Plastic pollution at sea is reaching     1     (worry) levels. According to a review of hundreds of academic studies, it will continue to grow even if significant action is taken now     2     (stop) such waste from reaching the world’s oceans. The review by Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute examined almost 2, 600 research     3     (paper) on the topic to provide an overview ahead of a United Nations meeting later this month.

As plastic breaks down into smaller pieces, it also enters the marine food chain,    4     (take) in by sea creatures from whales to turtles. What’s worse, some regions already contain dangerous levels of plastic, and others risk becoming     5     (increasing) polluted in the future. Getting that plastic out of the water again is nearly impossible,    6     policymakers should focus on preventing any more of it entering the oceans in     7     first place. Matthew MacLeod, a professor of environmental science at Stockholm University,    8     (involve) in a separate study not long ago,    9     also concluded effective measures are required immediately because of the possible global impacts.

While consumers can help reduce plastic pollution by changing their behavior, governments have to step up and accept     10     (responsible) for solving the problem. It’s a global problem and it needs global solutions.

3 . Throughout history, many species of animals have been threatened with extinction. When Europeans first arrived in North America, more than 60 million buffalo (水牛) lived on the continent. Yet hunting the buffalo was so popular during the 19th century that by 1900 the animal’s population had fallen to about 400 before the government stepped in to protect the species. In some countries today, the elephant faces a similar challenge, as illegal hunters kill the animals for the ivory in their tusks.

Yet not all animals with commercial value face this threat (威胁).The cow, for example, is a valuable source of food, but no one worries that the cow will soon be extinct. Why does the commercial value of ivory threaten the elephant. while the commercial value of beef protects the cow?

The reason is that elephants are a common resource, while cows are private goods. Elephants wander freely without any owners. The hunter has a strong motivation to kill as many elephants as he can find. Because illegal hunters are numerous, each has only a slight motivation to preserve the elephant population. By contrast, cattle live on farms that are privately owned. Each farmer makes great effort to maintain the cattle population on his farm because he harvests the benefit of these efforts.

Governments have tried to solve the elephant’s problem in two ways. Some countries, such as Kenya and Uganda, have made it illegal to kill elephants and sell their ivory. Yet these laws have been hard to put into effect, and elephant populations have continued to dwindle. By contrast, other countries, such as Malawi and Namibia, have made elephants private goods and allowed people to kill elephants, but only those on their own property.

With private ownership and the profit motive now on its side, the African elephant might someday be as safe from extinction as the cow. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle pointed out the problem with common resources: “What is common to many is taken least care of, for all men have greater regard for what is their own than for what they possess in common with others.”

6 . If you live near a deep forest, you might have come across some wildlife animals hiding in your backyard, but nothing beats the surprise this woman got when she found three baby deer hiding in her house to wait out the storm.

The woman then posted several photos of the baby deer taking refuge (避难) in one of her rooms on her Imgur account “Amscolie”. She wrote that it was a very stormy day and a rainstorm was coming so she left her back door open just in case some animals wanted to take refuge in her house. In the meantime, she went out in the storm to check whether there were any animals that were stuck in the bad weather, especially a number of deer. However, she could not find any of them so she went back to her home.

Surprisingly, she found that the deer had already made their way inside her house!

Like many other animals, deer too can predict stormy weather and know when it is best to find a shelter from the dangerous weather. As the back door was opened, she did not notice when the deer entered her house. The three lovely baby deer made their way inside but there was no sight of their parents. The woman did try to find if there was any deer nearby her house but to no avail. The woman thought that the baby deer might have lost their parents so she welcomed them with open arms.

“I raise orphaned (孤儿的) wildlife. Recently, the back door was open as a storm was coming. The deer were nowhere to be found. I went inside, only to see them next to an end table in the living room. I told them they could sleep in the house for the night because the weather was going to be terrible,” the woman wrote on Little Things. com.

China’s First National Park

China’s first national park in Northwest of China’s Sanjiangyuan area,     1     (cover)a total area of 123,100 square kilometers, was officially established in 2020     2     schedule. The national park is the country’s calling card, and unlike nature reserves,     3     protect unique species, national parks stress the protection of the entire ecosystem.

Under the national park management, herders and     4     (farmer) will be turned into the forces of     5     (environment) protection in the Sanjiangyuan area. The work     6     (expect) to provide jobs, boost incomes and give people an     7     (encourage) to protect the environment. The ecological environment of the Sanjiangyuan area has greatly improved in recent years. The grassland coverage of the area has risen sharply     8     (compare) with the last decade. The last decade also saw a significant increase in the number of wild animals, because the number of Tibetan antelopes     9     (be) over 70,000 from less than 20,000 in     10     1980s.

China’s accumulated experience in reducing food loss and waste is being shared with the world. This knowledge will help many countries improve their ability    1     (reduce) food loss and ensure food security, experts and officials said.

About 14 percent of the world’s food is lost during from    2    (produce) to retail (零售). Reducing that loss by 1 percentage point would be equal to a 28 million metric ton increase in grain output,     3    could feed 70 million people for a year. This is according to the State of Food and Agriculture 2019 report released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

According to the FAO, over 155 million people experienced serious food insecurity in 2020, the    4    (high) number in the past five years. This was caused by conflict, extreme weather events and economic shocks    5    (relate) to COVID-19.

Wu Laping,     6    professor at China Agricultural University’s College of Economics and Management, said food loss and waste is    7    (large) affected by economic development. They noted that    8    (develop) countries lose food mainly before it is retailed, whereas developed countries mainly lose it after retail.

    9    example, food loss and waste mostly occurs in harvesting and storage in Africa and South Asia. Up to 30 percent of food loss was found during farmers’ storage in some areas in Africa, and 21 percent of food in the United States    10    (waste) during daily consumption, Wu told Economic Daily.

10 . A study from the University of California, Davis is the first to document personality in golden-mantled ground squirrels, which are common across the western US and parts of Canada, The study found the squirrels show personality for four main aspects: boldness（大胆）, aggressiveness, activity level, and sociability. The findings suggest that understanding how an animal’s personality influences the use of space is important for wildlife conservation.

The fact that ground squirrels have personalities may not seem surprising. But the scientific field of animal personality is relatively young, as is the recognition that there are ecological consequences of animal personalities. For instance, bolder, more aggressive squirrels may find more food or defend a larger area, but their risky behavior may also make them easily hurt by predators（捕食者）or accidents. Lead author Jaclyn Aliperti conducted the study while earning her PhD in ecology at UC Davis.

Scientists have been studying golden-mantled ground squirrels at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado for decades. It was established as a long-term study site more than 30 years ago by Aliperti’s advisor, Dirk Van Vuren. Aliperti drew from this powerful data set for her study, while also starting a series of experiments there over the course of three summers to observe and quantify the squirrels’ personalities. Overall, the study, published in the journal Animal Behaviour, found that bolder squirrels had larger core areas where they concentrated their activities. Bold, active squirrels moved faster. Also, squirrels that were bolder, more aggressive and more active had greater access to habitats, such as rocks. The location of the habitat is important because it can provide a belter point for observing and evading predators. Interestingly, habitat is also associated with sociability.

“Animal personality is a hard science, but if it makes you relate to animals more, maybe people will be more interested in conserving them,” said Alipcrti.