The Palace Museum is becoming waste-free as the 720,000-square-meter structure has managed     1     (reduce) the number of rubbish bins to 110 sets in areas open to the public. This is a decrease from 310 sets     2     (record) in January 2020, when a zero-waste campaign     3     (launch), said the museum.

While protecting features of the six-century-old historical relic, the action also helps visitors and tourists get into     4     habit of creating less waste. Up to now, four types of rubbish bins have been equipped following Beijing’s regulations on the management of household waste. Cleaning staff also check them to make sure all rubbish is     5     (correct) sorted, which is later transported to different destinations for disposal (处理). The museum also recycled more than 32,000 plastic     6     (bottle) to make cultural and creative products between June 2021 and October 2023,     7     (mean) a reduction in carbon emission by 931 kilograms.

By launching the campaign, the Palace Museum is taking a careful, science-based way to waste management. The target is to minimize the production of waste     8     needs to be buried or burned and bring the amount of such waste as close     9     zero as possible.

So far, about 3,000 museum staff members, 40,000 tourist guides, and 21 million visitors     10     (participate) in the campaign.

2 . Where did the idea of “white bikes” come from? In the 1960s, a group of cycling fans came up with an idea. They believed that it would be better for everybody if cars weren’t allowed in the city centre and only bicycles were. They were hopeful that this would help to save energy, reduce pollution and provide free public transport. The group painted hundreds of bicycles white and placed them in many areas around Amsterdam for people to use. Anyone was allowed to take them and use them for short journeys. People would leave the bike in the place where they finished their journey, so that someone else could then take it and use it from there. Soon after, however, problems came up and the “white bikes” all disappeared — thieves stole them all in a matter of weeks!

3 . Hurricane season can be wild and unpredictable.    1     Here are some ways you can beef up(增加) your home security in hurricane weather, even if you need to move out.

    2    That actually does nothing to ensure your safety in the powerful winds. Sticking to hurricane shelters or plywood(胶合板) is the only way to go when it comes to protecting those points of entry in hurricane conditions. Buy sheets of plywood, measure your windows and use brackets(支架) to hold the plywood in place.

Sandbags are very useful. While sandbags won’t be able to help in the extreme storm, many people will be able to prevent flooding and extensive damage to their belongings by placing sandbags.    3    Any storm water that is kept out of your home is storm water that won’t be able to damage the belongings inside your home, so sandbags are well worth having at your doorways during a hurricane.

It important to prepare the inside of your home for strong winds and rain. But you should also keep an eye on the outside of your house, too. Trim(修剪) trees, especially dead branches, to prevent anything else that could fly through a window and cause damage during a hurricane.    4    

You should also take pictures of expensive items like electronics and keep notes of their serial numbers.    5    Also, there are always bad people outright after a storm. If the worst happens and your home is broken into right after a bad storm, having pictures and detailed notes about what was in your home prior to the hurricane will make it easier for police to track down stolen items.

Japan said     1     Tuesday that it had decided to     2     (gradual) release tons of treated wastewater from the ruined Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant (福岛第一核电站) into the ocean,     3     (describe) it as the best solution for dealing with the leftovers (残留物) from the Fukushima nuclear accident, one of the     4     (serious) in the world.

The decision ends years of debate over how to deal with the water,     5     is enough to fill more than 500. Olympic-sized swimming pools. “The Japanese government ignores concerns and strong opposition     6     at home and abroad. Such     7     irresponsible act not only directly harms the interests of the people in Japan’s neighboring countries,     8     threatens the global marine environment and international public health     9     (secure),” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said,

Greenpeace criticized Japan’s plan and said there are other solutions that should     10     (consider). “Rather than using the best available technology to store and process the water over the long term, they have chosen the cheapest solution, dumping the water into the Pacific Ocean.” the group said.

5 . Earth is experiencing its sixth mass extinction: somewhere between 30 and 159 species disappear every day, and more than 300 types of animals have died out since 1500. This is not good for the future of life on our planet, but what if we could make some of the extinct species come back to life? Thanks to ongoing advances in DNA recovery and cloning technology, de-extinction may soon be realized, and we may see Tasmanian Tigers, or Dodo Birds back into existence in the near future.

Some scientists are confident and optimistic about de-extinction. They think that the best reasons for de-extinction have more to do with ecology than tourism. “If this is always going to be a zoo animal, then stop,” says Ben Novak, the lead researcher at Revive & Restore—a foundation devoted to rescuing endangered and extinct species in San Francisco, California. “The goals have to be about ecological restoration and function.”

Take passenger pigeons for example. Their numbers reached nearly 5 billion at the start of the 19th century, and they played an important role in shaping the forests they inhabited(居住). After their extinction, the forests have never been the same. “The passenger pigeon is a very important ecological species if we want their original habitat back.” Novak says.

However, we need to think twice about Novak’s idea. Any new scientific initiative is bound to have risks, so is de-extinction. Although some assume that de-extinction may help the environment, we can’t be so sure. The de-extinct animals would now be strangers to their habitats. As the habitat is no longer what it was, the species role within the ecosystem may have also changed. This could be actually a threat to the other species within the environment as the de-extinct animals enter the area and compete for food sources. Once again we’re trying to force nature to act in a certain way, rather than letting it remain natural.

Many scientists also believe that priorities(优先权) would change within the conservation of currently endangered species. Would we still put in the effort to preserve living animals if we knew we could just magically bring them back from the dead? Douglas McCauley, an ecologist at University of California, Santa Barbara, stresses this worry. “Honestly, the thing that scares me most is that the public absorbs the misimpression that extinction is no longer scary. The general attitude becomes: Deforest, no worry, we can reforest. If we drive something extinct, no worry, we can de-extinct it.” said McCauley.

It seems that with the subject of de-extinction, we must look at our reasons for doing such a thing. Yes, we may, in the near future, be able to de-extinct the extinct species. But does that mean we should? Are the risks really worth it? Does it make sense to focus on the dead than the living? And who are we truly benefiting in the end?