1 . Traditionally, profiting from forests often meant capitalizing on timber (木材)——choosing commercial timber. Yet increasingly, there is an understanding that it’s of greater significance to keep trees standing than cut them down for financial profit. Money is not everything. We have to recognize real and lasting value is from natural resources. But money is a fact of life.

Good news is that we can expect entire natural woodland is left undamaged and still provides a revenue (收益) stream. Leaving woodland complete does not necessarily mean that we do not touch it at all. Conservation work may involve building back biodiversity or the removal of foreign plant species.

A healthy woodland system can provide a range of yields (产物). Besides eatable yields——top fruit, berries, and food crops, it produces substances for chemical use. The non-timber forest products provided by natural ecosystems will vary significantly depending on where they are. But there’re almost always ways to explore to acquire revenue.

A project in the U.K. shows woodland is also a draw for visitors. It engages a community who creates a sustainable area of woodland. The sale of handmade wooden items and non-timber forest products is involved. But the community largely obtains revenue by opening up parts of the natural woodland to the public with an adventure playground and outdoor recreational activities on the site. It also offers courses on nest building, special wildlife events and more. The project is thought to have great uniqueness. In terms of revenue, it centers round the existing natural land; the yields woodland can provide become side products.

Recreational activities, tours, and classes are just the commencement. A rich and biodiverse woodland can be an ecosystem that draws in people looking for a beautiful place to stay. Woodland has great value in ecological and social terms. And when you nurse it, it could also add to the income from your land.

2 . What do the following animals have in common? Pandas, rhinoceros, Mexican burrowing snakes, pink pigeons and small tooth sawfish.

They are all endangered animals! Animals become endangered for a variety of reasons. Sadly, humans are behind every one of them!

For centuries, humans have hunted elephants for their tusks, and killed tigers for their beautiful fur, caught fish for food. While we still have elephants, tigers, and fish in the wild, we cannot say the same about many others that have simply died out!

Year 1505 was a dreadful turning point in the natural history of the island of Mauritius — European sailors discovered this beautiful island in the Indian Ocean and brought dogs, pigs, monkeys with them. The arrival of humans and those introduced animal species were bad news for dodo birds. About 50 pounds and flightless, dodo birds did not have any natural enemies until then. They picked fruit fallen from trees and built their nests on the ground. Shortly after humans set foot on Mauritius, however, dodo birds realized that they were in big trouble — men killed them for their meat, and those introduced animal species destroyed their nests and ate their eggs. The effects of excessive hunting and foreign species drove dodo birds to first become much fewer and then die out. The last dodo bird was killed in 1681.

Humans and animals have always competed for land and other natural resources. We clear an area of a forest for farming. We cut down trees and use wood to build beautiful houses. We build reservoirs to make sure that we have enough water to use. At the same time that we are trying to make our life comfortable, we destroy the habitats of wild animals.

More than once we have seen on television that rescue workers are trying their best to save seabirds in spilled oil. More than once we have heard about how emissions of carbon dioxide (二氧化碳的排放) and other gases have raised the earth's temperature and caused global warming. Pollution has a serious and long lasting effect. If we choose to do nothing and continue to pollute our planet Earth, our next generations will have to face an Earth without birds singing and beasts roaring.

3 . The day had started out as usual for Mrs. Ito until the late afternoon when the news of destructive tsunami came over the radio.

Mrs. Ito felt ______ in her house. Her small home was built on the property that ______ escaped the terrible 1946 wave that destroyed Hilo. Many lost their lives, then. But the waves did not reach her home.

At last, 12:30a.m. came as the radio warning had said but ______ happened. Passers-by said that the tsunami must have ______the islands. Mrs. Ito went into her room and looked down the street. It was ______. Suddenly, a flash- like lighting lit the sky. The first wave of the tsunami burst Hilo’s electric power plant, and all the lights______.

______she knew it, the wave roared into her house. She was ______to the floor as her house begun to spin and finally tore apart.______, Mrs. Ito grasped for anything to stay above water when the floorboards opened up and she became______in what used to be her home. She struggled out of the boards and______to squeeze free. Then she blacked out.

When she woke up, she______herself floating on something in the water. There she was, a 62- year- old widow who couldn’t swim, hung on______to her tiny makeshift raft. At sunrise, she______two boats on the horizon. But it was too far away. She thought that ______was just a matter of time. But anyhow, Mrs. Ito was finally seen and saved.

Christine Figgener could never have predicted that     1     eight-minute video would change the course of her career. But in August 2015, the 34-year-old marine(海洋的)conservation biologist discovered a sea turtle in Costa Rica with a plastic straw(吸管)    2     (stick) in its nose .Shocked and angry at the extreme     3     ( comfort ) to the creature , Figgener filmed her research crew removing the straw     4     the turtle’ s nose , blood coming from it .

The heart-breaking video has been viewed more than 32 million    5     (time) on YouTube. “ I thought I can really show what kind of harm one object can do ,” Figgener says .

