1 . 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 (海龟) 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 aware of my ______ and pushed me to adopt different habits to live and ______ more sustainably.

Our trip to Borneo was another life-changing ______ that has strengthened my determination to have a ______ lifestyle. While traveling in some Asian countries, we came to know that ______ drinkable 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 deeply ______ by our stay on Libaran Island. A ______ turtle conservation project and the community had made big efforts to ______ the beaches and creatively reuse plastic for ten years. Despite that, the shore is washed 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!

2 . Every year about 40,000 people attempt to climb Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. They bring with them lots of waste. The_________ might damage the beauty of the place. The glaciers (冰川) are disappearing, changing the_________ of Kilimanjaro.

Hearing these stories, I’m_________ about the place — other destinations are described as “purer” natural experiences.

However, I soon discovered that much has changed since the days of disturbing reports of_________ among tons of rubbish. I find a clean mountain, with toilets at camps and along the paths. The environmental challenges are_________ but the efforts made by the Tanzania National Park Authority seem to be_________ .

The best of a Kilimanjaro_________ , in my opinion, isn’t reaching the top. Mountains are regarded as spiritual places by many cultures. This_________ is especially evident on Kilimanjaro as climbers go through five ecosystems (生态系统) in the space of a few kilometers. At the base is a rainforest. It ends abruptly at 3, 000 meters,_________ lands of low growing plants. Further up, the weather__________ — low clouds envelope the mountainsides, which are covered with thick grass. I __________ twelve shades of green from where I stand. Above 4, 000 meters is the highland __________ : gravel (砾石), stones and rocks. __________ you climb into an arctic-like zone with__________ snow and the glaciers that may soon disappear.

Does Kilimanjaro deserve its__________ as a crowded mountain with lines of tourists ruining the atmosphere of peace? I found the opposite to be true.

3 . When Tom Blake was a young boy, watching a jet (喷气式飞机) streak across the sky, he knew flying was what he wanted to do when he grew up.

After five years’ training, he finally ________ his dream job in his late twenties — working as an airline pilot. But in 2019, the travel firm he was ________ for collapsed.

By this time Mr Blake had become increasingly ________ the growing threat of climate change, and the aviation industry’s carbon emissions. “I had an uncomfortable________,” he says. “I was really eager to get involved in ________ protest groups, but I knew it would be career suicide, and I had a lot of ________. It would be easier to return to the industry and pay them off.”

Yet with the COVID-19 pandemic grounding aircraft, Mr Blake decided to quit his flying ________ for good. “I prefer flying and ________ interesting destinations, and earning a decent ________.” says Mr Blake. “But when we are ________ the climate and ecological emergency, how could I possibly ________ my needs? We need to think about how to ________ the biggest threat to humanity.”

Giving up his dream job was a ________ decision, he says. “Financially I’ve been really ________ . It’s been challenging.” But he adds, “Taking action has ________ my anxiety.”

Mr Blake is now a climate activist.

4 . I had a lot on my mind as I recalled my teddy bear (泰迪熊) on the snowiest day last year. Only twenty-four hours before, I had been _______ with it happily in our farmhouse. How quickly things _______ ! The house I had lived in disappeared. The fire had _______ all those things with my memories.

I have never known my mother to be so _______ . When picking up my ashen (灰白色的) clothing, she moved with emptiness (空虚). The _______ was heavy to us.

After moving to the temporary (临时的) house, my father told me dealing with this would cost _______ money. It brought about a wave of _______ and life became a struggle.

“Hey, Jason,” a classmate came up to me at lunchtime with a box in her hands. “Jason, we know what _______ a few days ago. This is not something you have to go through _______. We started up the Shoebox Fund for you. Almost every student in our school ________. We love you and we want you to have this.

My eyes were filled with ________, and I had never been so moved. I had felt so lonely for the days after the fire that I became ________, unwilling to communicate with others. But these people looked past the impolite behavior I had shown to them. They were my true friends and by sharing this ________, they were my family.

Yes, things are getting back to ________. But what I learned from this journey of discovery will ________ with me forever.

5 . I live in a town, about half a mile from the banks of a river, It had been raining buckets that week and there were _________ warnings for nearby areas, but not where I was.

As a precaution (预防), I’d _________ sandbags outside my garden door just in case water managed to flow through. As I fell asleep, I was _________ by the sound of rushing water.When I swung my legs off the bed, I was _________ to feel cold water already up to my kneesand rising fast. Trembling, I _______ my phone on the table and _________ the flashlight. Water was coming from the garden door. The river must have _________ burst its banks and broke the sandbags. And now I had to get out--fast!

