1 . I first came to Berwickshire for a job-to be the Ranger for the Berwickshire Marine Reserve.I was then Senior Ranger for St Abb’s Head National Nature Reserve and I set up my own business, In Our Nature, offering wildlife journeys,walks,talks and courses in 2020. There’s so much I love about Berwickshire.Its stunning scenery. Its variety of landscapes and habitats and range of amazing wildlife, both above and below the water. Its friendly people. In places you can feel like you are a million miles from anywhere, when in reality you’re just an hour’s drive from Edinburgh.

The thing that supports everything on the Berwickshire Coast is its varied and fascinating geology(地质).The jewel in the crown is Siccar Point. With its world-famous non-conformity(均变)，it’s considered the birthplace of modern geology. The geology not only shapes the landscape, but it also impacts on the wildlife, forming varied habitats from steep sheltered valleys and towering cliffs to sheltered sandy bays.

There’s nothing I like more than being out in nature and sharing my passion with others, so starting up In Our Nature was a no brainer. In the warmer months I offer tours on land and sea to help folk enjoy the amazing wildlife and scenery of the Berwickshire Coast. In the darker months my online courses help people learn about wildlife in the hope that it will increase their enjoyment of the marine and coastal environments they spend time in.

My favourite spot on the Berwickshire Coast has got to be a place called Petticowick. The views up the coast and inland to the Mire Loch are second to none. It’s a place where you can marvel at geology which covers unimaginable periods of time. You can listen to and watch thousands of seabirds that return to the cliffs to breed each spring. Or witness all the amazing activity of the breeding seal colony on the beach below during the early winter.

A study shows 176 bird species have been found to build nests with human litter, such as plastic bags and fishing nets.     1     worries the scientists is that such materials can harm chicks and even adult birds. The study     2     (review) research covering almost 35,000 nests and finds that birds use human-made materials in nests on all continents except Antarctica. While such behaviour     3     (observe) as early as in the 1830s, in recent years it has undoubtedly increased.

Seventy-five-year-old Xiao Luying is the vice-captain of a team of volunteers engaged in cleaning floating trash from the Yangtze River. The team,     1     (form) in 2019, is made up of more than 50 local ex-fishermen aged over 60,     2     the average.

“We have lived along the Yangtze River since childhood and want to do our part in protecting it,” said Xiao from a village of Anhui Province. Sixty-year-old Ma Mingsuo is one of the team, who has fished for over 40 years. Upon     3     (end) his fishing career, this old fisherman turned to apply his sailing experience to protecting the mother river. “It’s good that my skill can still be used to clean the garbage in the river,     4     will also benefit the future generations,” said Ma.

Each month, this     5     (volunteer) team patrols (巡逻) 15 km of waterways three     6     (time), collecting trash and preventing people from fishing on the river. The trash collected by them     7     (send) to the garbage disposal station on the shore, while the recyclable waste such as plastic bottles is sold.

In over a year, the team of volunteers has grown from 13 members to over 50. Up to now, they     8    (clean) over 50 tons of floating waste. “We will continue to protect the Yangtze River until we are     9     old to handle the boat, as it’s a career     10     (real) deserving our time and energy,” said Xiao.

5 . One of Switzerland’s most popular ski areas has been covering mountain areas with cloth material in an effort to reduce ice melt aver the summer.

Workers have ________ large blankets of material around Mount Titlis, a ski area near the Swiss mountain town of Engelberg. The area contains a glacier (冰川) that has been ________ large amounts of ice over the past 20 years. The ________ cloth, made of a chemical material, is designed to ________ the sun. “Putting the blankets ________ the glacier provides a natural protective shield,” Gian Darms, who oversees snow conditions and mountain security in the area, explained to Reuters. Decreasing snow cover ________ higher temperatures presents a huge ________ to ski areas across Europe. Having a glacier can provide some protection from ________ change. It can help ________ large snow supplies on the mountain year-round. This snow can later be moved to fill in areas where it is needed.

But the Swiss government has ________ that 90 percent of the country’s remaining 1,500 glaciers will ________ by the end of the century ________ nothing is done to cut man-made pollution emissions. Davms said he has had to ________ increase the size of the blankets over the glacier in recent years to save what is ________. A small group of ________ work over five-to-six weeks to cover parts of the glacier. ________ the summer, the workers spend weeks removing the ________.

Currently, the reflective material covers about 100,000 square meters, which is about the ________ of 14 football fields. The blankets help reflect the sun’s energy ________ into the atmosphere.

Collected ________ is used to fill openings in the glacier that could open up along the area’s ski runs. The snow also helps support lift structures that are fixed into the ice.

10 . John “Charlie” Veron-widely known as “the Godfather of Coral Reef (珊瑚礁)”-is a celebrated expert who has personally discovered nearly a quarter of the world’s coral species and has spent the past 45 years diving Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. But now the 73-year-old is raising the alarm about its future. The Great Barrier Reef, one of the natural wonders, is 2, 300 kilometers long and is the only living organism that can be seen from space. It is considered a World Treasure Site due to its biodiversity (生物多样性)with 30 species of whales, dolphins and sharks. Within the reef itself, there are also a number of tiny organisms and fishes.

However, its health is threatened. After the recent mass bleaching (白化)events, Veron dived in many areas of the Great Barrier Reef to see the damage for himself. “I was seeing and feeling it and it was absolutely shocking, ” he says.

Veron says the mass bleaching events in the past few years-and the possibility of losing one of nature’s greatest treasures-were a wake-up call for the world in the wider battle against climate change, which, together with the rising sea temperature, is considered the greatest threats to the reef.

Fortunately, earlier this year, the Australian government announced nearly 400 million dollars in new funding towards scientific projects designed to help the reef.

There has been criticism in Australia about the slow process for the funding. “It won’t be wasted, though,”Veron says. “As scientists will be able to create a sort of seed bank to protect the species until the climate is good enough to rebuild the reef. What the scientists hope to do is to help nature along a bit after the big carbon dioxide increase is over and it starts to come down.”