1 . In the rich countries of the West, the electric vehicle revolution is well occurring. Climate-conscious consumers drive Teslas or Polestars for reasons of morality (道德) and fashion. Poorer countries are also experiencing a wave of electrified trend. In Bangladesh, electric three-wheeler taxis, known as tuk-tuks, are rapidly replacing gas-powered ones on the streets. Such electric vehicles are climate friendly, cost effective, and help reduce air pollution.

Yet a glance under the hood (引擎盖) of these vehicles shows a poisonous secret: each tuk-tuk runs on five massive lead-acid batteries (铅酸电池), containing almost 300 pounds of lead (铅) in total. Every year and a half or so, when those batteries need to be replaced and recycled, about 60 pounds of lead leaks into the environment. Battery recycling, often at small-scale unregulated factories, is a highly profitable (高利润的) but deadly business.

Lead is dangerous, and any exposure to it is harmful to human health. Lead that has entered the environment hurts people on an unexpected scale. The numerous ways lead enters air, water, soil, and homes across the developing world and the enormous damage it does to human health, wealth, and welfare cause one of the biggest environmental problems in the world yet receives little attention.

The World Bank estimates that lead kills 5.5 million people per year, making it a bigger global killer than AIDS, malaria, diabetes, and road traffic deaths combined. On top of the shocking deaths, the social burden of lead poisoning is heavy, as is its contribution to global inequality — our research on the cognitive (认知的) effects of lead poisoning suggests that it may explain about one-fifth of the educational achievement gap between rich and poor countries.

But unlike many challenges faced by developing countries, lead poisoning is a problem that can be resolved through financial investment (财政投入). Better monitoring, research, and rules can help protect children all over the world from the unpleasant effects of lead poisoning and reduce the massive global costs it brings.

3 . China is an amazing country, on the Internet, only you can think of, there is nothing you can’t buy.

5 . I love everything about animals. Today, I went out for a simple walk to my library, when I _______________a dog! The dog looked like a German Shepard, and I, being an animal _______________, approached it. I noticed it had a _______________, but no leash. I tried asking multiple people around the dog if it _______________them, but everyone said no. I felt so bad, and didn’t know what to do. She was so friendly and sweet that I felt _______________about just leaving her there.

Then, what do you know? She started _______________me! I couldn’t help but smile at that. I was the only one who showed any _______________in her, petting her, talking to her, walking with her. So, together, we walked towards the _______________. I finally got a chance to _______________the number on her collar, but no one picked up! I was so ________________about this animal, and I was determined to not just leave it ________________around. I planned to head to a pet store.

However, before I even got to a store, a car ________________up in front of me with a father and two kids. It turns out that she was their dog, and had gotten ________________when the little boy opening their fence! They were so relieved to find her, and ________________me non-stop. I was relieved too! The dog ________________jumped into the car and I said goodbye to her.

Eradajere Oleita thinks she may have a solution     1     two of her country’s problems: rubbish and poverty (贫困). It’s called the Chip Bag Project. The 26-year-old student and environmentalist from Detroit is asking local chip lovers     2     (donate) their empty chip bags rather than throw them into the trash so she can turn them into sleeping bags for the homeless.

Chip eaters drop off their empty bags at two locations in Detroit: a print shop and a clothing store, where Oleita and other     3     (volunteer) collect them. After they clean the chip bags in soapy hot water, they cut them open, lay them flat, iron (熨) them together and use liners from old coats to line the insides.

It     4     (usual) takes about four hours to sew (缝) a sleeping bag, and each takes around 150 to 300chip bags, depending on whether they’re single-serve     5     family size. The result     6     (be) a sleeping bag that is waterproof (防水的), lightweight, and easy to carry around.

Since its start in 2020, the Chip Bag Project     7     (collect) more than 800,000 chip bags and created 110 sleeping bags.

Sure,     8     would be simpler to raise the money to buy new sleeping bags. But that’s only half the goal for Oleita—whose family moved to the United States from Nigeria ten years ago with the hope of     9     (have) a better life—and her volunteer helpers. “We are working to make a     10     (different) not only socially, but environmentally,” she says.