2 . Molai grew up in a tiny village in India. The village lay near some wetlands which became his second _______. He learned the value and beauty of _______ there from a very young age. 

When he was 16, Molai began to notice something _______ happening around his home. A flood had hit the area earlier that year and the _______ it caused had driven away a number of birds._______, the number of snakes had declined as well. He _______ that it was because there weren’t enough trees to protect them from the _______. The solution, of course, was to plant trees so the animals could seek _______ during the daytime. He turned to the _______ department for help but was told that nothing would grow there. However, Molai went looking on his own and ________ a nearby island where he began to plant trees.

________ young plants in the dry season was ________ for a lone boy. Molai built at the ________ of each sapling (幼树) a bamboo platform, where he placed earthen pots with small holes to ________ rainwater. The water would then drip (滴落) on the plants below.

Molai ________ to plant trees for the next 37 years. His efforts have resulted in 1,360 acres of naturally-grown land that has become home to many plants and animals.

3 . When John Todd was a child, he loved to explore the woods around his house, observing how nature solved problems. A dirty stream, for example, often became clear after flowing through plants and along rocks where tiny creatures lived. When he got older, John started to wonder if this process could be used to clean up the messes people were making.

After studying agriculture, medicine, and fisheries in college, John went back to observing nature and asking questions. Why can certain plants trap harmful bacteria (细菌)? Which kinds of fish can eat cancer-causing chemicals? With the right combination of animals and plants, he figured, maybe he could clean up waste the way nature did. He decided to build what he would later call an eco-machine.

The task John set for himself was to remove harmful substances from some sludge (污泥). First he constructed a series of clear fiberglass tanks connected to each other. Then he went around to local ponds and streams and brought back some plants and animals. He placed them in the tanks and waited. Little by little, these different kinds of life got used to one another and formed their own ecosystem. After a few weeks, John added the sludge.

He was amazed at the results. The plants and animals in the eco-machine took the sludge as food and began to eat it! Within weeks, it had all been digested, and all that was left was pure water.

Over the years, John has taken on many big jobs. He developed a greenhouse — like facility that treated sewage (污水) from 1,600 homes in South Burlington. He also designed an eco-machine to clean canal water in Fuzhou, a city in southeast China.

“Ecological design” is the name John gives to what he does. “Life on Earth is kind of a box of spare parts for the inventor,” he says. “You put organisms in new relationships and observe what’s happening. Then you let these new systems develop their own ways to self-repair.”

7 . Most of us are used to the sound we hear in daily life, such as music, the middle of the night.     1    . However, when these sounds of television, people talking on their phones and even pet dogs barking in the night keep you from sleeping all night or the traffic starts to give you a headache, they turn into noise pollution. For many of us, the concept of pollution is limited to nature an resources. However, noises that tend to damage the natural rhythm of life make environmental pollutants.

    2    . Man-made noises such as horns, airplanes and even cars can be too loud for our hearing range. Constant exposure to loud noise can easily result in the damage to our eardrums (耳膜) and lead to our loss of hearing.

Too much noise pollution in working areas such as offices, construction sites, bars and even in our homes can influence psychological health. Studies show that the occurrence of aggressive behavior, sleep disturbance, and constant stress can be linked to excessive (过度的) noise levels.     3    .

Loud noises can certainly influence our sleeping pattern.     4    , if we don’t have a good sleep at night. For example, our performance may go down i the office as well as at home. It is therefore recommended to take a sound sleep to give our body proper rest.

As of now, there do not exist many solutions to such pollution.     5    , when it comes to what an individual can do. Only when our understanding of noise pollution is complete can we take steps to get rid of it completely.

9 . Officials from the Japanese Olympic Committee say they are sparing no effort to(不遗余力) to prepare and announce the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021 is going green. The 5,000 medals Japan has made are more special than most.

One new focus of the Tokyo Olympics is to be “sustainable(可持续的)”——to avoid using too many natural resources, so that the games are easy on the environment. As part of this goal, the organizers decided to make all of the Olympic medals out of metal recycled from old electronics.

Almost all electronics are made with small amounts of “precious metals”, like gold and silver. But collecting enough of these metals to make 5,000 medals was a huge challenge. That’s because the amount of metal in each device(设备) is tiny. It would take about 20,000 cellphones to get just 1 kilogram of gold.

Beginning in April 2017, the organizers placed collection boxers around the country, and asked people to turn in their old electronic devices. Soon people began to respond to the initiative(倡议), turning in smartphones, digital cameras, handled games, and laptops. At first, collection went slowly, but soon more and more areas began to take part. By the end, 1,621 local governments had helped out with the collection process.

Then came the job of breaking those devices down into smaller pieces. After being taken apart and sorted, the small electronics were smelted(熔炼) to get all the gold, silver, and bronze elements. This is a tricky job, which calls for careful attention and good skill. It’s also dangerous, because some of the metals and other things aren’t safe for people to touch or breathe.

By the end of March, 2019, the organizers had hit their targets of getting enough metal for the medals. They had collected around 30.4 kilograms of gold, 4,100 kilograms of silver and 2,200 kilograms of bronze. And now all the 5,000 medals are available for the would-be winners.

10 . Wild animals seem to have escaped the Indian Ocean tsunami, adding weight to the idea that they have a “sixth sense” of disasters, experts said on Thursday.

Sri Lanka wildlife officials have said the waves that killed over 24,000 people along the Indian Ocean island’s coast seemingly missed wildlife, with no dead animals found.

“No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare (野兔) or rabbit. I think animals can sense the disaster. They have a ‘sixth sense’. They know when things are happening, H.D. Ratnayake, director of Sri Lanka’s Wildlife Department, said on Wednesday.

The waves washed floodwaters up to 3 km inland at Yala National Park in the southeast, Sri Lanka’s biggest wildlife reserve and home to hundreds of wild elephants. “There has been a lot of evidence of dogs barking or birds migrating (迁徙) before volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. But it has not been proved,” said Matthew van Lierop, an animal behaviour specialist at Johannesburg Zoo. “There have been no specific studies because you can’t really test it in a lab or a field setting,” he said. Other authorities agreed with this opinion.

“Wildlife seems to be able to pick up certain signs, especially birds. There are many reports of birds detecting coming disasters,” said Clive Walker, who has written several books on African wildlife.

Animals certainly rely on the known senses such as smell or hearing to avoid danger such as predators (掠食动物). The idea of an animal “sixth sense” is a lasting one that the evidence of Sri Lanka’s damaged coast is likely to add to.