1 . The newly-elected president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro says that his country should withdraw (退出) from the 2015 Paris Agreement, and that Brazil’s rainforest protections are standing in the way of economic success. During the election campaign, he promised to ease protections for areas of the Brazilian Amazon set aside for native people and wildlife. Are Brazil’s rainforests in danger?

The Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, is called “the lungs of the planet.” Each tree takes in and stores carbon dioxide from the air around it. Billions of trees pull up water through their roots and release water vapor into the air, forming tiny drops of water. The Amazon creates 30 to 50 percent of its own rainfall. Carlos Nobre, a climate scientist, says that it is almost impossible to say Just how important the rainforest is to the planet’s living systems.

Some of Bolsonaro’s support comes from business and farming groups. One supporter, Luiz Carlos, noted that farmers “are not invaders, they are producers.” He blamed the past government for supporting rainforest protections at the cost of farmers. “Brazil,” he said, “will be the biggest farming nation on Earth during Bolsonaro’s years.”

Paulo Artaxo, a professor of environmental physics at the University of Sao Paulo, says that if Bolsonaro keeps his campaign promises, then “deforestation of the Amazon will probably increase quickly — and the effects will be felt everywhere on the planet.”

Other scientists warn that if the Amazon and other tropical rainforests lose too many trees, this could affect rainfall in other areas. Without enough trees to support the rainfall, the longer and bigger dry season could turn more than half of the rainforest into a tropical grassland.

3 . Stages of Hurricane: Simple Storms Grow Into Giants

A storm progresses through four different stages before it is actually considered a hurricane. First is a tropical disturbance (热带扰动), which has thunderstorms and rotating winds. Next is a tropical depression (热带低压), which is similar to a tropical disturbance, but has winds between 23 and 39 miles per hour. A tropical storm is the next level, which has stronger wind speeds between 40 and 73 miles per hour. Once winds reach 74 miles per hour the storm is officially called a hurricane. The wind picks up energy from the warm surface of ocean water.

As a hurricane crosses over land, it begins to become weaker or break apart and reduce in strength. This is because it is no longer over the warm ocean water that it needs for energy. At this point, a hurricane can still cause a lot of damage because of high winds, rain, and flooding. But unless it makes its way back over the open ocean, it is downgraded from a hurricane back to a tropical storm.

What's Your Name, Hurricane? Hurricanes and tropical storms are given names to help people recognize them. Scientists refer to hurricanes and storms by name as they track them across the ocean.

Before 1953, hurricanes were not given official names. From 1953 through 1978, hurricanes were only given female names, like Isabel, Camille, Claudette, and Wilma. Beginning in 1979, hurricanes were given the names of both women and men. Today, the names alternate male and female, and they are named in order of letters.

For example, in 2010, storms were named as follows: Alex (male), Bonnie (female), Colin(male), Danielle (female), Earl (male) and so on....

There are six different lists of names that change, so the same names are used every six years. The only way that a new name is added is when a hurricane has been particularly deadly or costly and the name is retired, then replaced with a new one.

When I was a child, I hoped to live in the city because I think I would be happy there. Now I am living in a city, but I miss my home in countryside. There the air is clean or the mountains are green. Unfortunately, on the development of industrialization, the environment has been polluted. Lots of studies have been shown that global warming has already become a very seriously problem. The airs around us is getting dirtier and dirtier. Much rare animals are dying out. We must found ways to protect your environment. If we fail to do so, we will regret it.

6 . In an effort to fight the “throw-away culture” and promote reuse and repair, the city of Berlin has taken the unique step of opening its own secondhand department store.

This isn’t your grandma’s thrift shop (旧货商店). It resells perfectly good items that would otherwise be thrown away. A pun on the German words for “department store” and “conserving house”, B-Wa(h)renhaus sells a wide variety of products. Far from simply selling old items, the electronic goods have been fixed by expert technicians and come with a year’s guarantee. And, to reach more secondhand shoppers, the store was set up right in the middle of the famous Karstadt department store.

With the success of its initial six-month trial run, the city plans to open four more similar operations in other parts of Berlin. By 2030, it hopes to have at least one location in each of Berlin’s 12 districts. Since 2008, city policies and educational campaigns have reduced average annual household waste by about 25 pounds per resident. It also recycles about 49% of its mineral construction waste. Currently, the city estimates that 8% of abandoned electronic goods and 6% of huge items thrown away can actually be reused. The goal is to expand the market for these items beyond the usual bargain hunters and eco-conscious consumers.

“Three years ago, we started collecting all kinds of used goods,” city spokesperson Dorothee Winden said. “There are lots of things that are well-preserved and functioning but aren’t being used anymore. The goal is to give these things a new life with somebody who can use them.” The store also includes an education center to encourage more sustainable lifestyles — and also gave an award to a project that recycles school uniforms, so that parents don’t have to buy new ones every year.

