3 . How to Be Eco-friendly

If you’d love to be more eco-friendly but don’t know where to begin, start with a few small changes.    1    

Lowering Your Energy.

Turn off lights and unplug power strips (电源插板) that you’re not using.     2     Since some devices can still use energy even when they’re turned off, turn off these power strips at night to completely cut off energy use. If you need to leave your computer, or TV on, try setting it to sleep mode instead of simply leaving it on.

Using public transportation.

    3     Keeping cars off the road in rush hours can also improve the air quality. If you do need to drive somewhere, ask friends if they’d like to carpool (拼车) , so fewer cars are on the road.

    4    

Say no to unnecessary plastic straws, lids, and bags and stop using plastic wrap and plastic containers for food storage. Instead, you can use reusable water bottles made of sustainable material like glass, bamboo, and ceramic.

Considering growing a plant.

They add more oxygen to the air, which means a less polluted air. If you don’t have a green thumb, choose some plants that are rather easy to look after.     5     If possible, grow more than one plant.

4 . Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better if we did not bring so much material home in the first place.

The total amount of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a typical household’s waste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard.

Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of it for carrying this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in the first place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue, encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example.

But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to associate packaging with quality. We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This is especially true of food. But it also applies to a wide range of consumer products, which often have far more packaging than necessary.

There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realize just how much unnecessary material we are collecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but we have a mountain to climb.

5 . All living things in the ocean are endangered by humans polluting the water.     1     One way is the dumping( 倾倒) of certain waste materials, such as garbage and used water, into the ocean. The harmful bacteria that feed on the garbage use up much of the oxygen in the surrounding water, so other creatures in the area often don’t get enough.

Other substances( 物 质 ), such as radioactive waste material, can also cause pollution.     2     But after years of being exposed to the ocean water, the containers may begin to leak(漏).

    3     Oil is spilled into the ocean when oil ships sink or when oil wells in the ocean cannot be capped. The oil covers the gills( 腮 ) of fish and prevents them from breathing. Diving birds get the oil on their wings and are unable to fly. When they clean themselves, they are often poisoned by the oil.

Rivers also   can   contribute to the   pollution of oceans.     4     Fertilizers   used   on   the farmlands may be carried to the ocean, where they cause a great increase in the amount of certain plants. Too much of some plants can actually be poisonous to fish.

Worse yet are the pesticides(杀虫剂) carried to the ocean. these chemicals slowly build up in fish and other small animals.     5     The buildup of these chemicals in the animals can make them ill or cause their babies to be born dead or sick.

6 . There was a time when a trip to the supermarket in the United States often ended with a seemingly simple question from the cashier, "Paper or plastic？"Well, which type of bag would you choose？

While both types of bags have some influence on the environment, it has long been supposed that paper bags are kinder. They are made from a renewable source, are broken down easily, burn without giving off thick smoke and can be recycled. However, the producing process behind paper bags uses more energy than that of plastic ones. How can this be true？

Studies show that paper bag production requires four times as much energy as plastic bag production.

And the amount of water used to make them is twenty times higher. Besides, the influence on forests is very serious. It takes about fourteen million trees to produce ten billion paper bags, which happen to be the number of bags used in the United States yearly. In terms of recycling, the idea that paper bags are more environment friendly than plastic ones can be quickly discarded. Research shows it requires about 98% less energy to recycle plastic than it does to recycle paper.

Even though paper bags might be more harmful than plastic ones, plastic still seems to be considered as the more harmful of the two by governments. In Ireland, for example, a tax has been introduced to discourage the use of plastic bags. People have to pay 22 cents for every plastic bag, and as a result, their use has dropped quickly.

There’s no doubt that it makes more sense to reuse these bags. However, we don’t seem to be doing that at present. That may be because they fall apart quickly. If so, cloth bags are a better choice, but still, their production also has a bad influence on the environment. So what to do? How should we answer the question of “Paper or plastic?” It seems that we first need to ask ourselves one more general question: “What can I do to help the environment?”

Household garbage sorting and recycling has become a hot topic in Shanghai because of China’ s first compulsive garbage-separation law     1     every household and institution shall classify waste into four     2    （category）. Those who fail to sort garbage may     3    （fine） up to 200 yuan.

Previously, everything went into one bin, so this change has made many people very     4       （worry）, who said they were struggling to master the details quickly.

Now thanks to the efforts of     5     number of young programmers, discovering the proper classification for each piece of household waste has become as simple as taking a photo     6     calling someone using your smartphone.

They have applied speech and image recognition technologies     7     apps and other smartphone services to guide Shanghai residents through the garbage-separation rules.

Most of the apps and services, which     8     （begin） springing up last month in app stores, on messaging tool WeChat and mobile payment service Alipay, allow users to type in the name of waste     9    （identify） which category it belongs to. Many apps also use speech and image recognition to make the process much easier, but their creators say they will disappear in time with the Chinese     10    （become） more accustomed to the rules.

8 . More than two thirds of the world’s polar bears will be wiped out by 2050, according to a shocking new study. By then, scientists say, global warming will have melted 42 percent of the Arctic sea ice. By 2100, only a very few of these important creatures will be left.

The report has been produced by the US Geological Survey. The scientists have publicized their findings in the hope of influencing US Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, who has been asked to put polar bears on the US endangered species list.

Polar bears depend on floating sea ice as a platform for hunting seals, which are their main food. Without enough ice, polar bears would be forced to go onto the land, where they are poorly skilled hunters, and would be unlikely to adapt to the life on the land in time. Experts say few little bears would survive and the stress could make many females unable to get pregnant.

The team of American and Canadian scientists spent six months studying bears, on the ground, from spotter planes and in the lab, using computer models. Some team members fear the result is even worse for the bears than what their report says. They say the Arctic is warming faster than anywhere in the world and much faster than their computer had been forecasting. Satellite observations have showed that the ice has decreased to an all­time low.

However, not everyone in the scientific community believes that global warming is happening on such an alarming scale. Another investigation has found that polar bears are still being hunted by wealthy “sportsmen” who want their skins and heads. At least ten international companies offer bear­hunting trips.

I'd like to brief introduce the Hangzhou Public Bicycle Service with you. Our city insists. on protect the environment, so we begin to use the Public Bicycle Service to reduce the traffic stress in 2008. There were65 thousand bicycle for people to use in daily life. In general, more than 8 million people use them every year.

Some people think they are very useful but believe they will make us society more beautiful. Others think they are not convenience enough. As far as I concerned, riding a bicycle is such a good idea. We can take exercise in this way. Meanwhile, our environment can be protected. So, let's put the idea into an action!