The Amazon rainforest breathes life into the planet by fixing carbon and producing over 20 per cent of all the Earth’s oxygen. Thus, it is often known     1     the “lungs of the planet”. Moreover, the Amazon rainforest is a treasure house of species     2     can be used for food or medicine. Yet there is one major danger to these irreplaceable plants and animals: us. Over the past 50 years, about 17 per cent of the rainforest     3    (disappear) due to human activities such as agriculture and cattle farming. As the impact of human activities continues to grow and the list of species in danger of extinction becomes longer, we are left with a question: can we afford to damage the “lungs of the planet”?

2 . Society has certain standards for beauty. But Romanian photographer Mihaela Noroc, who spent nearly four years ________ photos of women from around the world, is challenging these standards.

She believes that beauty can ________ many forms. “Beauty just means being yourself,” Noroc told NPR,“I don’t think we have to ________ ourselves to be in a certain way; I think we just have to keep ourselves as we are and don’t ________ need to change.”

________ by a trip to Africa in 2013, Noroc hastraveled to more than 50 countries and regions since then. In 2017, she published a book called The Atlas of Beauty: Women of the World in 500 Portraits to show how many different kinds of beauty there are in the world.

From a struggling Russian dancer to a talkative cafe owner in New York, Noroc’s subjects (拍摄对象)________ her in deep conversation. Noroc found out what ________ them, what their daily struggles and joys are, and what brings beauty into their own lives. “No matter where I go, it’s the ________ that carry all the culture and traditions of a place. I really try to focus on women’s stories, how they face challenges and ________ them,” Noroc told CNN.

Ala, a student at a self-defense school in Jordan called “She Fighter”, left a(n)________ impression on her. Ala raises her clenched (紧握) fists as she looks into the ________ while her faceis covered by a white hijab (面纱). Noroc describes “She Fighter” as “the first self-defense school for women in the Arab world”, and writes, “I discovered an amazing enthusiasm and a(n)________ sisterhood.”

In Iran. Noroc met Farnoush, a woman who lives in two worlds. “In one, she is an economist, by ________. In the other, she is an artist, because this is her ________.” For Noroc, the women’s beauty ________ how natural and comfortable they appear while just being themselves.

4 . You are what you eat and what you eat may be encoded (编码) in your DNA. Studies have indicated that your genes play a role in determining the foods you find delicious or disgusting. But exactly how big a role they play has been difficult to figure out. “Everything has a genetic component even if it’s small,” says Joanne Cole, a geneticist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “We know that there is some genetic contribution to why we eat the foods we eat . Can we take the next step and actually locate the regions in the genome (基因)?”

New research led by Cole has gotten a step closer. Through a large-scale genomics analysis, her team has identified 481 genome regions that were directly linked to dietary patterns (模式) and food preferences. The findings, which have not yet been peer-reviewed, were presented last month at the American Society for Nutrition’s annual conference.

The team based the new study on a 2020 Nature Communications study. This previous study, conducted by Cole and her colleagues used data from the U. K. Biobank, a public database of the genetic and health information of 500,000 participants. By scanning genomes, the new analysis was able to identify 194 regions associated with dietary patterns and 287 linked to specific foods such as fruit, cheese, fish, tea and alcohol. Further understanding how genetics impact how we eat could reveal differences in nutritional needs or disease risks.

“One of the problems with a lot of these genomics studies is that they’re very small. They don’t have enough people to really be able to identify genes in ways that are credible (可靠的). This study had a huge group of people, so it’s really powerful.” says Monica Dus, a geneticist at the University of Michigan. “The other thing that I thought was really great is that there are so many different features that they’re measuring related to diet including cholesterol (胆固醇), the body and socioeconomic backgrounds.” As the research advances, Dus says, such genome analysis could potentially assist health care providers and even policymakers to address larger issues that affect food access and health.

It’s definitely true that it may contribute to making sure there aren’t food deserts-areas which have limited access to fresh, healthy and affordable food or to making sure that there’s a higher minimum wage so that everyone can afford to eat, although the journey ahead remains lengthy and challenging.