A new group of free employees have been added to a French workforce. So far,     1    theme park in western France    2    (employ) six birds, more exactly six crows, to collect and deal with garbage — mainly cigarette ends and other small pieces. The birds take the    3    (collect) trash to special bins where they can receive bird food in exchange    4    putting away the litter.

Park president Nicolas said, “The purpose of employing the crows is to educate people to take up their social responsibility. Since the birds are able to do    5    we are much more able to do than them, we should do this by ourselves.”

Crows have long been observed for their various amazing displays of     6    (intelligent). They are one of the    7    (smart) groups of animals on earth, with remarkable problem    8     (solve), tool making, and deductive (演绎) reasoning skills.

In addition to inspiring humans to pick up trash, the clever crows currently at the park are pretty excited     9    (put) their wisdom to work.

“It has become an exciting game for     10    (they),” Nicolas says. “They pick up the trash on the ground, and every day they are rewarded for what they have done.”

A Trashion Show

7 . A student at Hellesdon High School in England has been called “Rubbish Girl” for her environmentally­friendly ways. _____, that has not stopped her from cleaning up the environment.

Using the basket on her bicycle, 12­year­old Nadia has been _____ rubbish along her two­mile route to and from school since September of last year. _____ her good intentions, some of the kids at Nadia’s school have nicknamed (给……起绰号) her “Rubbish Girl” and have bullied her for her selfless efforts to help the _____. But instead of letting them bring her down, she’s using their negativity as motivation (动力).

“I’m not going to _____ doing the right thing because of them,” she said. “I’m doing something to _____ the world which they also live in. It’s everyone’s job. We are all _____ for keeping this world safe, instead of believing it’s always someone else’s job.”

Nadia’s mum, Paula, said she is _____ proud of Nadia for not only standing up to her bullies, but also standing up for what she believes in. “I told her she had two _____ — she could either stop collecting rubbish, stop attracting their ______ so that they would leave her alone, or she could face the challenge, be the ‘rubbish girl’ and keep her ______.”

As a result of the local media attention, Nadia has created a group named “Team Rubbish Girl”, where she shares updates on her green efforts. Positive ______ have poured in, all in ______ of Nadia, encouraging her to carry on with the green efforts.

“Sweetheart, you are a star that ______ really bright above the rest. Hold your head high and never let others ______ you. You are doing something selfless and amazing. Shame on the bullies,” wrote one of the local citizens on her web page.

8 . A report from the UN warns that countries’ current commitments would reduce carbon by only about 7.5% by 2030, far less than the 45% cut, which scientists say is needed to limit global temperature rises to 1.5°C, the aim of the COP26 summit.

António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, described the findings as a “thundering wake-up call” to world leaders, while experts called for action against fossil fuel companies.

Although more than 100 countries have promised to reach net zero emissions around mid-century, this would not be enough to avoid climate disasters, according to the UN emissions report, which examines the shortfall (差额) between countries intentions and actions needed on the climate. Many of the net zero commitments were found to be unclear, and unless accompanied by strict cuts in emissions this decade would allow global heating of a potentially disastrous extent.

Guterres said: “The heat is on, and as the contents of the report show, the leadership we need is off. Far off. Countries are wasting a massive opportunity to invest Covid-19 finance and recovery resources in sustainable, cost-saving, planet-saving ways. As world leaders prepare for COP26, that is another thundering wake-up call. How many do we need?”

Inger Andersen, the director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said: “Climate change is no longer a future problem. It is a now problem. To stand a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5℃, we have 8 years to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions: 8 years to make the plans, put in place the policies, carry them out and deliver the cuts. The clock is ticking loudly.”

Emissions fell by about 5. 4% last year during Covid lockdowns, the report found, but only about one-fifth of the economic recovery spending goes towards reducing carbon emissions. This failure to “build back better”, despite promises by governments around the world, cast doubt on the world’s willingness to make the economic shift necessary to settle the climate crisis, the UN said.

In the run-up to COP26, countries were supposed to submit (递交) national plans to cut emissions—called nationally determined contributions (NDCs) —for the next decade, a requirement under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. But the UNEP report found only half of countries had submitted new NDCs, and some governments had presented weak plans.

10 . When it comes to going green, intention can be easier than action. Case in point: you decide to buy a T-shirt made from 100% organic cotton, because everyone knows that organic is better for Earth. And in some ways it is; in conventional cotton-farming, pesticides strip the soil of life. But that green label doesn’t tell the whole story. Or the possibility that the T-shirt may have been dyed using harsh industrial chemicals, which can pollute local groundwater. If you knew all that, would you still consider the T-shirt green?     1    .

It’s a question that most of us are ill equipped to answer, even as the debate over what is and isn’t green becomes all-important in a hot and crowded world.     2    . We evolved to respond to threats that were clear and present. That’s why, when we eat spoiled food, we get disgusted and when we see a bright light, we shut our eyes.     3    . Scanning the supermarket aisles, we lack the data to understand the full impact of what we choose —and probably couldn’t make sense of the information even if we had it.

But what if we could seamlessly calculate the full lifetime effect of our actions on the earth and on our bodies?     4     That’s what psychologist Daniel Goleman describes in his forthcoming book, Ecological Intelligence. Using a young science called industrial ecology, businesses and green activists alike are beginning to compile the environmental and biological impact of our every decision—and delivering that information to consumers in a user-friendly way. That’s thinking ecologically—understanding the global environmental consequences of our local choices. “We can know the causes of what we’re doing, and we can know the impact of what we’re doing,” says Goleman, who wrote the 1995 best seller Emotional Intelligence.

    5     It’s also about our ability to accept that we live in an infinitely connected world with finite resources. Golem an highlights the Tibetan community of Sher, where for millenniums, villagers have survived harsh conditions by carefully conserving every resource available to them. The Tibetans think ecologically because they have no other choice. Neither do we. “We once had the luxury to ignore our impacts,” says Goleman. “Not anymore.”