7 . After an earthquake most survivors can be expected to recover over time, particularly with the support of family and friends. Some families will be able to return to their normal life quickly, while others will have to contend with the destruction of their homes, medical problems, and injury to family members. Children especially will need time to recover from the loss of a loved one or a pet or from the closing down of their school.

Children often turn to adults for information, comfort and help. Parents should try to remain calm, answer children’s questions honestly and remain understanding when they see changes in their children’s behavior.

Children react differently to an earthquake depending on their ages, developmental levels and former experiences. Some will respond by withdrawing (不与人交往), while others will have angry outbursts (爆发). Parents should remain sensitive to each child’s reactions. Parents should spend time talking to their children，letting them know that it’s OK to ask questions and to share their worries. Although it may be hard to find time to have these talks, parents can use regular family mealtimes or bedtimes for them. They should answer questions briefly and honestly and be sure to ask their children for their opinions and ideas. Issues may come up more than once and parents should remain patient when you answer the questions again. For young children, parents, after talking about the earthquake, might read a favorite story or have a relaxing family activity to help them calm down. Parents should also tell children they are safe and spend extra time with them. They could play games outside or read together indoors. Most importantly, be sure to tell them you love them.

8 . Clothing rental is a hot new industry and retailers (零售商) are demanding to get on board in hopes of attracting green shopper.

But is renting fashion actually more environmentally-friendly than buying it, and if so, how much more? Journalist and author Elizabeth Cline investigated (调查) this question and concluded that it's not as sustainable as it seems.

Take shipping, for example, which has to go two ways if an item is rented — receiving and returning. Cline writes that consumer transportation has the second largest carbon footprint of our collective fashion habit after manufacturing.

She writes, ''An item ordered online and then returned can send out 20 kilograms of carbon each way, and increases up to 50 kilograms for rush shipping. By comparison, the carbon impact of a pair of jeans purchased from a physical store and washed and worn at home is 33.4 kilograms, according to a 2015 study by Levi's.''

Then there's the burden of washing, which has to happen for every item when it's returned, regardless of whether or not it was worn. For most rental services, this usually means dry cleaning, a high impact and polluting process. All the rental services that Cline looked into have replaced perchloroethylene (氯乙烯), a carcinogenic (致癌的) air pollutant, still used by 70 percent of US dry cleaners, with alternatives, although these aren't great either.

Lastly, Cline fears that rental services will increase our appetite for fast fashion, simply because it's so easily accessible. There's something called ''share washing'' that makes people waste more precisely because a product or service is shared and thus is regarded as more eco-friendly. Uber is one example of this, advertised as ''a way to share rides and limit ear ownership.'' and yet ''it has been proven to discourage walking,bicycling, and public transportation use.''

Renting clothes is still preferable to buying them cheap and throwing them in the dustbin after a few wears, but we shouldn't let the availability of these services make us too satisfied. There's an even better step — that's wearing what is already in the closet.

9 . Greening the Kubuqi Desert

China has seen great achievements in improving the environment and green development over the past 70 years. Solid efforts have been made to fight pollution and continuously improve the environment.

    1     It caused deadly sandstorms, which arrived like big black walls reaching up into the sky.

As President Xi Jinping has said, clear waters and green mountains are invaluable assets（资产）.     2    

A series of campaigns have been carried out by the central government to improve the environment.     3     Thanks to the program, forest coverage in China had increased from 12 percent in the 1980s to nearly 23 percent last year.

    4     It has been recognized by the UN for the development of a desert eco-industry that has slowed desertification（沙漠化）.

In Kubuqi, a desert in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Elion has greened 600,000 hectares of land and helped lift more than 102,000 people out of poverty through the development of solar energy and tourism, as well as planting herbs for traditional Chinese medicine.

In addition, the group’s techniques have also been used in many ecological（生态的）programs, including Yangtze River Ecological Park and Qilian Mountain National Park.

“    5     With the help of modern technologies, such as drones, AI, big data and the internet of things, we are sure to achieve greater success,” said Ao Baoping, chief executive officer of Elion Green Land Technology.

10 . Let's take a minute to think about the water we use. The human body is 60% water and we need to drink lots of water to be healthy. When we are thirsty we just go to the kitchen and fill a glass with clean water.

    1    For example, farmers, who produce the food we eat, use water to make the plants grow. When we turn on a light or switch on a TV or a computer we use energy and we need water to produce this energy.

The truth is that we are lucky enough to have clean water whenever we want，but this is not the case for many people around the world.    2    That's around one in 10 people in the world. If we drink dirty water，we can catch diseases from the bacteria and become ill. Every year over 500，000 children die from diarrhea(腹泻)from dirty water. That's around 1，400 children every day！Also，in some countries children walk many kilometres every day to get water.    3    Therefore，they don't have time to learn how to read or write and don't get an education.

    4    On this day every year，countries around the world hold events to educate people about the problems of dirty water and that clean water is something that everyone should have around the world. At one school in the UK，children between the ages of 10 and 15 walk 6km with six litres of water.    5    People give them money to do this and all the money helps get clean water to as many people as possible around the world.