1 . You are sitting in a restaurant and a server brings over a glass of water and drops a plastic straw (吸管) next to the glass. Any idea how many plastic straws are thrown away in the US everyday? Around 500 million! Plastic straws were the seventh most common type of litter found during beach cleanups this year! Last year, a diver diving in Australia collected 319 plastic straws in just 20 minutes. The next day, she returned to the same location and found another 294 straws.

Very few single-use plastic straws are recycled. They break down into tiny bits of plastic, and are eaten by sea life. Luckily, thousands of people have gotten involved (参与) with the cause, including kids!

In 2011, 9-year-old Milo Cress made an interesting observation after ordering a drink of juice in a restaurant, “I noticed the servers automatically placed a plastic straw by my drink.” Milo thought this was a real waste and thought there had to be something he could do about it. Milo talked with plastic producers to get an estimate of just how many straws we use. He learned that 500 million plastic straws are used every day! This inspired him to start a project called Be Straw Free. Milo encouraged restaurants not to hand straws out so freely. “Actually,” remembers Milo, “businesses liked the idea as it would save them money.”

Milo was one of many kids to become involved with the cause. Earlier this year, a group of third-and-fourth-graders from Seattle, Washington, spoke with local lawmakers about the harm plastic straws have on sea life and our environment. The group, calling themselves the Straw Kids, would like cities to ban their use, and would like other kids to rethink the use of single-use plastic straws. Megan O’Reilly, 9, says, “We are making a website, strawkids.org, which will help us get the word out that plastic straws are bad, and help us get more supporters.”

3 . The aftermath (后果) of an earthquake can be horrible, but it is important that you are attentive and focused after an earthquake happens. Fires, gas leaks, and injuries are all dangers you might face after an earthquake.     1     By assessing the safety of your location and following the directions of local authorities, your chances of surviving the aftermath of an earthquake will be much higher.

Check yourself for injuries.     2     If you’re bleeding, lift your injury up and put pressure on it. If your injury is serious, call for help using a cellphone or try to get rescuers’ attention.

    3     Use a cellphone to call for help if you have one. If you can’t use a phone, try knocking loudly on something nearby until rescuers find you.

Aftershocks are smaller earthquakes which follow the main shock of an earthquake.     4     So you should prepare to move to a safe location, like an open outdoor space or a structurally sound building.

Exit the building and go to a safer place once the shaking has stopped. The structure of the building you’re in may have been weakened by the main earthquake.     5    

4 . Margot doesn’t have a garbage can. It doesn’t need one because Margot simply doesn’t cause anything to get thrown away. The restaurant doesn’t allow any type of single use plastic. Margot, which opened last year, is one of the small but growing restaurants around the world aiming to avoid not only food leftovers, but also any garbage.

“Food waste has been increasing as an issue for restaurants over the last 10 years,” says Calvin Brown. He runs the Sustainable Restaurant Association. Based in the United Kingdom, the organization helps food business become more environmentally responsible. He says that food waste contributes to releasing the greenhouse gas, so there is strong motivation to reduce waste and help the environment.

In the USA, food waste and packing account for nearly half of the material sent to landfills. Restaurants from McDonald’s to Starbucks are addressing this issue with “no straw Mondays” and limits on single-serving plastic, but a handful of restaurateurs are trying to get rid of rubbish entirely. There’s also economic case to be made for waste reduction. One study shows that restaurants save seven dollars for every dollar invested in anti- waste methods.

Avoiding food waste is the first and perhaps most obvious challenge for sustainable restaurants. Doug McMaster, chef at Silo in London, only serves a set menu. This removes the worry that one particular item won’t sell well, and will spoil in the refrigerator. Compost (堆肥) is a necessity as well. Nolla (meaning “zero” in Finnish) in Helsinki, Finland is giving compost to its suppliers as well as its diners. Nolla also has food- tracking software more commonly used among corporate food service companies to keep track of what sells and what rots.

