Mount Qomolangma, the world's highest mountain, is many things to many people. Adventure seekers and     1     （profession）climbers climb the mountain, again and again,       2     (consider) it to be an achievement. It     3     (report) that 2019 saw more than 60,000 people visit it. Imagine the amount of garbage that must have been collected.

A new gallery in Nepal is going to showcase artwork made from the garbage     4     has been removed from the mountain. The Sagarmatha Next Center, a visitors' center next to the base camp, will be hosting the gallery as a way     5     (draw) attention to the large amount of garbage left there.

Artists will create artwork using the garbage that the climbers often leave behind, including     6     (use) oxygen bottles, torn tents, ropes, broken ladders, cans and plastic wrappers. They will also teach locals how to turn it into     7     (piece) of art.

“We want to showcase how you can transform waste to precious art     8     provide employment and income,” Project director Tommy Gustafsson said. “We hope to change people's opinions about the garbage and manage it," he added.

The gallery is set to have a "soft opening" for locals in the spring. It     9     (display) artwork to raise environmental awareness and sell souvenirs. The money     10     the sale will go to conservation in the area, Gustafsson said.

5 . Peter and Lisa Marshall’s wedding day was unforgettable, according to Lisa. But her husband has _________ it. “It’s the _________ part because you want to remember the happy past, and you’re alone in the _________ ,” she said.

Three years ago, at the age of 53, Peter was _________ with early Alzheimer’s（老年痴呆症）. Eventually, he forgot his wife. Lisa became just another nameless _________ , with their entire _________ together erased. And yet, a whisper of their _________ must have remained—because all of a sudden, Lisa said, her husband started courting（求爱）her, as if they’d just started _________ .

One day, when a wedding scene came on TV, Peter pointed to the _________ , “Let’s do it.”

“And I said, ‘Do what?’ And he pointed again. And I said, ‘Do you want to __________ ?!’ And he got this smile on his face and he said, ‘Yeah.’ So he fell in love with me __________ ,” Lisa said.

Lisa __________ . A few months ago, she __________ a wedding for her already husband.

“I can’t even describe to you how __________ it was. He was so __________ and happy. And it was very touching,” she said.

Unfortunately, it was a Cinderella（灰姑娘）moment. The clock struck __________ and by the next morning, this __________ too was lost to the fog. But Lisa had fully __________ that. “I’m the one who’s going to __________ that. And that’s going to help me heal later, because it really is a true love story,” she said.

Alzheimer’s can __________ so much—but fortunately, love is almost always the last to go.

6 . Ways to protect yourself online

People often feel a sense of unknown and separation while on their computer. However, the online world exposes individuals to a wide range of possible dangers. Yet, by taking a few measures, being on the internet need not become a potential danger.

Security

Whether you get online to visit with loved ones, surf the web or complete financial transactions (业务), your computer must be secure.     1     . However, for added protection, you must install software that prevents viruses from infecting your device. Otherwise, hackers may be able to also obtain your passwords and get into your online accounts.

Password Wisdom

The more complicated the password, the harder you make it for hackers to decode. Recommended passwords often contain upper and lower case letters along with numbers and symbols.     2     . IT techs also advise that you change your password every month or so to heighten the security.

    3    

If shopping online or making other financial transactions, make sure the website has safety features. Safe websites typically have an “https” address and a closed padlock somewhere on the page. Still, make sure the page is safe by clicking on the padlock. There should be a security certificate displayed. Check the “issued to” pop-up window (弹窗) to ensure that the issuance (发布) matches the page.     4     .

Download Dangers

When you download a file, game or program, you are at risk for additionally getting viruses or unwanted software.     5     . These programs may then gain access to files on your computer or follow your keystrokes (按键) to sites and gain access by learning your passwords.

7 . Human societies depend on healthy ecosystems (生态系统). People use their products in the shape of fish, meat, crops and fibers such as cotton and silk. Medicines may be directly harvested from the natural world or inspired by molecules (分子) and elements found within it. Through light reaction, trees and other plants take in carbon and pump out oxygen.

