1 . A new international organization, ReShark, including partners from 15 countries and 44 aquariums, is challenging the shark statistics. According to National Geographic, ReShark’s goal is to release 500 endangered zebra sharks in Indonesian waters to increase a wild population that is on the edge of extinction. This is the first-ever attempt to reintroduce captive sharks into the wild.

Marine reintroductions present significant challenges due to the complexity and shortage of ocean life, as well as the difficulty in managing threats, according to National Geographic. Team ReShark understands that the reintroduction may go up in smoke. Unlike land animals that have been successfully reintroduced in the past, such as giant pandas in China, young sharks are more likely to suffer from diseases and be killed by other animals, and they struggle to find food on their own.

Sharks have a remarkable history as one of the oldest vertebrate species, surviving five mass extinctions over a period of 420 million years. They play an important role in marine ecosystems by influencing the ocean’s food chains. However, they are now facing the second-highest rate of disappearance. Research shows that more than 37 percent of the shark species are at risk of extinction due to overfishing, both legal and illegal. Sharks are hunted for their meat. Nearly 100 million sharks are killed by human hands each year, according to the organization Sentient Media.

Despite the alarming decline in shark populations globally, top shark scientists are hopeful that ReShark’s efforts will succeed. Given these challenges, Simon Fraser University ecologist Dulvy initially had some doubts about ReShark’s plans. However, after asking some questions, he was surprised by what the initiative could produce. “This initiative is different,” Dulvy explained. Similarly, Rima Jabado, Dulvy’s successor, recognized ReShark as a unique project that could provide a lifeline for endangered shark species. “It may provide an opportunity for species not to go extinct,” she said.

For thousands of years, the Yellow River has been considered     1       cradle of Chinese civilization.

In order to protect the     2     (ecology) environment of the Yellow River, support the sustainable development of the surrounding areas, and showcase its cultural heritage, a project is now underway,     3     aims to create a range of recreational     4     (facility) along the river’s banks.

Some museums are also planning to present the historical and cultural relics     5     (discover) along the Yellow River and promote the culture of the Yellow River, using AR, VR and other advanced technologies. In the coming years, a series of activities     6     (arrange) to protect and inherit the culture of those ethnics living along the river.

The project incorporates archaeological research and the protection of cultural relics in these areas.The rich heritage serves as an important resource for the     7     (construct) of the Yellow River National Cultural Park. The project will make full use of the existing archaeological sites, bringing these ancient relics back to life so they can tell their stories.

Flood control and disaster prevention work will be carried out along the Yellow River to protect the environment and keep residents    8     (complete) safe while these cultural parks are being built, They will be developed as a new kind of “intelligent parks”     9     (feature) creative models to provide residents     10     some brand- new infrastructure (基础设施) .

5 . I was 10 when flooding displaced my family from the Butaleja District of eastern Uganda in 2008. Illegal sand mining along the riverbanks_______flooding already caused by climate change. We_______ our farm and home, so we moved over 130 miles away to Kampala, Uganda’s capital city, where we lived with my______. But her home quickly became______, so we moved to a one-room rental (租赁)—much______and less beautiful than our old home. It was too much for my father. My mother raised my siblings (兄弟姐妹) and me after he______. She often ______to find enough food or money. I can’t______how many times we went to sleep hungry because we couldn’t afford food. But back on our farm, we had______to eat.

And we still couldn’t______the impacts of climate change. I’ll never forget one night in November 2014. It began to rain, the power______, and water flooded our room. We stood outside all night. The next morning, we moved back into our grandmother’s house for four months until my mom could afford to______a new home.

Living through______flooding made me realize I had to protect the environment. In 2020, I ______ Earth Volunteers, a climate nonprofit organization currently supporting youth climate education. Knowledge is______: I believe my father wouldn’t have abandoned (抛弃) us if he had known why those floods hit in 2008, or how to respond.

6 . I was looking at the items such as a teapot, a poetry book, and a coat. I bought them from charity shops, where others’ trash became my _________. I have also donated many unwanted toys. _________ my toys will also become others’ precious discoveries.

This circular relationship is just one of the many _________ of charity shops. They extend the usefulness of old objects, which are liked by new _________ instead of ending up in landfills (垃圾填埋场). According to the statistics, second-hand donations _________ 90% of a charity shop’s product range. With people becoming more and more _________ of the benefits of a circular economy, the relevant language of charity shoppers has changed. Shoppers now speak of “pre-loved” or “vintage” goods _________ “second-hand” clothes.

In addition, the economic value of charity shops is increasing. There are currently over 11,000 charity shops in the U.K., _________ about 270 million a year for charity work. This means vital support for medical research, solving poverty, _________ child welfare, and so on.

Besides, these stores have many other benefits. From a(n) __________ perspective, charity shops keep goods in circulation which might otherwise be __________ reducing CO₂ emissions greatly. Besides, charity shops provide affordable goods, allowing people having lower __________ to enjoy high-quality goods.

