1 . Set 40 kilometers northeast of the city of Ambatondrazaka, the Zahamena National Park's landscape consists of (……组成) valleys surrounded by a flowing mountain range.

It has an overall land coverage of 64, 300 hectares, but only 42, 000 hectares is open to the public due to strict conservation (环境保护) reasons. It receives an average yearly rainfall level of about 6 feet and experiences frequent rain showers even during the dry season between April and October.

One really interesting thing about the Zahamena National Park is that the unique territory of its highland has paved the way for the development of several ecosystems that exist at the same time in this park. This is the reason why the types of wildlife living in one area are different in another, which makes it quite exciting to explore.

This protected area is divided into two parts, with a separate piece of land in the middle where many small villages are situated. These villages are inhabited (居住) by the members of the Sihanaka and Betsimisaraka ethnic groups.

The Zahamena National Park gets its name from the local Zahana Mena tree, an uncommon type of hardwood that grows in the lower regions of this protected area. It is characterized by its resilient (坚韧的) wood that can be rather challenging to cut, join, shape and carve even with modern tools.

Established as a strict natural highland reserve in 1927 (and one of the first of its kind in all of Madagascar), the Zahamena National Park was officially given its national park status (地位) in 1997 and was eventually opened to the public. Due to its remarkable territory and unique biodiversity, this national park was later listed as a key part of the collective UNESCO World Heritage Site called the Rainforests of the Atsinanana in 2007.

2 . China formally announced its first batch of five national parks. Are any of them from your hometown?

·The Sanjiangyuan National Park

The Sanjiangyuan Natonal Park, which is the source of three major rivers — the Yangtze, the Yellow, and the Lancang Rivers — is an important source of fresh water supply in China maintaining the lifeline of water security of the country. It is also home to hundreds of species of wild animals, such as wild yaks (牦牛), snow leopards and Tibetan antelopes.

·The Giant Panda National Park

The Giant Panda National Park connects three provinces — Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu. The park holds more than 70 percent of China’s wild giant pandas. Aside from the “national treasure” of China, the park is also the habitat of highly protected animals, including the snub-nosed monkey.

·The Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park

In the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park in Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces the high-tech monitoring system was launched to provide real-time protection for plants and animals. Thanks to the establishment of the national park, at least 12 Siberian tiger cubs and 11 Amur leopard cubs have been born so far.

·The Wuyi Mountain National Park

The Wuyi Mountain National Park is the only national park in China which is both a biosphere reserve and heritage site. The park has the most complete, most typical, and largest area of the central subtropical (中亚热带的) native forest ecosystem at the same latitude on Earth. It is known as a birds’ paradise, the kingdom of snakes and the world of insects.

·The Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park

In the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park, the protection of Hainan gibbons (长臂猿) has become a success story for animal preservation worldwide. Being the animals native to the South China island, Hainan gibbons are the world’s rarest primate (灵长类动物). Under the effective protection, its population has increased from as few as 7 to 9 in the 1980s to 35 today.

3 . The black cloud rising every day at sunset in the Chihuahuan Desert went largely ignored for thousands of years. Native Americans noticed it, but did not track its source. Cowboys thought the cloud was smoke pouring from the earth, and avoided it.

In June of 1901, however, a teenage cowboy named Jim White happened to see the large, black cloud. He was curious and went to investigate. Instead of finding a volcano, as he had imagined, he discovered something equally amazing. It was a big mass of bats. Two days later, he returned with a lantern to explore further. It took him so long that his lantern went out. He managed to refill it with just enough oil to find his way back to the entrance.

The next time Jim White went to the cave, he brought a friend and supplies. They explored for three days and returned with descriptions that were so fantastic that few people believed them. The cowboys on nearby farms and the people in the tiny town of Carlsbad treated Jim’s stories as tall tales and nothing more.

After years of exploring the caves and finding no one to believe his stories, Jim White decided to create his own tourist attraction. He established trails (路线) along the paths he had found. One day in 1915, two men asked Jim for a tour. After seeing the caves, the men returned with a professional photographer named Ray V. Davis. Local doubts were finally put to rest by the photographs of the hidden beauty that Jim had discovered. All 13 locals of Carlsbad finally took a tour of the caves, which came to be known as Carlsbad Caverns.

In 1923, the government sent an official named Robert Holly to tour the caves. Later that year, the caves were stated a national monument (古迹), and in 1930 they became a national park. Jim White lived to see the Carlsbad Caverns become world-famous. Today, tourists can hike to and tour some of the 100 known caves in this huge natural wonder, thanks to the cowboy from New Mexico.

4 . The following properties which the World Heritage Committee has decided to include on the List of World Heritage are in danger according to Article 11 (4) of the Convention (公约).

Virunga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

Virunga National Park, covering an area of 790,000 ha., includes an outstanding diversity of habitats, ranging from swamps and steppes (沼泽和平原) to the snowfields. Mountain gorillas are also found in the park.

Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley (Afghanistan)

The cultural landscape and archaeological remains of the Bamiyan Valley stand for the artistic and religious developments which from the 1st to the 13th centuries characterized ancient Bakhtria. The area contains a number of Buddhist monastic ensembles (佛教寺院), as well as strong buildings from the Islamic period.

Okapi Wildlife Reserve (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

The Okapi Wildlife Reserve occupies about one-fifth of the Ituri forest in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The reserve contains threatened species of primates and birds surviving in the wild. It also has some amazing scenery, including waterfalls on the Ituri and Epulu rivers. The reserve is inhabited by traditional nomadic pygmy Mbuti and Efe hunters.

Historic Center of Vienna (Austria)

Vienna developed from early Celtic and Roman settlements into a Medieval and Baroque city, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It played an important role as a leading European music center, from the great age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century.

Every day we use energy. We use it for cooking, for heating and for lighting our cities. The energy comes from many different     1     (source). It can come from the sun, wind and water, but the energy we depend on the most comes from deep inside the Earth. These include coal, oil, and natural gas.

These fuels come from the remains of plants and animals. It takes millions of years     2     (make) them. However, with the world’s population     3    (grow), more and more of these fuels are dug up from the ground. Yet these fuels are non-renewable. When they     4    (use) up, they will be gone forever.

We need to have a strong sense of     5    (responsible) and it’s high time for us to think about     6     we can help save energy and preserve these fuels.

What about turning off anything     7     (electricity) we are not using? That’s a start! We can also recycle things such as newspapers, cans, bottles, and plastic—including plastic bags. Plastic bags start out as either oil     8     coal, and one big city can use millions of plastic bags in a year. When we use recycled things, it takes less energy     9     making something new.

Cars consume a lot of fuel, but there     10     (be) a variety of measures that car owners can take to preserve fuel. Try asking your family whether we can take a bus or walk instead of using the car.