The services that ecosystems provide to humans depend, in turn, on there being a diversity of living things. More than 75% of global food-crop types, including coffee, cocoa and almonds, are pollinated (授粉) by animals. The complex web supporting every food chain and ecosystem means that the narrow range of species that humans eat and exploit cannot be sustained (维持) without the existence of a much greater diversity of animals, plants and bacteria.

When IPBES published its assessment of the state of global biodiversity in 2019, it offered a sobering picture. Roughly 1 million animal and plant species were considered to be at risk of extinction. These included many that are used in farming. At least 9% of the 6,200 sorts of house-trained mammals that humans eat, or use to produce food, had become extinct by 2016, and at least 1,000 more are threatened. And one-third of ocean fish stocks were being unsustainably exploited in 2015.

Surveys also show that the loss of biodiversity is the result of a combination of factors: climate change, pollution, human exploitation of land, sea, plants and animals, and the movement of some species into new territories where they destroy existing ecosystems.

Understanding a problem, however, is a necessary step towards solving it. And that is where technology can help. Ironically (讽刺地), it is humans’ use of technology, whether in simple forms such as chainsaws (链锯) or dragnets, or more complex ones such as modern agriculture and transportation, that is chiefly responsible for biodiversity loss. The challenge now is to arrange it so that it is not just part of the problem, but part of the solution.

8 . One of Britain’s few typical contributions to world culture may come to an end, according to a survey that suggests holiday postcards are being emailed and texted into extinction (消亡). More than half of the 1,000 holiday-makers interviewed said they had decided to send fewer cards, turning instead to their electronic competitors.

A quarter of the respondents (受访者) dismissed postcards as old-fashioned and slow to arrive. A further 14% admitted that thinking of something to fill the space was too challenging, compared with a call home. Although officially invented by a Hungarian, Emanuel Herrmann, in 1869, the idea of illustrated cards was taken up with most enthusiasm in Victorian Britain, joining Gothic architecture and landscape gardening as fields in which the country excelled.

“If the British postcard did become extinct, we would lose for ever something of great importance to the nation,” said Chris Mottershead of Thomson Holidays, which charged with the survey. He was backed by Marie Angelou of Sussex University, who has studied the importance of sending and receiving postcards. “Postcards are nothing like phone calls, instant texting and direct photo shots via the mobile,” she said. “All these are useful, practical devices, but postcards offer something else, something additional that is not mundane (世俗的) and simply functional, but imaginative and personal. They can produce the real atmosphere of your holiday in a way that nothing else can do. They’re also for more than a moment — with some people adding them to collections built up over years and years.”

Postcard-collecting, is third only to coins and stamps in Britain’s related tradition of collecting things. The country’s uniquely postcard-related achievements include the invention in 1902 of the“divided back”. With the address taking up half of the writing area, brief postcard scribbles (潦草的书写) became the forerunner to today’s text messages.

9 . Song Chunfang still remembers his teacher Yuan Longping, known as the “father of hybrid rice,” telling them to speed up the promotion of hybrid rice in Madagascar before their trip to the country in October 2020.

Yuan Longping, famous for developing the first high-yield hybrid rice strain capable of eliminating (消灭) hunger for large numbers of people, died of organ failure at 91 on May 22, 2021.

In April 1979, Yuan presented his paper to an international academic conference on hybrid rice in Manila, sharing China's experience in hybrid rice research with the rest of the world. Over four decades, research teams working on hybrid rice have been promoting the technology overseas. So far, Yuan's hybrid rice has been grown in more than 60 countries, with a total growing area of 8 million hectares (公顷) outside China, according to the China National Hybrid Rice R&D Center where Yuan worked.

Established in Madagascar in 2019, the African sub-center is the only overseas sub-center of China's national hybrid rice engineering technology research center, and it is functioning well. Chinese experts in the sub-center set up a service chain including providing seeds, relevant training and technical guidance. More than 100 skilled local trainees were given online courses to become hybrid rice experts who can better serve the needs of local farmers. So far, the sub-center has approved three hybrid rice varieties in Madagascar, with two other varieties suitable for growing in most regions of the country expected to gain approval this year.