If the donations __________ to flow, the shelves in charity shops will be packed with various wonderful items, providing a fantastic shopping experience.

I believe charity shops will be __________ worldwide soon. It’s hard for me to imagine a better choice than something that __________ saving waste with spending very little.

8 . Two new community initiatives offering the opportunity to borrow everything from sewing machines to party supplies are aiming to reduce waste and consumption.

Tools n Things Library in Leederville, Perth is a community library designed to allow community members to get access to the things they might need around the house instead of buying them in a hardware (五金店) store.

“That’s our philosophy — don’t buy, borrow. Many people buy things just for a small task at home, and then they won’t use them for a couple of years,” library volunteer Rex Breheny said.

The project is run by volunteers who founded it in 2019, and after an interruption in 2020 because of the pandemic (大流行病), it has now grown to several hundred members who can come and borrow things twice a week. In a way it is a return to an old tradition of neighbors borrowing each other’s tools and forming connections in the process.

Tools n Things Library is the first of its kind in Perth, and another called Share Shed has just started in Bassendean. Its co-founder Renee McLennan said they wanted to expand beyond tools to all sorts of things that people might use rarely, like camping equipment or entertaining needs.

“We’re doing the kind of equipment you’d use for a party. Instead of everybody buying disposable plates, and cups and things like that, we’ve got quality glasses and cutlery (餐具), as well as decorations that people can use for those events that they might have once a year,” she said.

The Share Shed is being considered as a way to tackle consumer culture. The world cannot continue to support our current level of resource consumption — at present overconsumption means that each year we consume 75 per cent more than the planet can regenerate.

“Borrowing items and shifting our thinking from an ownership to an access model helps to reduce the number of things that are produced and limits waste. At the same time, sharing the things that we use every now and then is a great way of connecting with people who live locally,” Bod Anderson, an officer in Perth said.

9 . When Alex Lin was 11 years old, he read an alarming article in the newspaper about e-waste. The article said that people were throwing away their e-waste in places it should never go. This was dangerous, the article said, because e-waste contains poisonous chemicals and metals like lead. These harmful substances (物质) can leak into the environment, getting into crops, animals, water supplies — and people.

Alex showed the article to a few of his classmates. They were worried too. But what could they do about this problem with e-waste? How would they even start? “The first thing we did,” Alex says, “was to learn more about the problem.” Alex and his friends spent several weeks gathering information about the chemicals in e-waste and their effects on humans. They learned how to dispose (处理) of e-waste properly and how it could be recycled. “Then,” he says, “we had to find out what the situation was in our town. So we sent out a survey.”

What they found shocked them: Of the people who answered the survey, only one in eight even knew what e-waste was, let alone how to properly dispose of it. Alex and his friends went into action. They advertised in the local newspaper and distributed notices to students, asking residents to bring their unwanted electronics to the school parking lot. The drive lasted two days, and they collected over 21,000 pounds of e-waste.

The next step was to set up an e-waste drop-off center for the town and to find a responsible company to recycle the waste. That was when Alex and his friends learned another scary fact about e-waste — some irresponsible recycling companies don’t break down the e-waste and dispose of it safely themselves. Instead, they ship it overseas to countries such as China and Nigeria, where local environmental laws are not applied. “We checked carefully online to make sure the company we chose didn’t do this,” Alex says.

Because of the work of people like Alex and his team, more and more people are getting the message about safe disposal of e-waste. As Alex says, “Today’s technology should not become tomorrow’s poisonous trash.”

10 . Recent research confirms what our farming ancestors have known for centuries about hedges (树篱). They conserve precious soil by acting as windbreaks and absorbing rainwater that would otherwise wash it from the fields. And hedges store carbon, putting them in the front line of our bi d to tackle the climate crisis.

However, hedges have had a tough time in the poor countryside, with farmers encouraged to tear them down in pursuit of maximum production and larger field s to accommodate ever-larger machinery. What’s more, some hedges have been ignored. If left to their own devices, they’ll eventually become a line of trees. Some hedges each year lose their structures and fail to fulfil the primary duty as a barrier. Around a half of the nation’s hedges have disappeared in the past century.

There are signs that “the tide is turning”. The search for net zero has aroused many organizations’ interest in the humble hedge’s role as a carbon sink. The Climate Change Committee is recommending a 40 percent increase in hedges: an additional 200,000 km. Such recommendations are starting to drive policy. Cash-pressed farmers will be encouraged to create new hedges and improve their management of existing ones under the new Environmental Land Management Schemes, which will replace many of the existing agricultural support payments in coming years. Meanwhile, initiatives such as Close the Gap, led by the Tree Council, is providing funding and support to plug the gaps in existing hedges with new planting. There’s even an app to help time-pressed farmers do a quick survey to spot where their hedges need some help.

This is a good time for hedges. Take some of the most pressing challenges facing the countryside, and indeed, the world as a whole — the climate crisis, soil erosion (侵蚀), insect attack and wider biodiversity loss — and hedges are part of the solution.