Recycling plays     1     major role in fighting against pollution. By recycling paper, we not only save our trees, but we also recycle glass bottles, milk cartons and plastics. It is known to all     2     recycling preserves many non-renewable resources and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Now cleaners send     3     (little)household waste to landfill sites than before and less energy is required when we are making new materials from old ones.

Health regulations once prevented recycled plastics from being made use     4     to make food containers but new technology has seen this ban lifted in some countries.

Rain water     5     (collect)from roads and roofs of buildings is also recycled. Water treatment plants treat millions of liters a day,     6     (remove)bacteria and something unwanted. The recycled water cannot be drunk     7     can be used to wash cars, water trees and fight fires, etc. This     8     (mean)there is a reduced demand on drinking water supplies.

New technology is     9     (constant)improving recycling techniques in Europe, America and Japan, but countries with small populations may find that these new techniques are so expensive that they cannot     10     (use)in the immediate future.

2 . My first caregiving experience involved driving 180 miles every day to see my grandmother who was terminally ill. I was certainly _________ as the weeks turned into months, but the desire to _________ my grandmother in her last days was overwhelming(无法抗拒的).

Years later, my 87-year-old father _________ more nursing skills than I could provide. As he lived 700 miles away from me, I deeply _________ that I couldn't take care of him myself, but I thought my nightly phone calls, filled with laughter and family news, provided him with _________ support.

Then, _________, because of cancer, I became the one who needed _________. Friends provided meals, house cleaning, and rides to appointments. The _________ I felt for these acts of kindness was beyond words. It was also because of their thoughtfulness that I could focus all my energy on _________ my body and mind.

Soon afterwards in trying to find a meaningful purpose, I __________ the idea of offering assistance to other caregivers. I was __________ with both sides of the struggle, and this allowed me to pay it forward for the incredible amount of support I had received.

A(n) __________ arose when a caregiver I knew for years was unable to travel to her winter home in Florida. While recovering from surgery, she was __________ to drive. When she asked me to be the driver, I didn't __________, so we headed south on an adventure.

Now, due to the pandemic, I have to paused the program, but I look forward to __________ my journey of caring for caregivers soon. I welcome the chance to lift the burden off their shoulders, even if it's for just a minute.

Yours,

Li Hua

4 . A few years ago, we celebrated Frankenstein’s 200th birthday. This famous book, written by British novelist Mary Shelley(1797-1851), is rightly known as the first work of science fiction. Frankenstein is the name of a doctor who creates a creature from human body parts. The doctor’s ambitions for his work are noble, but his experiment has disastrous results.

Shelley was writing in an age when science was beginning to have a great impact on the world. People had different attitudes toward science then. Some found it inspiring—they thought of the progress medicine was making in curing common illnesses. But others found it a little frightening—it was changing life, making it a lot less familiar.

Science plays a bigger part in our lives than it did two centuries ago. Today, science has brought us great things like the Internet, but also nuclear weapons, which, if used in large numbers, could kill off our species. Science still therefore creates the mixed feelings it did in Shelley’s day. It’s because Shelley saw both the promise and the danger of science that she’s still an influence today.

In fact, her subtitle of the book, The Modern Prometheus (普罗米修斯), shows how important myth (神话) was to the writer. Prometheus, a figure from classical Creek mythology, written by ancient Creek playwright Sophocles, steals fire from the gods and gives it to people, an act for which he is terribly punished.

Shelley’s husband, the famous poet Percy Shelley, wrote about him in Prometheus Unbound. In the poem, he is a revolutionary hero, who triumphs over the gods. In Mary Shelley’s book, however, her modern Prometheus, Dr Frankenstein, is a highly controversial figure, who sacrifices his home and life for his crazy addiction to his creation.

In short, Mary Shelley’s book is not just a scary and moving story, but a philosophical tale that, even after 200 years, still speaks to modern readers.

5 . Not even the sea is safe from the glare (强光) of humans’ light at night. Researchers published the first global map of ocean light pollution. It shows large parts of the sea are lit up at night. And that risks confusing or disrupting the behaviors of sea life.

Tim Smyth led a team to research where in the water this light is strongest. Smyth and his colleagues started with a world map of man-made night-sky brightness that had been created in 2016. Then they added data on the ocean and atmosphere. Some data came from shipboard measurements of man-made light in the water. Others came from satellite images that judge how clear the water is. Particles (微粒) in the water, such as tiny floating plants and animals, can affect how far downward light travels. These factors vary from place to place and may change with the seasons. The team also used computers to copy how different wavelengths of light move through water.

Next, they wanted to know how that underwater light might affect animals. Not all species will be easily affected. The team focused on copepods (桡足亚纲甲壳动物). These common creatures are a key part of many ocean food webs. They use light as a signal to move all together to the dark deep, seeking safety from other surface creatures. Normally they use the sun or the winter moon as their signal. Too much man-made light can mess up their usual patterns.

Light pollution is strongest in about three feet of the water. Here, man-made light can be strong enough to confuse the copepods. Nearly 2 million square kilometers of ocean get such strong night light. That’s an area about the size of Mexico. Farther down, the light gets weaker. But even 65 feet deep, it’s still bright enough to bother copepods across 840,000 square kilometers of ocean.

The team described its findings December 13 in Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene.

7 . I got out of the car that rainy Tuesday, already tired, and _________ toward the rehab (康复治) counselor (顾问). It had been a(n) _________ morning with my seven-year-old son, Adrian, who has serious ADD (多动症) and ODD (对立违抗性障碍). By the building entrance, something _________ my eye. A chicken. Where did she come from? Did she _________ someone?

None of my coworkers knew anything about it. But a client told me the chicken had been _________ around the last few nights. At the end of my _________ I saw the chicken in the same spot, cold and _________. “Go find your family,” I said.

All night I worried about her. It rained the next morning. No _________ of the chicken. I thought she went home. But I stepped out for my afternoon break, and there she was, getting rained on again. I _________ her some bread. She __________ it and just stood there, staring up at me.

Halfway home that evening, I made a U-turn and went back to the rehab. I __________ the chicken and drove home, her beak (喙) on my shoulder the entire __________.

I __________ on Facebook and our neighborhood App, asking if anyone had lost a chicken. Two weeks went by. No one __________. My __________ ended up with the chicken living in my house and she even became friends with Adrian.

I can’t remember the last difficult morning. That rainy Tuesday, the chicken turned out to be my family.

9 . Bridge Design All Over the World

Hartland Covered Bridge

The Hartland Covered Bridge is the world’s longest covered bridge. The 1, 282-foot-longbridge was opened in 1901 and has been on Canada’s list of National Historic Sites since 1980. Although it was originally built without a roof, the bridge was capped with wooden materials during the repairs in 1921.

Rio-Niteroi Bridge

Completed in 1974, the Rio-Niteroi Bridge in Brazil is the second-longest bridge in all of Latin America connecting the cities of Rio and Niteroi across the Guanabara Bay. The Rio-Niteroi Bridge is technically known as a “box-girder” bridge, made of special concrete. It receives an astonishing 140, 000 (or more) vehicles per day.

Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge

No bridge is as long as the Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge in the world. The 164. 8-kilometre-long bridge built in 2011 in China operates as part of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway. The trip from Ningbo to Jiaxing that previously took 4. 5 hours has been reduced to two, thanks to this bridge.

Jiaozhou Bay Bridge

The newly-built Jiaozhou Bay Bridge in China was named “world’s longest bridge over water” by Guinness Book of World Records in 2011, a title previously held by the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. The dispute was settled when the title of “longest continuous bridge over water” was given to the causeway, with the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge receiving the title of “longest bridge over water”.