1 . To prevent tsunami-caused disasters, several countries worked together to expand the use of a tsunami-detecting system that had been developed in the United States by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The system________ of an instrument installed on the seafloor — called a tsunameter — that measures pressure changes caused by a passing tsunami. The tsunameter sends a signal to a surface buoy (浮标), which sends the data to a satellite, which ________ the information to warning centers around the world.

By 2004 only six such detectors had been installed, all in the Pacific. There were________ in the Indian Ocean, and many countries in the region had no national warning centers that could have ________ local communities. That policy mistake had tragic consequences. In Sumatra people had only a few minutes to run, ________the tsunami took two hours to reach India, and some 16,000 people died there. “It was totally unnecessary,” says Paramesh Banerjee, a geo-physicist at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. “Technically it would have been relatively ________ to install a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean.”

There are now 53 detector buoys operating in the world’s oceans, including 6 of a planned 27 in the Indian Ocean. So a (n)________ of the 2004 horror, in which the tsunami traveled for hours and still caught people by ________ is less likely. But buoys would not have helped in Sumatra. People living on coasts near a rupturing fault (地壳断层) can’t wait for ________ that a tsunami is on its way, which it often isn’t; they must flee as soon as the quake hits. The Japanese warning system relies not only on tsunameters but also on seismometers (地震测量仪) — a thousand of them ________ the country, the densest network anywhere — combined with a computer model that forecasts the scale of a tsunami from the magnitude (震级) and ________ of the quake.

In March, the system, which is run by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), did not work perfectly. JMA’s initial ________, while the ground was still shaking, put the quake magnitude at 7.9 — but later analysis revealed a quake that, at magnitude 9, was 12 times larger. The tsunami forecast warned of waves of ten feet or more — but they reached 50 feet in Minanisanriku and in some places even ________. But the human ________ to the warning was imperfect as well. “I think this time many people who lived above the high-water mark of the 1960 tsunami didn’t bother to run.” says Jin Sato, mayor of Minanisanriku. “Many of them died.” The town’s seawall, he thinks, also gave people a false sense of ________

This past July was the hottest recorded month in human history. Heat waves smashed temperature records worldwide and even brought summer temperatures to Chile and Argentina during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter. It’s more than just a matter of sweaty discomfort. In the U.S. alone, it kills more people each year than floods, tornadoes and hurricanes combined. As climate change worsens, access to     1     cooled spaces is rapidly becoming a health necessity.

Yet standard air-conditioning systems have     2     us in a vicious cycle: the hotter it is, the more people use the AC—and the more energy is used as a result. Nicole Miranda, an engineer researching sustainable cooling at the University of Oxford says: “it’s not only a vicious cycle, but it’s a(n)     3     one.” According to 2018 data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the worldwide annual energy demand from cooling is     4     to more than triple by 2050.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that humans cannot outrun climate change with the same air-conditioning technology we’ve been using. One well-known problem with current AC systems is their reliance on refrigerant     5    , many of which are potential greenhouse gases. About 80 percent of a standard AC unit’s climate-warming emissions currently come from the energy used to     6     it, says Nihar Shah, director of the Global Cooling Efficiency Program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Standard air-conditioning systems     7     cool and dehumidify through a relatively inefficient mechanism: in order to condense water out of the air, they overcool that air past the point of comfort. Many new designs therefore separate the dehumidification and cooling processes, which avoids the need to overcool.

Even with some of the best technologies available, the gains in     8     alone might not be enough to offset the widely expected increase in air-conditioning use. It will not work to simply replace every     9     air conditioner with a better model and call it a day. Instead, a truly cooler future will have to     10     other strategies that rely on urban planning and building design to minimize the need for cooling in the first place.

3 . What do you know about fashion? The fashion industry, which has become one of the most _________ to the planet, is having a moment of punishment. But which changes make a difference, and which ones just _________ in the wash? In fact, the fashion industry is second only to the oil industry, the most environmentally unfriendly industry.

A friend of mine _________ an antique clothes store in the north of London. Business has been good for many years, which makes her acquire a large fortune. Every few weeks, she visits a vast storehouse on the edge of the city to go through piles of clothing. Most of it is _________, but if you know what you are looking for, there are raw diamonds. The storehouse has a long history. It was once a clearing house for the low-quality wool scraps(碎料) that were used to make cheap clothing for the _________ in Victorian Britain. A century on, _________ has changed. Nowadays, it is full of modern-day inferior products, all _________ cheap clothing made for the masses around the world. Except that this stuff is going to be burned or buried, not being reused.

The items are the products of an industry that, in the past 30 years, has become one of the most successful and also most _________ on the planet. Known as fast fashion, it has filled our wardrobes(衣柜) with cheap and cheerful clothes. But after three decades of continuous growth, the model is in _________ with fundamental environmental limits and there is widespread agreement – even from within the industry – that it is time to ____________. Otherwise, “Fast fashion” creates a mountain of unsellable, cheap clothing that ends up in a terrible place.

