2 . There was no need to consult my smart-watch to know that we had climbed to an altitude of more than 4,500 meters._________discomfort serves as a warning system on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

After a four-hour journey, our coach_________a parking lot in Madoi county, a sprawling herding district in the northwestern province of Qinghai. I got off and took a walk, but it felt like hard work. What seemed like a slightly dazed feeling at lower place—such as when I visited Lhasa, capital of the Tibet autonomous region, in 2019 at about 3,000 meters above sea level—had_________into a severe headache because of the thin air.

As the air pressure_________rapidly, my sunscreen bottle swelled and its_________spilled out. Trees were a rare_________. The soil was frozen. Rice tasted half-cooked.

I_________a small hotel, where about 35 doctors and journalists would stay for the next few days as part of a volunteer medical program. I was assigned a roommate, a photojournalist in his 50s. We climbed_________of stairs carrying suitcases packed with winter clothes and other necessities to_________the sunburn-producing ultraviolet. The climb clearly worsened our symptoms. We were both breathless when we reached our room.

Cracks could be seen meandering across the walls of the room, a warning sign of the quake’s destruction and a__________that the danger had not gone away.

It certainly hadn’t. At about midnight, a magnitude 4.8 quake__________the county and made my roommate and I—both __________because of the discomfort we were feeling—jump out of our beds.

We scrambled for our clothes and shoes and argued about whether we had enough time to run outside. Before we had reached agreement, the shaking had stopped. The street our room overlooked was quickly__________with people, and my sixth sense for survival told me to join those life-cherishing people downstairs, but the__________told me to stay put.

The older man and I stared at each other and then decided to creep back to our beds, but we kept our pants on, just__________.

4 . Plastic mobile phones cases and sweet wrappers, some more than 50 years old, have recently been pulled from the sea off the coast of East Yorkshire. The finds lead to growing concern among scientists about the long-term impact of plastic waste on our seas, with research suggesting it takes over 400 years for a drinks bottle to breakdown in the sea.

Notpla, a London-based startup company, is currently designing a seaweed-based replacement for single-use plastic packaging. Founded in 2014, the company has been sparing no efforts to further develop its product line.

The firm initially looked to seaweed as the solution to the world’s white pollution, because it is plentiful, grows quickly, doesn’t compete with land crops and doesn’t use chemicals, but absorbs carbon from the air. Design director Karlijn Sibbel says, “It can grow into the sea, where it actually has many positive benefits so it can create new ecosystems for other organisms to grow in.”

Sibbel says they look to nature as inspiration “for the ideal packaging” like the skin on a fruit. “A peel (果皮) will eventually be used as nutrients by nature, disappear and become part of the cycle.”

“The exciting thing is that this is a film that can replace most of the flexible packaging you see around,” Sibbel says. The potential contents could include coffee grounds or toilet paper. For food items, such as noodles, they have even experimented with adding flavors to the packaging, so that dissolving the bag could add seasoning to the food. “You can cook with it. And you can really start to rethink what we can do with these materials,” she explained.

The approach feels especially relevant as the world is coming to terms with the effects of decades of uncontrolled plastic production. Co-CEO Paslier says, “We’re excited to see our power in the foodservice industry and looking forward to moving into the fashion markets very soon.

5 . Innovation has pretty much finished with car tires (轮胎) right, I mean, what’s left to change? How about the whole “air” part?

Michelin Company’s attempt to tackle tire rubbish around the world witnessed them roll out puncture-proof “airless” tires, which they say should help reduce the 18% of all world tires that are abandoned early due to punctures (轮胎漏气). Deserted tires arc a huge worldwide waste problem — the US produces 260 million abandoned tires per year, many of which end up in landfills or on the sides of the freeway where they release harmful gases and microplastic pollutants as they break down.

Michelin Company's Unique Puncture Proof Tire System or “UPTIS” is designed using 46% recycled material, and made from a plastic matrix (母体) mixed with glass fibers that provide a flexible outer layer with a strong inner one. “The truly distinctive structure of the Michelin UPTIS prototype (原型), or its “strangeness” as we have often heard it called, really attracted the eye of many visitors and left a lasting impression on them,” stated Cyrille Roget, Michelin Group Technical and Scientific Communications Director. “It was an unusual experience for us, and our greatest satisfaction came at the end of the demonstration when our passengers, who were undoubtedly a little alert (警觉) at first, said they felt no difference compared with conventional tires.”

