3 . Universities are doing everything they can to become a green campus. But there are also items students can do to make your campus more eco-friendly.

Recycle everything, especially paper!

There is a large amount of paper a college student goes through every term.     1     We know that these things can’t be avoided, but the way you handle the use of all the paper can really help create a better green campus.

Buy green.

    2     Paper, cleaning products and water are products that can be bought as recycled goods. They’re slightly more expensive than the normal products, but they’re worth buying to make a green campus.

Walk and bike to school.

Most campuses, especially those that are trying to become a more eco-friendly campus,have pretty good public transit (公共交通系统).     3     Walking or biking will help make your campus a green university.

    4    

A water bottle can be refilled at any water fountain and can easily be drunk in class or while riding a bike. This will protect the environment by decreasing the amount of plastic waste on your campus.

Buy used clothing.

It is usually thought of as something to do to save money.     5     Recycling clothes minimizes the amount of resources to make clothing and puts a dent in the problem of worldwide sweatshops.

4 . On the day the tornado hit, there was no sign that the fierce weather was on its way —the sky was blue and the sun had been out. The first warning my husband, Jimmy, 67, and I, 65, got came around 9 p.m., from some text on the TV Jimmy was watching. He ran upstairs to find me in our third-floor bedroom, and we changed the channel from the national television to our local Pensacola, Florida, station.

Soon the tornado was on top of us. It was the loudest thing I had ever heard. The house shook, and the power went out. And the wind began to roar (咆哮) through the house, most likely through windows and the door to our garage. Everything was moving. And the back wall of the house came off and flew into the darkness outside. We had three flights of steps to get to the storeroom down there, the relative safety of the first floor.

I didn't know how or if we would make it down the steps. It felt as if there was no floor as the wind lifted me off my feet. As we finally reached the last flight of steps, our front door blew open. Suddenly, a three-foot-long tree branch (树枝) flew over our heads, missing us by inches.

By the time I reached the storeroom, the tornado had been over us for about a minute, Jimmy pushed me down to the storeroom floor, but he couldn't get inside himself because of the wind. I held Jimmy's arm as the tornado blew the door open. My knees were full of glass, but I felt no pain. If I had let go, Jimmy would have flown right out of the house.

All of a sudden, Jimmy lifted off his feet. I thought he was gone. And then everything stopped. He landed on his feet. In those first quiet moments, I couldn't believe it was over. Our neighbor said the storm lasted four minutes. In that time, four of the twelve town houses in our unit were completely destroyed. Luckily, none of us were seriously injured.

5 . Who would have thought that there was any connection between a cup of coffee and a bird, butterfly, or even a bat? Such seems to be the case, however, as methods for growing coffee plants have gradually changed over time.

Coffee plants were first discovered growing in Africa hundreds of years ago. The plants grew under a wide cover of forests, which protected the coffee plants’ leaves from the burning sun. As coffee was introduced to other countries, farmers would naturally try to grow the plants in the shade of tall trees. These trees provided more than shade for coffee plants; they were also home for many species of birds, insects, and other plants.

Over the past 30 to 40 years, people developed a new kind of coffee plant, one which grows well in open sunlight. Sun-grown coffee produced two times more coffee than shade-grown coffee in the same amount of time and space. As a result, the growing need for coffee makes the sun-grown method appear to be the best way to grow coffee.

However, this newer method has some unexpected results. First, the lack of tree cover leaves the land open to heavy rainfall, which can wash away the soil’s nutrients (营养物质). This necessitates an increased use of fertilizers and additives, which is likely to create health risks. Second, as forests are taken down to make way for sun-grown coffee plants, native and migratory birds no longer have a home. This is threatening many species, and the effect is now being examined and recorded by ornithologists, who are discovering sharp falls in some species that travel to the northern United States each year. Finally, more pesticides (农药) are used in the sun-grown method, all of which have a bad influence on both the environment and the long-term health of the coffee plants themselves.

Today, as more people recognize the problems of coffee grown in the sun, perhaps they will be willing to pay the higher prices, encouraging coffee growers to return to the more natural method of producing this worldwide product.