Recycled Island

“Recycled Island” is designed by a Dutch architect Ramon Knoester.     1     the help of the Netherlands Architecture Fund, his firm，WHIM Architecture, is working on this island     2     (make) of garbage.

The project tries to solve a lot of the problems that our planet     3     (experience) nowadays. Considering that the oceans take up more than half of the earth, wouldn’t it be nice     4     we could settle on them by making our own     5     (island)? It is a research project with the aim     6     (complete) a habitable island made from all the plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean. The habitable area is designed as     7     urban setting.

The starting point is to create an island of 10,000 sq. km. This is about the size of Hawaii and its     8     (locate) is the North Pacific Gyre,     9     a large quantity of plastic waste is discovered. This is a beautiful spot northeast of Hawaii. By recycling and constructing     10     (direct) on the spot with the plastic waste, the need for long transport is avoided. Because of the floating character, the island’s position could change.

The researchers published their study in the journal Nature. They looked at data from recent bleaching (变白) events in the Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Australia. Bleaching causes corals to lose their colour and, often, to die. Several causes contribute    1    bleaching: warm water temperatures,    2    (pollute), and overfishing. The bleaching events in the study were caused     3    (main) by rising water temperature. The researchers found that local efforts     4    (improve) water quality and stop overfishing did not increase the reefs’ chances of survival.

Researchers say the results of the study highlight the importance of     5    (fight) global climate change. Reefs could become extinct if temperatures continue to rise at the current rate.

Corals look like rocks, but they are tiny animals. The creatures can exist alone or in large colonies. They form a hard outer shell. When they die, their skeleton (骨架)     6    (leave) behind and more coral builds on it. Colonies form reefs. They are home to one in four species in the sea. Reefs also serve as barriers     7    protect the coastlines from    8    (power) storms.

Fortunately, a group of scientists unconnected to the study     9     (take) action at the moment. Their project focuses on protecting     10    great many reefs that have not been harmed by climate change.

Before you throw an empty plastic bottle into the recycling dustbin, you should make sure that the lid (盖子) is still attached. This advice seems to go against everything     1     we have been taught before. It’s true that bottles and lids are typically made of different kinds of plastic. In the past, the plastic recycling industry was not     2     (effective) recycling bottles with lids on so the message to remove the lid     3     (create).

Recycling     4     (technology) have improved since then, and keeping the lid on is no longer a problem now. The two parts are separated naturally in a process     5     (refer) to as a water bath. The bottles float and the lids sink, which makes it easy     6     (separate) them. On the other hand, removing the lids can cause them to be sorted improperly in the recycling process. Because of their small size, separate lids are often sorted     7     piles of landfill (垃圾填埋) waste. They are also common ocean pollutants, and can be     8     (harm) to animals in the ocean.

It’s also common for people to crush (挤压变形) plastic bottles before     9     (throw) them into the dustbin, but that should also be avoided. That’s     10     they could be confused for paper during the sorting process and end up in the wrong place.

Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish climate change activist,     1     (elect) as 2019's ''Person of The Year'' last week.

In August 2018, tired of the ''refusal'' of world leaders     2     (take) action, the young girl started camping in front of the Swedish Parliament every Friday with     3     sign, which said: ''Schools Strike for Climate''.

The teen's act soon spread quickly,     4     (inspire) kids and adults worldwide to take action. By September, 2018, her     5     (week) strike had become a worldwide climate change movement called ''Fridays for the Future'',     6     tens of thousands of students skipping school on this day to condemn the inaction of the leaders of their respective countries.

The teenager, who has single-handedly helped bring climate change to the forefront of the global conversation, owes her     7     (succeed) to her Asperger's syndrome. She says, ''I see the world in black and white, and I don't like compromising.     8     I were like everyone else, I would have continued on and not seen this.''

Though Thunberg does not have a magical cure for climate change, she     9     (believe) that climate change can be affected at a grassroots level by educating friends and electing     10     (politician) that support the cause.

There is some good news for the environment. The British government has banned the use of plastic particles (微粒）in cosmetics (化妆品）and other personal care products.

Plastic microbeads or tiny solid plastic particles     1     (use)mostly in cosmetics production, face washes, toothpastes and other products. When we use these things, the plastic microbeads get into our pipes that carry water, and     2     (eventual)end up in the ocean. Plastic in the ocean puts fish and plants     3     danger, and even causes them to die.

    4     (official)say that the ban will prevent water pollution and in the meantime help with the     5    （protect)of ocean life. "The ban will stop billions of pieces of plastic entering our ecosystem, thus     6     (help) to conserve our precious seas and oceans, "Former Prime Minister Theresa May ever wrote on Twitter.

