Chinese scientists have developed a kind of plastic that degrades in sea water and could help slow down the     1    (increase) serious plastic pollution in the ocean.

The new plastic can degrade in sea water over a period ranging from a few days to several hundred days,     2    (leave) small parts that cause no pollution, said Wang Gexia,     3     is a senior engineer. 

For a long time, people focused     4     white pollution on land. Plastic pollution in the sea only caught people’s attention when more and more     5    (report) about marine animals dying from it appeared in recent years.

Scientists combined water dissolution and biodegradation processes     6    (design) and invent     7     new plastic.

The research     8    (select) as one of the winning projects at a contest. The contest encouraged young Chinese scientists to develop groundbreaking technologies and was intended to inspire creativity. 

China has given top attention to     9    (environment) protection, contributing Chinese wisdom to     10    (resolve) global pollution problems.

17­-year­-old Jackson Hinkle, a surfer, has always been aware of     1     issue of plastic pollution and its effects on ocean ecosystems. This year, however, was a big year when it came to taking action, reports Teen Vogue. He became a Water Ambassador for The Water Effect at The Ecology Center, and     2     (organize) a march against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in Orange County to raise people’s awareness of water rights and support the     3     (create) of a clean future. Besides, he     4     (present) serves as the founder and president of Team Zissou, an     5     (environment) club that has popped up in schools in California, Hawaii, Washington, and Canada. Jackson is also leading a campaign in his town called “Plastic Free SC,”     6     promotes the usage of reusable water bottles. “Our team is urging local restaurants and eateries     7     (join) our movement by transferring from carrying plastic water bottles to selling more sustainable paper water bottles, and is planning to equip our city     8     new water bottle refill stations and water fountains.”     9     (find) out simple ways you can start reducing your carbon footprint today and you’ll make contributions to stopping the earth from getting     10    (pollute).

With few trees left to slow the wind in southern Madagascar, red sand is blowing everywhere: onto fields, villages and roads, and into the eyes of children     1    (wait) for food aid parcels. The area has been transformed     2     a dust bowl because of the facts that the weather is     3    (extreme) dry and forest is cleared to make farmland.

“There’s nothing to harvest. That’s     4     we have nothing to eat. As a result, we’ re suffering from     5    (hungry),” said mother-of-seven Tarira, standing at a remote World Food Programme (WFP) post near Anjeky Beanatara, where children are examined for signs of malnutrition (营养不良) and given food. It is reported that at     6     present time more than one million people in southern Madagascar need food handouts from the WFP, a United Nations agency.

The world’ s fourth     7    (large) island and one of its most diverse ecosystems, Madagascar     8    (regard) as a natural paradise (天堂) at one time. However, in parts of it, such as its far southern regions, the reality on the ground has changed. “When you look in the villages, you see children running left and right. That     9    (be) not the case before. We used to call Madagascar the green island.     10     now it is more of a red island, which makes us very sad,” said Soja Lahimaro Tsimandilatse, governor of the southern Androy area.

The awful night rolled slowly away, and the dawn greyly broke on THE LAST DAY OF POMPEII! The crowd looked upwards, and saw, with unspeakable fear, a huge cloud     1     (shoot) from the top of the volcano. It took the form of     2     huge tree: the trunk, blackness, the branches, fire! This fire moved and changed in colour with every moment: now it was wildly bright, now of a pale and dying red, and now again it burnt with an     3     (bear) light!

The cries of women broke out; the man looked at each other, silent. At that moment, they felt the earth shaking     4     their feet; beyond in the distance, they heard the crash of falling     5     (roof). A moment later, the mountain—cloud seemed to roll towards them, dark and rapid, like a river; at the same time, it threw out a shower of ashes and huge pieces of     6       (burn) stone! Over the empty streets—over the forum—far and wide—with many a noise crash in the stormy sea—     7     (fall) that awful shower!

Each turned     8     (fly)—each running, pressing, pushing against the other. If, in the darkness, wife     9     (separate) from husband, or parent from child, there was no hope of their meeting again. Each hurried blindly and     10     (fear) on. So came the earthquake. . . and so ended life in Pompeii.

I was nearly as excited about the show this morning as the children. They were looking through the window at the magic outside and talking away     1    (excited). The fact is that the snow was as strange and     2    (fascinate) to me as it was to them.

The first fall of snow is     3     magical event. You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up     4    (find) yourself in another quite different. The very secrecy and     5    (quiet) of the thing makes it more magical.

When I got     6     this morning the world was a cold place of dead white and pale blues. Then the sun came out,     7    (shine) bravely and flushing the snow with delicate pinks.

An hour or two later everything     8    (be) a cold sparkle of white and blue. There was indeed something curiously disturbing about the whole prospect.

Now it has changed again. The glare has gone and no touch of the disturbing remains. But the snow is falling heavily. I can see the children     9    (flatten) their noses against the window, and there is running through my head a rhyme I used to repeat     10     I was a child.