Sometimes restaurants call themselves environmentally friendly, but they might just be using the label. Calvin offers some pointers on what to look for to make sure a restaurant is truly committed to sustainability.

Forests, which cover nearly one-third of the world’s land area, are a vital and    1    (price) gift from nature to humanity. Forests have been regarded as a limitless source of many different types of raw materials since ancient times. From food to cooking wood, from clothing to housing, the forests benefit us directly or indirectly in every way.

In the early 1990s,    2    (approximate) 17% of India’s land area    3    (consider) forest land. However, in 1987, the actual forest cover was 64 million hectares (公顷). In the 1980s, the growing population,    4    is in high demand for forest resources, fueled the destruction of forests. Every year, the topsoil    5    (lose) in forest is estimated (估计) to reach six billion tons.

People have become more interested in    6    (conserve) since they realized deforestation threatened (威胁) not only the ecology but also livelihood in a variety of ways. The Chipko Movement is the most famous activist movement of all. In India, local women decided to fight the government in order to save the forests. If a sporting goods company attempted to cut    7    ash trees in their district, the    8    (woman) of Chamoli District, declared that they would “stick to” trees. Since 1973, it    9    (spread) and developed into an ecological movement, inspiring similar actions in other forest areas.    10    movement has slowed deforestation, raised environmental awareness, and showed people’s power.

8 . New York-based Ecovative has been creating environmentally friendly packaging made from mushrooms and agricultural waste since 2009. Now, the company wants to bring their amazing material into homes and offices with a new line of compostable (可堆肥的) furnishings that are grown using just three materials: mycelium (the vegetative part of mushrooms), hemp (麻类植物), and salt.

While creating hard material from mushrooms might sound magical, the company’s CEO Eben Bayer says it is a relatively low-tech process and compares it to “making bread”. The company begins by adding a few mycelium cells to damp hemp or other agricultural waste.

The mycelium that grows like little hairs is allowed to twist with the waste until everything is ”glued“ together. The combination is then mixed again and placed into the desired mold (模具) where it continues to grow and harden. The resulting material is then baked in the oven. In addition to making it as strong as wood, the heat also kills the mycelium, thus giving the compostable material a similar shelf life to wood.

Also, though the table tops of the stylish Tafl and King’s tables released at the recently held Biofabricate 2016 conference in New York City resemble marble, they are far from it. The perfectly carved blocks are made of a material grown by a North Carolina-based company named bioMASON using grains of sands and bacteria.

As you have probably guessed, this waste-free furniture does not come cheap. Customers can expect to pay anywhere from $249 USD for the Tafl to $699 USD for the King’s table, both of which are only available in limited quantities. Those that cannot afford those prices can choose cheaper GIY (grow it yourself) ones made of various products ranging from Christmas tree decorations to lamp shades.

9 . As Plastic Chokes the Ocean, Technology Can Help

Some 8 million tons of non-recyclable (不可回收的) plastic end up in the ocean each year. At an alarming rate, the seas may have more plastic than fish by the middle of the century.     1    

Require a global solution to a global problem.     2     The developed countries and most of developing countries show their leadership in this process by setting goals, encouraging other member states, and offering support for poor countries.

    3     Although they are helpful to protect clean water and air, as it is known, non-recyclable plastic is widely used in the markets. Therefore, non-recyclable plastic still can be bought in our daily life. Its disappearance needs much more time and efforts.

Pay more attention to the new studies on plastic and technologies. Some of researchers are aiming to make replacements for plastic.     4     For example, “interceptors” can remove river pollution before it reaches the ocean.

Expect more responsibility from manufacturers.     5     As a start, they should be encouraged to simplify complex packaging. And their working with world governments will support poorer nations to improve waste collection and landfill (垃圾场) management.

The world doesn’t have enough time in trying to solve the problem. The sooner these efforts start, the better.