1 . On November 7, Lewis Pugh completed a one-kilometer swim in the freezing waters of King Edward Cove, off South Georgia in Antarctica. He was wearing only his swimming glasses, cap and Speedos!

Pugh is an advocate for our oceans and seas, working to protect these ecosystems with their large diversity of marine (海洋的) life. When asked why he doesn’t wear a wetsuit (防寒泳衣), Lewis says, “I ask world leaders to do everything they can to protect our oceans. Sometimes the steps they need to take are difficult and unpopular. If I’m asking them to be courageous, I must also be. Swimming in a wetsuit would not send the right message.”

It took Pugh about 19 minutes to complete the one-kilometer swim in Antarctica where the water averaged about 1. 6℃. He says that his body can only tolerate about 20 minutes in the freezing waters before it starts shutting down. As he swims, his body temperature steadily drops, which in turn causes his muscle control to drop, slowing him down. When he is done with his swim, his support team rushes him to a hot shower and it takes almost an hour for his body temperature to return to normal.

Doctors and Pugh caution that one must receive months of training to swim in such cold waters. Even expert swimmers who are unused to freezing water can drown within minutes because of the physical shock experienced by the body. Pugh says he trained for six months before this swim.

This is not the first time that Lewis has swum in dangerous conditions. In 2007, he swam one kilometer in the North Pole to draw attention to the melting Arctic ice due to climate change. In 2015, he swam in the Bay of Whales in Antarctica’s Ross Sea as part of his successful campaign to help set up a marine reserve there.

4 . China is showing the world its great resolve in the global climate campaign with concrete and self­motivated efforts as well as serious commitment.

At the opening ceremony of the Paris climate summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping restated China’s plan made in June to cut its carbon emissions( 排放)per unit of GDP by 60­65 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, and increase non­fossil fuel sources in primary energy consumption to about 20 percent.

With a large population, China is facing increasing resource limits, severe environmental pollution and a worsening ecosystem, and its citizens are also becoming increasingly aware of environmental problems. Suffering environmental problems and seeing the efforts as important to transforming its economic growth pattern, the country has much at risk if climate change is left unattended.

Actually, climate change efforts are already included in China’s medium­and long­term program of economic and social development, and ecological efforts are the clear characteristics in China’s 13th Five­Year Plan(2016­2020)．

Although it is and will be a developing country for a long time to come, China has been actively involved in the global campaign against climate change, now topping the world in terms of energy conservation and use of new and renewable energies.

However, China’s development rights need to be respected. It is unfair to overstress China’s status as one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters and regard it as the major part of responsibilities in the global fight against climate change.

It is worthy of notice that China’s emissions of greenhouse gases per person are far lower than those of developed countries, especially the United States, although rapid economic expansion and its population base have made it one of the biggest producers of the gases.

To show its great resolve, Beijing in September also announced the establishment of an independent South­South cooperation fund of ￥20 billion to help developing countries affected by global warming.

While China is eagerly accomplishing its policy commitments, developed countries should stop questioning China’s commitment to fighting climate change and pointing fingers, and start shouldering their due responsibilities instead.

5 . Earthquakes are something that people fear. There are some places that have few or earthquakes. Most places in the world, however, have them regularly. Countries that have a of earthquakes are usually quite mountainous.

The most-talked-about earthquake in the United States was in San Francisco in 1906.Over 700 people died in it. The strongest one in North America was in 1964. It happened in Alaska.

Strong earthquakes are not always the ones that kill the most people. In 1755, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded was felt in Portugal. Around 2,000 people died. In 1923, a very strong earthquake hit Tokyo, Yokohama area of Japan. 140,000 people died. Most of them died in fires which followed the earthquake.

One of the worst earthquakes ever was in China in 1976. It killed a large number of people. The worst earthquake ever reported was also in China, in which 830, 000 people were killed. This earthquake happened in 1556.

Earthquakes worry people a lot. The reason is that we often do not know when they are coming. People cannot prepare for them beforehand.

8 . I shall never forget the day when the earthquake took place. The time was 5:15 in the afternoon and I was driving along the road to _________my daughter from school to swim. I had finished work at about 4 o’clock and then stopped off at a shop to get some _________ to eat after our swim.

I was driving along a high road on my way to the school. Over my road was another road for cars coming to the other way. I was _________so I put the bag of apples on the seat beside me and started to eat one.

Suddenly I saw the cars in front of me start to move from side to side. Then my car started to _________!I didn’t know what was happening.

Perhaps _________ had gone wrong with my car. I drove even slower. Then the road above started to fall down. I _________the car and at the same moment the road fell onto the cars in front of me.

I found myself in the _________. I could see nothing. The bottom parts of both my legs and my feet were _________badly and I couldn’t move them. Below me I could hear _________and a lot of noise. Then I remembered what had happened. I had been in a(n) __________.

For about two hours nobody came. __________ I could reach the bag of apples, so at least I had plenty to eat. Then I __________someone climbing towards me. I __________“I’m here!” “How are you doing?” he asked. “Not too bad,” I said, “but my feet and legs feel __________they’re broken.”

“We’ll have you out of there just as soon as we can,” he said.

They didn’t get me out __________ the next morning. I had been in my car for fourteen hours.

9 . Earthquakes are something that people fear. There are some places that have few or no earthquakes. Most places in the world, however, have them regularly (有规律的). Countries that have a lot of earthquakes are usually quite mountainous (多山的).   

The most talked about earthquake in the United States was in San Francisco in 1906. Over 700 people died in it. The strongest one in North America was in 1964. It happened in Alaska.   

Strong earthquakes are not always the ones that kill the most people. In 1755, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded was felt in Portugal. Around 2,000 people died.   

In 1923, a very strong earthquake hit the Tokyo, Yokohama area of Japan. A hundred and forty thousand people died. Most of them died in fires which followed the earthquake.   

One of the worst earthquakes ever was in China in 1976. It killed a large number of people. The worst earthquake ever reported was also in China, in which 400,000 people were killed or injured. This earthquake happened in 1556.   

Earthquakes worry people a lot. The reason is that we often do not know when they are coming. People can not prepare for it.

Litter is everywhere, doing great harm to the environment and life on our planet. Jeff Kirschner, who wants to build a litter-free world, started a global community named Litterati     1     (settle) this problem.

The story began with his 6-year-old daughter. One day they were going on a hike     2     the girl noticed a broken plastic tub in a river. She said, “Daddy, that doesn’t go there.” That took Kirschner by surprise. He, like many adults, bad become so used to the rubbish around them that he hadn’t given it     3     second look.     4     his daughter said reminded him of the serious problem our planet faces.

Jeff started to take action. He created Litterati, an app that makes it fun to pick up litter. The idea is     5     (fair) simple: Spot a piece of trash, take a photo, post the photo online and then put the litter into dustbins.

    6     that Jeff was keeping a record of the positive impact he was having     7     the environment, people worldwide started participating in it. Up to now, over 2,500,000 photos posted by 3,500 people from over 40 countries     8     their way to Litterati’s digital landfill.

Litterati is more than an app,     9     is a highly effective solution to a pressing issue. Wherever you live, whatever you do and whoever you are, join Litterati to make the world a cleaner and     10     (health) place to live in!