Therese Coffey, then the Environment Minister of the UK, said, "The world's seas and oceans are some of our most     7    (value)natural things. And     8    we do now is to deal with the plastic that causes great damage to our sea life. "He also added, "Actually,     9     amount of natural green things that we can take advantage of     10    (make)personal care products is huge, and therefore the use of plastic microbeads should be abandoned. ”

On Monday, millions of people in Ethiopia planted more than 350 million trees in 12 hours. The    1    (origin) goal had been to plant 200 million trees that day. The event was part of    2    country’s Green Legacy Initiative (绿色遗产计划). It is designed    3    (decrease) the effects of deforestation (滥伐) and climate change in the East African country.

According to the United Nations, Ethiopia’s forest coverage was 35% in the early 20th century but it is just above 4% now. The Green Legacy Initiative’s goal is to plant 4 billion trees in Ethiopia this year. So far, about 2.6 billion    4    (plant). Other countries and groups have taken similar efforts. In 2017, volunteers in India planted 66 million trees in 12 hours. Australia plans to plant a billion trees    5    2030. The African Union, a group of 55 African countries,    6    (be) building a “Great Green Wall” of trees to stop the spread of the Sahara desert.

    7    (recent), Swiss scientists released a new report in the journal Science,    8    (say) that planting 1.2 trillion trees around the world could help absorb carbon emissions,    9    pollute the air. Trees use carbon dioxide to grow and store the carbon in their    10    (leaf). This removes it from the air.

“Leave a place better than you found it.” is a simple philosophy that I hold dear. I led 20 volunteers   to   help   clean   up   the   Great   Wall   in   April.   Tile   Great   Wall   is   one   of   the     1     (great)structures in the world. Everyone has a responsibility to protect it.

I first went to China to visit the Great Wall in 1986. Since 1990, I     2     (stay)in China with my family,     3     (spend)more than 2,700 days on the Great Wall. I have written several books on the subject, and also fronted documentaries.

I am credited with arousing China’s     4     (nation) consciousness to protect the Great Wall and its environment and I have held several exhibitions.     5     (protect) the Great Wall and assume the role     6     its international ambassador, I got permanent residency（居住权） in China. I live in a village below the Great Wall.

It’s a good thing that people are going out to enjoy     7     (they) and to discover tire great heritage and history, but     8     is also quite dangerous if they don’t understand     9     fragile the environment is. Every person can make a     10     (different). If we can get everybody to protect the environment, the world will be more green, beautiful and healthy.

There     1     (be) no lights in sight but the night sky glowed (发出) a dusky yellow, because the Amazon was burning. The yellow flames engulfed (吞噬) trees     2     lit up the sky. During the day, the sunshine was blocked     3     thick smoke. So far, the fire     4     (put) out.

The government has recorded 72, 843 fires. The fire is just one of     5     (they) in the Amazon, the world’s     6     (large) rainforest and a fighter against climate change. According to Brazil’s space research agency INPE, the wildfire has decreased by 17 percent so far this year compared to the same period in 2018.

Environmental     7     (group)said the policies of the government encouraged deforestation (采伐森林) of the Amazon,    8     led to more fires. But the government posted a report and wanted     9     (argue) against that. The government claimed that non-governmental organizations     10     (angry) set fire to the forest after it cut their funding.

Household garbage sorting and recycling has become a hot topic in Shanghai because of China’ s first compulsive garbage-separation law     1     every household and institution shall classify waste into four     2    （category）. Those who fail to sort garbage may     3    （fine） up to 200 yuan.

Previously, everything went into one bin, so this change has made many people very     4       （worry）, who said they were struggling to master the details quickly.

Now thanks to the efforts of     5     number of young programmers, discovering the proper classification for each piece of household waste has become as simple as taking a photo     6     calling someone using your smartphone.

They have applied speech and image recognition technologies     7     apps and other smartphone services to guide Shanghai residents through the garbage-separation rules.

Most of the apps and services, which     8     （begin） springing up last month in app stores, on messaging tool WeChat and mobile payment service Alipay, allow users to type in the name of waste     9    （identify） which category it belongs to. Many apps also use speech and image recognition to make the process much easier, but their creators say they will disappear in time with the Chinese     10    （become） more accustomed to the rules.

Pollution takes away all the beauty of the beaches of Hawaii. I hate to go to the beaches on     1    (sun) weekends and see rubbish bags    2    (lie) on the sand, cigarette butts(烟头）    3    (bury) in the sand, and soda cans floating in the ocean.

One thing that really annoys me is that I see tourists who visit Hawaii leave their rubbish on the beaches. I was always taught after drinking soda to throw the can into the place    4    it should stay at --the trash can. Another thing that annoys me is that some people walk right by rubbish    5    pretend that it's not there.

The dogs or the fish are not to blame for it.It's our fault and we must blame     6    (we).Everyone has to do his or her part    7     (solve) this problem. It can’t be difficult to do the job.There are a lot of things that we can do.First of all,we can help pick    8    rubbish along the beaches.We could also form organizations that help clean up our beaches, More    9    (important),we need to start now before the beaches    10    (damage) beyond repair.