞) alive from the bottom of the North Atlantic near Iceland in 2006 by researchers. They then put it in a fridge-freezer,     2    is normal practice, unaware of     3    age. It was only when it was taken to a laboratory     4    scientists from Bangor University studied it and concluded it was 400 years old.

The discovery made it into the Guinness Book of World Records. However, by this time, it was too late for Ming the Mollusc(软体动物),     5    (name) after the Chinese dynasty     6    its life began. Unfortunately, researchers who calculated Ming’s age killed it instantly by opening its shell.

The researchers opened the ancient clam up to judge its age by counting growth rings inside. But the rings were so close together     7    scientists ended up having to count the rings on the outside to be accurate,     8    (lead) CBS journalists to point out that if scientists had just started there, Ming could have lived on. Now, after examining the quahog     9    (closely), and     10    (use) more advanced methods, the researchers have found the animal was actually 100 years older than they first thought.

Dr Paul Butler, from the University’s School of Ocean Sciences, said: “We got it wrong the first time and maybe we were a bit hasty publishing our findings back then. But we are absolutely certain that we’ve got the right age now.” The mollusc was born in 1499 – just seven years after Columbus discovered America and before Henry VIII had even married his first wife, Catherine of Aragon in 1509.

3 . As Climate Changes, Global Inequality Worsens

Scientists have long predicted that warmer temperatures caused by climate change will have the biggest impact on the world’s poorest, most vulnerable people. New research now indicates that this has already happened over the last several decades.

A study published this May in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that in most poor countries, higher temperatures are more than 90% likely to have resulted in decreased economic output, compared to a world without global warming. Meanwhile, the effect has been less dramatic in wealthier nations - with some even potentially benefiting from higher temperatures.

“We’re not arguing that global warming created inequality,” says Noah S. Diffenbaugh, the author of the study and professor at Stanford University who studies climate change. But “global warming has put a drag on improvement.” The countries most likely to have lost out economically as a result of warmer temperatures have done the least to contribute to the problem, he adds.

Higher temperatures affect economic output in a variety of ways. For example, labor productivity decreases with extreme heat, crops produce lower yields and cognitive functioning declines.

The new study builds on past research, including a landmark report released last fall from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN’s climate science body. The report showed that if global temperatures rise more than 1.5℃ by 2099, poor countries will likely face critical challenges, including the destruction of entire communities and millions of premature deaths.

Climate policymakers have tried for years to address the problem of the poorest countries facing the worst effects of rising temperatures. These countries were not generally responsible for global warming. Early attempts at addressing climate change internationally included different expectations for emissions reduction based on each country’s level of development. Poorest countries received more leeway (自由行事的空间) while the richest were set stricter targets.

But in some ways, that approach backfired (起反效果), especially in the U. S. It helped feed the popular narrative that Washington is overpaying for climate change mitigation, while poorer countries are away with doing less. That conservative viewpoint has done some damage. Hardline distinctions between carbon reduction targets for rich and poor countries have been softened in recent years, in favor of a lighter version of what climate change policymakers refer to as “common but differentiated responsibilities.” That principle suggests that richer countries should bear a greater burden in addressing climate change, but remains vague about what that means for concrete policy.

Many of the world’s developing countries have cried foul. “This problem is created somewhere else,” Abdur Rouf Taiukder, Bangladesh’s Finance Scretary, told TIME in a recent interview. “We are spending more on adaptation because we have to live.”

5 . In February 1970, a group of activists gathered in Vancouver, Canada to discuss a planned nuclear test on the Alaskan island of Amchitka. They eventually agreed to sail to the test site and _________ against the explosion in person. At the end of the meeting, the chairman raised two fingers to the room and shouted “Peace!”. After a brief pause, one young attendee _________ with a monumental line: “Let’s make that a green peace”. The group were so _________ the phrase that they named their first boat the Green Peace.

Over the last 50 years, the _________ movement has become so closely associated with the colour green that it’s almost impossible to see a green poster, label or recycling bag without thinking about our planet’s future. But though that connection is the product of a very recent crisis, its _________ go back some way. We have _________ green with nature and its processes for thousands of years. Indeed, the very word “green” comes from the ancient Proto-Indo-European word ghre, meaning “grow”.

The human species, which emerged in the green forests and grasslands of Africa about 300, 000 years ago, has a special _________ link with green. Our eyes might even have _________ specifically to see the green in plants. Unlike most animals, who are red-green colour blind, we humans developed a third cone cell, an additional photoreceptor enabling our _________ to spot ripe red and yellow fruits against a backdrop of green leaf, and to distinguish different green leaves from each other. In daylight conditions, human eyes are more ____________ to green than any other colour.

With the rise of farming, we started to use green as a(n) ____________ for nature and its processes. Archaeologists have recently found an extraordinary store of green jewels in the Levant, ____________ some 10, 000 years. The researchers believe that these objects, many of which had come from hundreds of miles away at great cost, were chosen because they ____________ young leaves and might have been used by early farmers to pray for rainfall or fertilise crops.