“The fashion industry represents a key environmental ____________,” says Kirsi Niinimäki at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland. “Eventually, the long-term stability of the fashion industry ____________ the total abandonment of the fast-fashion model.” Like fast food, fast fashion is all about instant ____________ on the cheap.

One wonders: What can we do about it? Don’t you have any clothes on? It’s not that ____________. More importantly, don’t waste, learn to control your desires and ____________ falling into this “Fast fashion” lifestyle. As the guardian columnist Lucy Seagal once said, the “Fast fashion” industry is profit-driven, but consumers who have experienced “over-consumption” will naturally grow tired of it, and the market will have its choice.

4 . The news that Derby has approved what promises to be Britain’s largest urban rewilding project so far is very welcome. The 320-hectare Allestree Park will, subject to detailed consultation, be given over to a range of habitats and perhaps even see the reintroduction of species such as dormice and red kites.

Urban rewilding - which is not the same as urban green space, however extensive - can take many forms. They _________ from aiming to slow down the rate of species loss by _________ swift (雨燕) and sparrow boxes to new apartment constructions (there are now 247m fewer house sparrows than there were in 1980) to designating areas the size of Allestree Park.

But in fact, some of the most successful projects have been _________. Canvey Wick, a disused area of the Thames estuary, returned to a “self-wilded rainforest” that is now home to nearly 2,000 invertebrate (无脊椎的) species, including at least three _________ thought to be extinct. Rivers _________ natural wildlife corridors, working their way through cities, then linking them to countryside. The Guardian columnist George Monbiot gives the example of the River Wandle, which in the 19th century supported up to 90 factories, and was described as “the hardest worked river for its size in the world.” Now it teems with (充满着) wildlife, and the local authorities have considered _________ beavers (海狸).

Urban rewilding, _________, won’t make a massive difference to global heating, with only 6% or so of Britain is actually built on it. But giving nature freer rein (控制) in parts of towns and cities could help to mitigate (缓解) flooding, and to slow species loss. Importantly, about 83% of us live on the portion of the UK’s land that is classed as urbanised, and access to nature has also been shown to improve psychological well-being. One recent Canadian study found that adding just 10 trees to a city block had a big effect on people’s _________ of their health; research is beginning to find that increasing biodiversity can heighten that impact. And on a more general scale, those who _________ wildness are more likely to fight for it.

The pressure for development means that there will always be tension with __________ interests: the Swans-combe Peninsula in Kent, another self-wilded area that is home to 1,992 species of invertebrates, including 250 of conservation concern, is now __________ for the London Resort, including a theme park expected to destroy 76 hectares of priority habitat which forms a vital part of the ecological network. This loss would be __________ losing 140 football pitches (球场) __________ of nationally important habitat.

In these mid-pandemic, post-Brexit, austerity-bitten (财政紧缩的) times, the financial arguments can be hardest to __________ for councils short of cash, but the evidence that “we need nature as much as it needs us”, in the words of Jo Smith of the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, is surely __________. With a bit of imagination, flexibility and commitment, many more urban areas could follow Derby’s example.

The pressure for change is building: reactions to the Glasgow climate pact

The Glasgow climate package, aimed at ensuring the world limits global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, was     1     even by the UK hosts as“imperfect", and leaves much of the hard work on cutting greenhouse gas emissions for next year. Boris Johnson,the UK prime minister, said:“We asked nations to come together for our planet at Cop 26, and they have answered that     2     . I want to thank the leaders, negotiators and campaigners who made this pact (协议、契约）happen and the people of Glasgow who welcomed them with open arms."

"There is still a huge amount more to do in the coming years. But today's agreement is a big step forward and, critically, we have the first ever international agreement to phase down (逐步减少)coal and a     3     to limit global warming to 1.5C. I hope that we will look back on Cop 26 in Glasgow as the beginning of the end of climate change, and I will continue to work     4     towards that goal."

Al Gore,the former US vice-president,also praised the public pressure put on world leaders at the conference: “The Glasgow Climate Pact and the pledges made at Cop26 move the global community forward in our urgent work to address the climate crisis and limit global temperature rise to 1.5C, but we know this progress, while meaningful,is not enough. “We must move faster to deliver a     5     transition away from fossil fuels and toward a cleaner and more equitable future for our planet.The progress achieved in the lead-up and at Cop26 was only possible because of the power of people young and old using their voices to demand action."

Many developed and developing countries nailed the progress it represented on the world's goals .But green campaigners warned that the     6     of the climate crisis meant the world was running out of time. Frans Timmermans, executive vice-president of the European Commission,     7     up many countries' reactions, saying:“'It doesn't stop here,it only starts."

On the last-minute weakening of language about phasing out coal, Timmermans said: "Let's be clear, I'd rather not have the change. I was very happy with the language we had." But he added it was “like going from 24 carat gold to 18 carat, it's still gold...we are now making     8     steps to eliminate coal ...and that countries that are so dependent on coal are willing to be part of that agreement is astonishing".

Countries will have to return next year and the year after to     9     their targets on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Laurence Tubiana, one of the architects of the 2015 Paris deal and now CEO of the European Climate Foundation, said the outcome showed that the 2015 Paris climate agreement was working as     10    .