Global warming is having a big impact on some of the world’s     1     (animal), Scientists have found that polar bears are becoming much     2     (small) because they do not get enough to eat.

A polar bear weighs only two-thirds of what it used to weigh 30 years ago. Now     3     is hard for them to hunt their main source of food—seals. In open water, polar bears cannot catch them. They wait on the ice     4     seals to come up for air, and then grab them. As the ice sheets in the Arctic are melting away bears cannot get their food so     5     (easy).

A polar bear needs about 12,000 calories a day to stay     6     (health) and even more to put on the body fat     7     it needs during the winter months. It is reported that polar bears are now hunting each other     8     (survive). Two years ago a study     9     (predict) that global warming would kill two-thirds of the world’s polar bears by 2050. But if the ice sheets keep     10     (disappear) at the current speed the Arctic Ocean could be completely ice-free in the next 20 years.

A Couple Fighting Sand in Inner Mongolia

After an early autumn rain, Bao Hua couldn’t wait to check on her trees in the desert. She was     1     (satisfy) to see the trees turning green again. The     2     (time) rain saved around 80,000 yuan for her. A monthly watering of their trees usually     3     (cost) 200,000 yuan.

In 2000, Bao, along     4     around 80 households of herdsmen (牧民) and farmers, moved to a village in the desert in response to the government’s call for returning pastures (牧场) to forest and grassland. The village, not far from both the Badain Jaran Desert, the     5     (three) largest desert in the world, and the Tengger Desert,     6     (trouble) by sandstorms in the spring then, driving farmers and herders home to deal with potential economic losses.

But Bao, a tough Mongolian, made up her mind     7     (stay) and deal with desertification. After they talked with experts and residents, she and her husband used their own savings to plant saxaul trees,     8     can survive in dry conditions and withstand strong winds.

Before sunrise, they wear thick coats and hats and plant small trees in the strong, cold wind.     9     (lack) watering equipment, they carry water to each tree, one by one. Over the past two decades, they have planted some 33,000 hectares of trees. With a son and a daughter both now grown up and independent, Bao is free to enjoy her life. But she still leads     10     busy life, getting up as early as 5 am to run errands (差事) every day.

After firefighters from Southwest China’s Yunnan helped neighboring Chongqing Municipality bring a series of bushfires     1     control and returned home, they found no barrier in their path.     2     (Thanks) Chongqing residents crowded the streets, holding Chinese flags to see the firefighters off throwing     3     (bottle) water, food and even watermelons into the firefighters’ trucks as the vehicles rolled away,     4     (show) another heart-warming scene of the deep bond between the military and the people.

An extreme heat wave and     5     (dry) caused bushfires across Chongqing. Under the mobilization of the Ministry of Emergency Management, 736 firefighters from Yunnan     6     (arrange) to Chongqing to assist local efforts. The Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Brigade said in a short video that “Yunnan and Chongqing are     7     family, we are of one mind… goodbye Chongqing.”

Some firefighters even rolled up their windows     8     (avoid) the small gifts. However, their efforts eventually failed as residents surrounded their vehicles and refused to leave     9     their gifts were accepted. Some netizens joked that Chongqing people are     10     (relative) controlled, as they did not try and throw hot pot, a famous local delicacy, into the vehicles.

More than 120 million people in northern China have     1    (evident) benefited from a massive water diversion(转向) project,     2     delivers water from the Yangtze River in the south to the north.

The South-to-North Water Diversion Project, the world’s     3    (large), has diverted 39.4 billion cubic meters of water to dry places in the north through     4    (it) middle and eastern routes over a period of six years. The middle route starts from the Danjiangkou Reservoir in central China’s Hubei Province     5     it runs across Henan and Hebei before reaching Beijing and Tianjin. It began supplying water on December 12, 2014.

The eastern route     6    (put) into operation in November 2013, transferring water from east China’s Jiangsu Province to feed     7    (area) including Tianjin and Shandong. The western route is in the planning stage and is yet to be built. When     8    (finish), the work will link China’s four main rivers—the Yangtze, Yellow River, Huaihe and Haihe—and requires the     9    (construct) of three diversion routes,     10    (run ) south-to-north across the eastern, central and western parts of the country.

The complete project is expected to cost $62 billion — more than twice as much as the Three Gorges Dam.

Each year, we take more than 100 billion tons of natural materials from the earth     1    (make) the products we buy. However, about two-thirds of them     2     (eventual) becomes waste, including almost 3 billion plastic bottles     3     end up in the ocean every year.

Since the 1860s, we     4     (follow) a common business model. Industries take natural materials, they make things, we use them, and then we throw them away. Environmentalists and economists warn that this model is not good for the environment, so they suggest     5    new choice: a circular economy (循环经济).

