1 . Donna Edmonds certainly knows a thing or two about getting children outside of the classroom. Having been a teacher for 23 years, she’s now in charge of Farms For City Children, a program enabling children in cities to explore the farms in the British countryside. Visiting children can take part in the farm tasks: growing and harvesting in the gardens; caring for chickens and looking after the land; and cooking up a home-grown meal in the farmhouse kitchen.

Donna’s connection with the charity led to a life-changing experience. She explained, “In November 2000, my headteacher said we’d got this trip going to a farm. I didn’t want to do that. I’m from south London and had no interest in farming.” But the week at Farms For City Children changed Donna’s entire life.

Donna said, “Quite honestly, the nature connection gap in our society is embarrassing; there are so many children who haven’t been to the countryside. I remember asking them what cows drank and they replied “milk”. Seeing them fall in love with nature was incredible to my life.”

Donna believes there is a strong need for teachers to bring city children into close contact with nature. Farms for City Children was founded in 1976, and it has now embraced a new direction — more children from different backgrounds can get into the countryside and they may one day even make a career from it.

Citywalk is a new travel trend for youngsters to explore different cultural spots. Gather together a couple of good friends and take a walk through the streets — this is     1     many youngsters in China enjoy doing when they visit a new city. To them, Citywalk means wandering around the city on foot. They can follow a fantastic urban route, experiencing the atmosphere,     2     (explore) old buildings, sipping a cup of coffee, or tasting a variety of local snacks.

In China, the Citywalk trend is spreading from the first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai     3     the second and third-tier cities, encouraging more participants and event organizers     4     (take) part in. Some organizers invite folk culture    5     (researcher) and enthusiasts to act as tour guides. Citywalk not only     6     (offer) a way for young people to interact with a city but also provides     7     (they) with a new social scene. They can     8     (easy) make friends with people     9     have the same ideas and interests. At the same time, Citywalk represents an opportunity for tour guides and travel service providers to offer a more     10     (profession) service to meet with ever-changing market needs.

5 . With few trees left to slow the wind in southern Madagascar, sand blows continuously. It settles across fields, villages, roads and in the eyes of hungry children waiting for food aid.

Madagascar, the fourth-largest island on Earth, contains one of the planet’s most diverse ecosystems. It has thousands of species of colorful plants and wild animals. But it is not all a natural, green paradise, especially in the south, where the environmental reality has changed.

Four years of extremely dry weather and forest clearing to make farmland have turned the once fertile area into a dusty red emptiness. “There’s nothing to harvest. That’s why we’re starving,” said Tarira, the mother of seven waiting at the World Food Program(WFP)center near Anjeky Beanatara to get Plumpy, a dense peanut-based food provided to starving children. Like many others in the area, Tarira and her family have sometimes eaten a local plant called raketa. “The plant grows in the wild but provides few valuable nutrients,” she said, adding that eating it could cause stomach pain. The UN agency said more than a million people in southern Madagascar currently needed help from the WFP and the food crisis here grew over several years. At the height of it, the WFP warned the island was at risk of seeing “the world’s first climate change famine.”

Theodore Mbainaissem who runs WFP operations in southern Madagascar says there are no usual weather patterns any longer and villagers can no longer predict the best time to plant or harvest. However, he adds the WFP has made joint efforts with other aid organizations to resolve the food crisis — children with severe malnutrition have dropped from about 30 percent a few months before to about 5 percent now. “When you look in the villages, you see children running left and right. That wasn’t the case before,” he says.

7 . The Lomax family needed a dog. Though their house was already full with seven people, they knew a dog would truly make the house a home. So they settled on a dog whom they named Jack.     1    

It was Jack’s protective instinct (本能) that would eventually save the lives of Lomax family. Indeed, if it wasn’t for him, the family may never have survived the terrible accident that would eventually befall (降临到头上) them one cold January day in 2017.

It was a night like many others. Autumn, the family’s youngest child and her mother Ashley had settled into bed in one of the bedrooms on the second floor. Jack, who rarely left Autumn’s side, had settled in there as well.     2     At some point during the night, while the family was fast asleep, a fire had started in one of the other second-floor bedrooms, Jack had picked up a whiff (些微的气味) of the smoke in the next room. In an instant, the brave dog jumped into action.

The four-legged family member knew something was wrong but had no way of telling his owners.     3     She pushed him off her and tried to roll over but he began again. Then he went to Autumn and did the same thing until both were up.

    4     She screamed at the top of her lungs as she ran from the room, alerting (使警觉) the rest of the family to the disaster that was taking place. Jack did his part again too, barking as loudly as he could. Ashley’s scream woke the four other adults and two more children.     5    

In no time at all, the fire had engulfed (吞没) nearly the entire home, but luckily, all of the Lomax had made it out alive, with Jack leading the way.