World Olive Tree Day takes place on 26 November every year. It     1    (establish) officially at the 40^th session of the UNESCO General Conference in 2019.

The olive tree, especially the olive branch, holds an important place     2     people’s mind. Since ancient times, it has symbolized peace,     3     (wise) and harmony. It is important not just to the countries     4     these noble trees grow but also to people and communities worldwide.

Protecting and growing the olive tree is     5     increasingly urgent thing as the world fights against climate change. The conservation of cultural and natural heritage (遗产) is one of UNESCO’s     6     (center) goals, and marking World Olive Tree Day strengthens the efforts to achieve it.

World Olive Tree Day is set up     7    (encourage) the protection of the olive tree and stress the values it symbolizes,     8     (inspire) people to appreciate its important social, cultural, economic and environmental significance to humans.

There is much to learn, share and celebrate on World Olive Tree Day, and UNESCO encourages everyone to participate in     9     (activity) such as debates, conferences, cultural events and exhibitions     10    (organize) worldwide.

My target in life is     1    (protect) the environment for future generations. I want to become    2    environmental consultant (顾问) after graduation. Many people think that pollution cannot    3    (stop) if we want the country to develop. But that is not true. We can cut back on    4    (danger) and dirty waste from factories. Although a factory produces a large quantity of goods, it does not mean that it has to pump a lot of pollution into the environment. I also want to teach people to buy products    5    have been recycled. This is much    6    (good) for the environment, because it means we do not need to cut down many trees. Companies and businesses can still operate,     7    the Earth will not have to suffer.

There is no debating that we also have a problem with population. The number of people in the world keeps growing, and we    8    (produce) more rubbish and using up more raw materials. What if they run    9    ? I am confident that if we are all willing    10    (work) together, we can overcome these challenges and keep the Earth clean and healthy.

In 1991, Beijing musician Wang Wei went on a tour, when he became fascinated by the shakuhachi, a kind of Japanese bamboo flute (笛子). Later, he found out that the shakuhachi,     1     was called chi ba in Chinese, was introduced to Japan during the Tang Dynasty (618—907).

    2     (astonish) and ashamed of how he was ignorant of the country’s rich musical tradition as a     3     (profession) musician, Wang started learning and researching on Chinese musical instruments made of bamboo. He has found that among the 90 wind instruments     4    (identify) by the Chinese Music Dictionary, 47 are made of bamboo.

During the past three     5    (decade), the talented musician traveled around the country       6     (find) the finest materials for making bamboo instruments. The small balcony at his home in Beijing has become his studio     7     instrument making.

He also gathered a group of musicians to form the country’s first bamboo orchestra. While     8     (realize) his expectation, Wang is also proud that the orchestra’s birth and development are also an effort of protecting the environment. Bamboo is among     9     fastest growing plants on earth, gaining 1.2 meters every day under appropriate conditions. Since 2002, the State Forestry Administration     10     (try) to replace the use of wood with bamboo to protect the environment.

Tibetan antelopes live on the plains of. They were hunted     1     (illegal), for their valuable fur.

I went to the Changtang National Nature Reserve to observe Tibetan antelopes along with my guide, Zhaxi,     2    works at the Changtang National Nature Reserve. As Zhaxi said, not only are we trying to save the animals, but also we’re trying to save     3     (we).

In order     4    (save) them, the Chinese government placed them under national protection. The measures were     5    (effect). The antelope population has recovered and in June, 2015, the Tibetan antelope was removed from the endangered species list.

China has developed a technology that is able to transform desert lands into available soil. The technology    1    (develop) several years ago by researchers at Chongqing Jiaotong University. They invented a paste (黏合剂)    2    (make) of a material found in plant cell walls that, when mixed    3    sand, is able to keep water, nutrients and air.

According to CGTN (中国国际电视台), Chinese scientists have achieved success in growing crops in areas with bad conditions caused by lack of rain and    4    (extreme) hot temperatures. One particular area is in a desert in North China’s Inner Mongolia. Over 70 kinds of crops are growing there. Many are not planted by humans but they just grow    5    (they), And the costs of artificial materials and machines for transforming sand into soil is much    6    (low) compared with regular methods. Now, nearly 500 acres of sand is being turned into farms producing corn,    7    (tomato) and sunflowers. A reforestation (重造森林) project is also currently in progress,    8    is set to reforest 50% of desert land in three years.

Researchers are looking into expanding their project this fall, with    9    plan to transform another 500 acres of desert. In the next few years, the scientists are    10    (confidence) that they can turn over 30,000 acres more into rich ground.

There is strong and comprehensive evidence that the rise in temperature     1     (lead) to an increase in extreme weather and natural disasters worldwide over the past years. Continued greenhouse gas emissions will result in further warming and long­lasting changes to the global climate. This requires the attention of people all over the world. We as     2     (individual) can reduce our “carbon footprint” by restricting the amount of carbon dioxide our lifestyles produce.     3     is our responsibility to seize every opportunity to educate everyone about global warming.

8 . Every year, butterfly(蝴蝶) lovers in California go out in November to count monarch butterflies. They     1    (get) a worrying result from their fall monarch count in 2018—    2     number of monarchs had dropped by 86% since 2017.

The orange and black monarch butterflies are famous     3     their long migrations(迁徙)—they fly thousands of miles every year. In the spring and summer they fly north; in the fall they fly south again.

Monarchs, like most butterflies, are     4    (terrible) important for plants. They help create more plants by spreading pollen(花粉) between plants. In turn, monarchs depend on plants for food. And they depend completely on a plant called milkweed     5    (lay) their eggs.

But monarchs have been facing growing problems for years. As more and more wild land has been turned into large farms, the monarchs have had trouble     6    (find) enough milkweed. Many farms also use chemicals     7     will kill insects in order to protect their plants. These chemicals also affect monarchs. Besides, pollution has made milkweed less     8    (health) for the monarchs than it used to be.

Scientists say monarchs will be in danger of dying out in the next 20 years if nothing     9    (do) to save them.

    10    (thing) that people can do to help include planting milkweed, controlling the use of chemicals, protecting wild areas, and planting trees.

The wildfires in Australia became considerably worse in January, 2020. The disaster faced by     1    country is far from over. Many of the fires     2     (send) smoke high into the atmosphere and some smoke turned into pyrocumulonimbus clouds. The clouds can help a fire draw in more air and shift surface winds,     3     (result) in fire tornadoes (龙卷风). Fires have destroyed habitats for animals that     4    (find) only in Australia, including koalas and rare birds. It will take time to fully know how much harm the fires have done     5     wildlife. The wildfires are expected     6     (continue) burning for months as Australia entered its dry season.

This past year, 2019, is the hottest and driest year on record. Fires happen     7    (regular) during the Australian dry season. However, climate and natural changes are making the situation     8     (bad). At least 12 million acres have been burned so far in Victoria and New South Wales alone. Smoke from the fires has made     9    to South

America. There is so much smoke that it may stay in the air for months,     10     could have a small effect on the planet’s climate.