Americans alone use as many as 390 million plastic straws a day---just a small proportion (比例) of the 8 million metric tons of plastic    6     ends up in the ocean annually . Though Figgener’s video was filmed in 2015, it continues to make waves. In July it    7     (credit) with helping encourage major companies like Starbucks and American Airlines to stop     8     (use) plastic straws . “We can all do something,” Figgener says.

Figgener also spends her time visiting schools    9     (educate) younger generations about the ocean,     10     (sincere) hoping to show children that they can be a scientist too , no matter who they are.

8 . The tradition of giving gifts didn’t start with the modern holidays we celebrate. Many ancient cultures celebrated holidays with the exchange of gifts. People who love to give gifts often can’t wait until it’s time for the recipients to open their gifts. If you’ve ever been given a gift, you know that part of the fun is the curiosity that builds as you wonder what the gift is.

The wish to hide the identity of a gift until just the right moment led people to wrap gifts long, long ago. Historians believed wrapping gifts in paper probably started not long after paper was invented thousands of years ago.

Wrapping paper like what we use today, though, is a much more recent invention. More than 100 years ago, gifts were usually wrapped in heavy brown paper. Before that, cloth was often used. The technology to mass-produce wrapping paper didn’t come along until the early 1900s. The first American gift wrap company— Hy-Sill Manufacturing Inc. — was founded by Eli Hyman and Morris Silverman in 1903. It wasn’t as easy to wrap presents back then as it is today, though, because adhesive tape (胶带) wasn’t invented until 1930.

Over the years, wrapping paper has developed into what we see in stores each holiday season. But scientists say that the United States alone produces an extra 5 million tons of waste over the holidays, most of which is from wrapping paper and shopping bags. To cut down on this waste, some people carefully unwrap presents, so that the wrapping paper can be reused. Others have started to use reusable gift bags instead of wrapping paper.

9 . The desire for ivory products causes the killing of an elephant, but as their populations continue to fall, the hungry black market has become creative to satisfy its greed. Now, ivory hunters are setting their sights on everything. One victim of this cruel practice is the hippopotamus(河马). A new study says that arise in demand for hippopotamus’s teeth is threatening them with extinction.

In many ways, it takes a lot of effort to kill an elephant. They are legally well protected in most countries where they range and international regulations are clear. Also, smuggling(走私)large pieces of ivory internationally is easily noticed. Hippos offer a cheaper and easier ivory option. The simple truth is that they are not high on the priority list of the international conservation community. A group of wild-living African elephants will either be tracked with radio collars(项圈) or will be the focus of long-term conservation research, ecotourism or law-enforcement efforts. Not so with hippos. Unlike their famous cousins, they don’t come with a protective environment, meaning hunters can take their time.

Most elephant populations are listed under the highest level (Appendix I) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, but hippos are listed under Appendix Ⅱ of it, meaning some trade impossible. We have created a situation where some hippos can be shot, but we have few effective ways to regulate the trade, leaving it wide open to abuse.

Having lived in Africa and worked in frontline conservation, I have seen the first-hand that in the name of art, no ivory-bearing animal is safe. I have heard the stories and seen the bodies of hippos killed by machine-gun fire, mouths open, bloody and toothless. People are working to stop this and many wildlife authorities do what they can, but until there is a real change in the demand for ivory, the hippo has joined the elephant in being in desperate need of our help.

10 . In 2002, Huang Hui, a researcher of the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, went diving near Xisha. In addition to getting an irremovable suntan (晒黑), she was left with memories of a beautiful experience with clear water and abundant colorful corals (珊瑚). However, much of the breathtaking scenery of this reef has disappeared due to climate change and human activities. All of these factors led to the decline of the coral reef in the near shore waters. “We started to cultivate corals near the Xisha Islands in 2010, and restored more than 200,000 square meters of coral reefs,” Huang said.

In 2004, when Huang was attending the 10th International Coral Reef Symposium, she found herself the only representative from the Chinese mainland. She said she felt sad but she made up her mind to strengthen communication with other countries to improve China’s level and status in coral research. She visited top coral research institutes in the US and Australia, establishing long-term cooperation with some of the world’s top coral researchers. By far, Huang has worked on coral research and protection for 22 years. Now, China is in a leading position in terms of technology and coral planting scale.

Huang believes that people’s consciousness of coral protection matters most to the sustainable development of the coral reefs. “I want to call on more people to love nature and look at the ocean in awe,” Huang said.

Partly due to her efforts, Hainan Province released a law in 2017 banning reef exploitation (开发), trading and damaging.

Huang works as a consultant for customs and frontier police on coral protection and promotes coral protection in her local schools. Huang also provides online free training for divers to teach them proper behavior in the sea to protect coral reefs.

“A group of ‘folk scientists’ have also been trained with the hope that more people can gain awareness of the significance of coral reef protection and know how to protect them,” said Huang.

“I am 50, and when I become 60, I hope that not only a coral island will be built but a sustainable development pattern will also be created,” said Huang. “The ideal state is that the coral island should be able to support fishermen and preserve the ecosystem,” she added.