The Argentine research base Esperanza has been collecting data about the changes of the temperature in Antarctica since 1961. According to the data collected by the station, Antarctica has had its     1     (high) recorded temperature of 18.3℃, beating 2015’s record of 17.5℃. The reading     2     (take) at the Argentine research base last week. Meanwhile, the rate of ice loss from five Antarctic glaciers (冰川)     3     (double) in the past six years and is five times faster than in the 1990s. “The reading is     4     sign of that the warming happening there is much faster than the global average,     5     is surely worrying many people,” said Professor James Renwick, a climate scientist at Victoria University. “The reading is     6     (impress) as it’s only five years since the previous record was set and this is almost one degree centigrade higher,” he added.

Global warming     7     (drive) by human activities has been blamed for Antarctica’s rising temperatures. “Scientists have lots of     8     (evident) to show that the Earth’s climate is rapidly changing due     9     human activities,” said Professor James. “Antarctica’s heating ice sheets are falling apart,     10     (threaten) to cause sudden and great rises in global sea levels. We should take action before it is too late.”

A recent research shows that 86% of the world’s rivers have been damaged by human activities. The research     1     (conduct) by experts from a university in Toulouse, France,     2     examined data on over 2,500 rivers around the world.     3     (look) into changes in biodiversity (多样性) over the past 200 years, the scientists discovered that biodiversity in over half of the rivers has been seriously damaged by humans. The researchers said there were many reasons     4     this damage. A big reason is the     5     (introduce) of new species of fish into rivers. Other reasons include pollution, dams, overfishing, farming     6     climate change.

Unsurprisingly, the worst-hit rivers are in western Europe and North America. This is because these regions have large and rich     7     (city) crowded with people. The lead researcher Brosse said: “Rivers which have the most economic development around them, like the Mississippi River, are the most     8     (strong) affected.” The River Thames in London was one of the worst-affected rivers in the study. The least-affected rivers are in Africa and Australia. This is probably due to a     9     (slow) rate of industrialization in Africa and smaller population around rivers in Australia. Brosse added that rivers in many rich nations are unrecognizable compared with how they     10     (be) 200 years ago.

Reading fiction is highly     1     (benefit), and there are scientific studies to back this up. A recent study     2     (publish) in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin found that people who grow up reading fiction have a richer and more complex worldview than those     3     don’t.

Reading fiction develops your     4     (imagine), which allows you to be more creative and helps you with your problem-solving skills. Moreover, the ability to imagine things influences everything a person does,     5     (think) about their profession and creates, regardless of their profession. All you need to do to work on this skill is to expose yourself     6     a great novel.

Reading fiction improves your mental health. Reading improves people’s mood     7     (great) and brings it to a pleasurable state. Moreover, research suggests that regular readers are relatively mentally healthy,     8     (show) lower stress levels and higher self-esteem than non-readers.

Reading fiction helps process your emotions. According to InDaily, when a person indirectly experiences     9     event associated with an emotion, for example, if they read about what happens to a character and how they feel about it, the same region of the brain is triggered (触发，激发) as if they’d experienced the event     10     (them).

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is road testing a new way to keep winter roads ice-free by spreading on them cheese brine, the salty liquid     1    (use) to make soft cheeses, like mozzarella(马苏里拉奶酪).

Wisconsin, also called “America’s Dairyland”, is famous for its cheese. The state produced 2.8 billion pounds of cheese last year! As a result, there     2    (be) a lot of leftover cheese brine.     3    (dispose) of the brine can be expensive. So what should cheese makers do     4     the waste?

Cheese brine has salt in it,     5    , like the rock salt, helps lower water’s freezing point.

    6    (normal), towns use rock salt to de-ice streets. The salt lowers water’s freezing point, causing ice     7    (melt). But using cheese brine could help both cheese     8    (produce) and cities save money, while keeping roads safe.

In addition to saving money, cheese brine could also be a more eco-friendly option. Many people suspect that all the rock salt used every winter     9    (harm) the environment, because road crews spread about 20 million tons of salt on U. S roads every year!     10    , by spreading cheese brine on streets before adding a layer of rock salt, Milwaukee may be able to cut its rock salt use by 30 percent.

The best way     1     (ensure) your good, usable clothing doesn’t become waste is to increase the chances it ends up with someone     2     wants it.

First, don’t wait too long if you choose to donate clothing to an organization, big or small.     3     sooner people donate their unwanted items, the more demand there is     4     them.

Wherever you donate, ensure clothes are clean and dry. If it     5     (damage) or stained, don’t send it to thrift shops (廉价旧货店). They don’t have the capacity to do     6     (repair). Besides, it not only creates a     7     (finance) burden, but defeats the purpose of the charitable action.

Find an organization that focuses on the products you’re looking to give. I Support The Girls, a non-profit, for example, collects and donates millions of     8     (gentle) used bras. Founder Dana Marlowe says they are among the most in-demand but least     9     (donate) products.

You can also deal directly with people     10     (look) to use your clothes. This could be in a yard sale, your local Buy Nothing Project, or a local online giveaway group. It can take time and there’s a carbon cost: shipping is required to get to the buyer, or to the warehouse then to the buyer.