Michelin Company believes airless tires will improve everyone's lives. Maintenance (保养) costs for company’s vehicle fleets will be less expensive, and inexperienced car owners won’t accidentally ruin their rubbers when driving them because they are over-or under-inflated (充气). Although they are still in development stage and using at a large scale within years is unlikely to be available, Michelin Company is not in the least doubtful about their tires’ future.

7 . The first time ever I realized that plastic was a serious matter for our planet was during a road trip in Western Australia, almost 12 years ago.

We ________ at a supermarket along the Coral Bay coast to buy some groceries and the lady at the counter told us they didn’t sell any shopping bags in order to prevent plastic in the ________ and to help preserving the endangered turtles living in that area. After a first reaction of surprise, we ________ all our shopping in our arms and left.

This was just one of the many experiences I’ve lived that made me more ________ about my impact and pushed me to adopt different habits to live and ________ more sustainably.

Our trip to Borneo was another life-changing ________ that has strengthened my resolution to a zero-waste lifestyle. While traveling in some countries, we came to know that ________ drinking water was always a challenge. So we had to travel with our water bottle, and we ________ to avoid using plastic during our trip.

Besides, we were also ________ impressed by our stay on Libaran Island. A sustainable turtle conservation ________ and the community had made big efforts to ________ the beaches and creatively reuse plastic for ten years. Despite that, the shore is ________ daily with tons of plastic coming from the tides.

Facing this global issue ________, raised in me a feeling of sadness and anger that soon turned into ________: to do as much as possible to reduce plastic in our life. Small changes can ________ a difference!

9 . Solar stills (蒸馏器) provide a clever and simple means of purifying dirty or salty water, but they work at a rather slow rate. A new material has been shown to boost their performance, and it’s made from fruit waste which would otherwise be thrown away.

In its most basic form, a conventional solar still consists of a basin of undrinkable water that is set beneath a cover. The water evaporates (蒸发) as it’s heated by the sun, condensing (凝结) on the inside surface of the cover. That condensation—which is pure, clean water-drops down the cover and is collected in a separate container for drinking. In order to warm the dirty/salty water at a faster rate, scientists have developed materials that float on its surface, transforming sunlight into heat. They commonly use carbon obtained from coal.

To seek a less costly and more environmentally-friendly alternative, Prof. Edison and colleagues at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University looked to something that is free for the taking—fruit waste. More specifically, the scientists tried out coconut peels, orange peels and banana peels.

In a simple carbonization process, the fruit waste was heated at 850℃for a few hours, and mixed with a kind of chemical substance. Doing so transformed the fruit waste into a new material which has a very highlight-to-heat transforming efficiency.

When tested in a small solar still, this new material proved to be very effective at transforming sunlight into heat, causing the dirty/salty water to evaporate much more rapidly. And because the material is full of holes, the waters team is able to rise right through it, subsequently condensing on the inside of the still’s cover.

Prof. Edison and his team found material obtained from the coconut peels worked best, as it transformed sunlight to heat with an efficiency rate of 94%. They are now developing the technology further, and are seeking industry partners to help with its commercialization.

10 . China’s second national botanical (植物学的) garden, South China National Botanical Garden, was set up in Guangzhou on July 11th, 2022.

With a total of 319 hectares of core functional area planned, the new national botanical garden was built based on South China Botanical Garden. It spans Guangzhou and Zhaoqing, two cities in Guangdong Province.

The South China National Botanical Garden aims to strengthen the conservation, scientific research and knowledge broadcasting of tropical (热带的) and subtropical (亚热带的) plants. The garden has three research centers, two national-level field stations and three key laboratories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. There are 17, 168 protected plants, 643 rare and endangered plants, and 337 national key wild protected plants in the garden at present.

The garden will participate in plant diversity protection both in China and the world and achieve the conservation goal of 20, 000 species. Meanwhile, it aims to play a world-leading role in collection and storage of living plants, among which 6, 000 species are economic plants.

Besides, 95 percent of rare and endangered plants in South China will be effectively protected, thus to provide plant resources for green development.

China is one of the countries in the world with the richest biodiversity, having more than 37, 000 known species of higher plants, accounting for about one tenth of the world’s total.

The South China National Botanical Garden, together with the national botanical garden in Beijing, has formed a system of collection and complete the retention of wild plant groups, which is helpful to maintain the country’s plant diversity.