The ancient Egyptians, who were farming the banks of the Nile from about 8000 B.C., ____________ use green as identification for their crops. Egyptian painters often represented their god of ____________, Osiris — who was responsible for flooding the Nile’s banks, filling the soil with nutrients and pushing the first green shoots up through the fields — as a bright green being.

6 . Otters, are cute, this no one can deny. They have big eyes, short and flat noses and claws (爪子) like tiny hands. They look even cuter when they wear hats and throw food balls into their mouths as if they were bar snacks, like Takechiyo, a pet otter in Japan. Documenting Takechiyo’s funny behavior has earned his owner nearly 230,000 followers on Instagram, a photo-sharing app.

Takechiyo’s fame reflects a craze across east and South-East Asia for keeping the cute creatures as pets. Enthusiasts in Japan visit cafés where they pay to hug them; Indonesian owners parade their pets around on leads or go swimming with them, then share their pictures online. But these enjoyable photos mask a trade that is doing a lot of damage. Even before they became fashionable companions for humans, Asia’s wild otters faced plenty of threats. Their habitats are disappearing. They have long been hunted for their coats, or killed by farmers who wish to prevent them consuming fishes. The pet trade, which began picking up in the early 2000s but appeared to speed up a few years ago, has made things worse. The numbers of wild Asian small-clawed otters and smooth-coated otters, two species that are in highest demand, have declined by at least 30% in the three decades to 2019.

The international agreement that governs trade in wildlife, known as CITES, now prohibits cross-border trade in these species. But laws banning ownership are often poorly implemented, as in Thailand, or full of holes, as in Indonesia. And the otter-keeping craze has been dramatically improved by the internet, says Vincent Nijman of Oxford Brookes University. In 2017 TRAFFIC, a British charity that monitors the wildlife trade, spent nearly five months looking at Facebook and other social-media sites in five South-East Asian countries. During that time, it found around 1,000 otters advertised for sale online.

In any case, otters do not even make particularly good pets. Every year the Jakarta Animal Aid Network, a charity in Indonesia’s capital, receives some ten otters from people who have struggled to look after them. Faizul Duha, the founder of an Indonesian otter-owners’ group, admits that his two animals emit a “very specific” (read: fishy) smell. They bite humans and chew on furniture. Their scream can be heard blocks away. And their cages need cleaning every two-to-three hours. That is how often they empty their bowels (肠道).

Throughout history, people have fought bitter wars over political ideology, national sovereignty and religious expression. How much more     1     will these conflicts be when people fight over the Earth’s most indispensable resource water? We may find out in the not-too-distant future if projections about the     2     of water in the Middle East and other regions prove correct.

Less than three percent of the planet’s     3     is fresh water, and almost two-thirds of this amount is     4     in ice caps, glaciers, and underground aquifers too deep or too remote to access. In her book, Pillars of Sand-Can the Irrigation Miracle Last, Sandra Postel outlines three forces that     5     tension and conflict over freshwater. Using up the water “resource pie”. In India, the world’s second-most populous nation, with over 1 billion inhabitants, the rate of groundwater     6     is twice that of recharge, a deficit higher than in any other country. Although water is a renewable resource, it is not a(n)     7     one. The freshwater available today for more than 6 billion people is no greater than it was 2,000 years ago, when global population was approximately 200 million. (The current U.S. population is 287 million.)

Global     8     accounts for about 70% of all freshwater use. In five of the world’s most water-stressed, controversial areas the Aral Sea region, the Ganges, the Jordan, the Nileland and Tigris-Euphrates population increases of up to 75% are projected by 2025. With the fastest rate of growth in the world, the population of Palestinian territory will more than     9     over the next generation. Most experts agree that, because of geography, population     10     and politics, water wars are most likely to break out in the Middle East, a region where the amount of available freshwater per capita will decrease by about 50% over the next generation.

Rain forests, found in Earth's temperate and tropical zones, are some of the most biologically varied ecosystems on the planet. All rain forests share certain    1    , including a closed canopy,     the dense vegetation of the top branches that forms a roof above the forest floor, a damp and warm climate, and    2     constant   temperatures throughout the   year. Most of   the forest's insect   and   animal life grows well in the canopy's leafy and sunlit environment. The forest's ground cover, by comparison, is small. Less than 2 percent of the sun's light makes its way through the canopy and the darkness below. This darkness, along with the poor quality of the soils,    3    plant growth.

Rain forests are a(n)    4     part of   Earth's   total   ecology.   Huge   amounts   of   water are absorbed into tree roots and    5    into   the atmosphere   from the   tree leaves through   a process called transpiration（蒸发）. Tree roots also fix the soil in place and slow the runoff of rains into rivers and oceans. Through the process of photosynthesis（光合作用）, rain forests absorb more carbon dioxide and give off more oxygen than any other ecosystem.

The rain forests are    6    shrinking at a rapid rate as a result of the profitable ventures of farming, logging, and mining. When tropical rain forests are    7    in order   to raise cattle and     crops, the nutrient-poor soils are quickly    8    . When farmers move on to new areas heavy rains and baking sun leave the land fruitless and lifeless. Logging and mining cause similar damage to the land and destroy the territory of    9     millions of birds, insects and animals. By some     10    an area of tropical rain forest the size of the state of Delaware disappears in this way every month.