With the water up to my waist, in bare feet I started to paddle (蹚水) to my only _________ the door leading to outdoors. Finally, I made it to that door and _________ to pull it open, but the water’s __________ was high. Anyhow, with great efforts, I made a __________ of about 30 centimeters, enough for me to get through. Rushing down outside, I __________ that if I hadn’t woken up in time, I would have drowned. Many houses around us were __________ , including a home for the disabled.

I learned to be grateful through the experience and determined to live each day to its __________ .I will remember a famous saying: “Don’t remember the day when you lost everything. Remember the day you__________ .”

6 . Molai grew up in a tiny village in India. The village lay near some wetlands which became his second _______. He learned the value and beauty of _______ there from a very young age. 

When he was 16, Molai began to notice something _______ happening around his home. A flood had hit the area earlier that year and the _______ it caused had driven away a number of birds._______, the number of snakes had declined as well. He _______ that it was because there weren’t enough trees to protect them from the _______. The solution, of course, was to plant trees so the animals could seek _______ during the daytime. He turned to the _______ department for help but was told that nothing would grow there. However, Molai went looking on his own and ________ a nearby island where he began to plant trees.

________ young plants in the dry season was ________ for a lone boy. Molai built at the ________ of each sapling (幼树) a bamboo platform, where he placed earthen pots with small holes to ________ rainwater. The water would then drip (滴落) on the plants below.

Molai ________ to plant trees for the next 37 years. His efforts have resulted in 1,360 acres of naturally-grown land that has become home to many plants and animals.

7 . Damon Carson calls himself a matchmaker (媒人) of the never-ending waste of American society, trying not to pair people with people, but things with people.

In the late 1990s, Carson was on break from business school in Vail, Colorado, when he ______ the vast world of waste. He began ______ creating a secondhand store that would sell old ______ and keep them out of being ______. As a result, in 2010, his company, Repurposed Materials ______.

For nearly ten years, his company, Repurposed Materials, has not been looking to ______ the waste he gets—breaking it down to make something new —but rather finding new homes for thrown-away goods in their original ______.

Carson, a husband and father of three adult children, is far from ______. Frugal (节俭) is how he describes himself. The clothes he’s wearing all came from a(n)______ shop; his truck was bought with 290, 000 kilometers driven.

“Why break something down, why melt something down, if it still has ______?” he asks. An old oil-field pipe might be melted down and turned into a car bumper, but it still takes an amount of ______ to finish the complete change. Why not leave it as a steel pipe? Why not turn it into a ______ post (杆、柱) on a farm? The only cost is ______.

American industrial facilities create and ______ about 7.6 billion tons of unwanted industrial materials every year. For the moment, Carson’s unique business finds new ______ for millions of kilograms of industrial waste every year.

8 . Over the years, thanks to my life’s obstacles (障碍). I understood the meaning of faith and the strong will to survive. It was Hurricane Ike that made me fully _________ the beauty of our strength and a human’s motivation to _________.

Mom had a two-week vacation in summer. While we enjoyed our holiday in Southeast Texas, we didn’t realize the fact that Ike would cause months and likely years of “labor”. By September 7th, the “eyes of Texas” were watching Hurricane Ike more closely, making the typical mad rush for last-minute hurricane _________. Two days later, both oil and food were in _________ demand.

In the early hours of September 11th, some neighbors were planning to _________the storm in their homes, while others were making final preparations to get away. At first, we decided to stay. But that afternoon, the Houston-Galveston area would be on the more dangerous side of the storm. Mom and I packed some of our most _______ belongings in the car and headed for the East Texas town of Lufkin.

As Ike pushed farther inland, we _________ power in Lufkin. On Sunday, our next-door neighbor told us via cell phone that our house had remained well. Our hopes could not have been _________. But a few hours later, the neighbors reported that our brick chimney had gone, and it was sitting on our living room _________ a hole in the roof between two skylights (天窗).

We wouldn’t be allowed to return home until September l7th. I climbed upstairs, and looked toward the hole in the roof which showed a beautiful blue sky.

Without hesitation, I shouted, “Wow! A third skylight!”

My neighbors could not believe I was making jokes instead of crying, but __________ is always good medicine. It was with that joke that I knew, given time, everything would be okay.