A circular economy     6     (base) on the idea of reducing waste by keeping the natural, materials and products in use for much     7     (long). It works in a circle, very much the way nature does. The circular economy uses a range of     8     (strategy), such as recycling and reusing. In a circular economy, products are designed to be long-lasting and easy to repair from the     9     (begin). In this way, we can keep the balance     10     human and nature.

I didn’t sleep well for several days, worrying about the wildfires in several parts of Chongqing, my hometown. Like most people from Chongqing, I felt I must help stop the fires spreading, especially after I smelt heavy smoke in my house    1    the evening of Aug. 21. The smoke was believed to be from a wildfire    2    broke out in nearby Banan area in the afternoon that day. That night, a large fire    3    (appear) in the mountains in Beibei area, 40 kilometers from my home.

Clearly, the powerful fire was getting very close. Although forest firefighting forces from three provinces arrived, our government needed    4    (much) help from the public. And volunteers     5    (call) on to go to different fire sites around the city.

Many people    6    (glad) went to offer help. Many gave away all kinds of things needed for the fight against wildfires. They took them to collection points, without    7    (give) their names.     8    (hundred) of people with skills and experience signed up as volunteers.

I asked    9    (I) what I could help with. I am a middle-aged woman without much strength. I cannot ride a motoreycle, and do not have any medical skills. I decided to do everything I could     10    (help) the hard-working volunteers, which included taking them cold fruit tea.

The world witnessed what was described     1     “Chongqing speed” in people’s united action in China’s Chongqing that put out over 10 forest fires in less than 10 days.

On August 17, a historic heat wave caused forest fires     2     (break) out in the mountain city. Under the leadership of China’s emergency management authorities, great efforts from firefighters, police and tens of thousands of volunteers     3     (pay) off and all open fires were completely put out on August 26.

In the following days, numerous stories, pictures and videos regarding this fire rescue     4     (share) on China’s social media. A video that showed a herringbone (人字形) of yellow flame of fire and a line of white light coming from the headlamps on the rescuers in the night view was     5     striking that it became     6     instant hit.

    7     put out the fire was a “Great Human Wall” that was formed by the organization and support personnel under the mountain, the transport teams     8     (deliver) materials along the way, and the firefighting troops on the mountain top.

Among them, Generation Z, classified as those born in the mid-90s to early 2000s, played a     9     (remarkable) important role in the whole rescue work. These young group rushed to the frontline of the fire scene without any hesitation, demonstrating the hope and strength of China’s young generation with their bravery, wisdom and     10     (cooperate).

    1     majority of people suffer from so-called “Just-me-ism”. That is, you leave the tap     2    (run) while brushing your teeth, leave a light on when going out or drop a piece of waste and are unwilling to pick it     3    . It is absolutely wrong, but in your opinion, it doesn’t matter if only one person does it and no one will know it. But if there are millions of people doing like this, resources would be wasted and litter would be dropped, which     4    (be) quite harmful to our environment.

Therefore,     5    (encourage) people to take measures to protect the environment, Roots & Shoots     6    (establish) by Jane Goodall. The     7    (organise) is called Roots & Shoots because roots can form a firm foundation while seemingly weak shoots can break open brick walls to reach the light. The roots and shoots are you, your friends and young people all around the world, who can change the world into a better place.

Every individual is     8    (value) and useful to the world. Every individual can play a role in our world. It is every individual     9     matters. Now you can make a choice to make a difference to our environment and make Roots & Shoots     10    (root) in everyone’s heart!

2020 Singles’ Day (Nov 11), the     1    (large) onlineshopping spree (狂欢) in China, saw a new high of about 675 millionpackages delivered. Yet the huge amounts of packaging waste    2    (produce) by the delivery services have raised concerns over environmental effect.

It’s estimated (估计) that more than 9 million tons of paper waste    3    about 1.8 million tons of plastic waste are produced bythe delivery sector every year.

According     4    a new survey which rates the performanceof China’s nine major delivery companies in green delivery packaging, nearly 70 percent of people     5    are involved in the survey said they had never used or received reusable packaging.

Using reusable packaging     6    (be) an important way to cut packaging waste from the source, but only four out of the nine companies surveyed have taken     7    (act) to put recyclable boxes into use.

In terms of the types of packaging recycled, the delivery companies    8    (main) recycle paper boxes but plastic packaging hasnot been included in their recycling programs.

In June, the State Post Bureau released a guideline     9    (manage) green packaging. The guideline calls for     10    (use) reusable and lighter materials. It also urges companies to set uprecycling bins at delivery stations for wrapping.