2 . Leila Taheri used to go to the Welsh Harp wetland as a schoolgirl. At that time, the 160-hectare nature ______ was home to various birds, also Taheri’s perfect playground. She ______ played baseball there, forgetting to go home.

In August, 2020, 37-year-old Taheri ______ the wetland and the kind of dump-like (垃圾场般的) surroundings ______ Taheri. Because of pollution, birds populations had been ______. To make things worse, the nearby residents paid little attention to the wetland.

A strong ______ to do something controlled her. Taheri decided to begin with a litter pick. She ______ her neighbors to join in. In one month, they ______ 70 bags of rubbish. Then, Taheri expanded the work into more general environmental activism. ______ monthly litter picks, they also worked with some bird protection organizations. Currently, they are trying to ______ a planned bridge across the wetland, for it will destroy birds’ habitat despite the advantage of ______ the locals a few minutes’ walk.

Taheri’s efforts ______. More and more locals are now more environmentally ______, more involved, and have come to see the value of her work. She makes a real ______ not only to the Welsh Harp, and but for the wider community. Just as Taheri says,“Don’t stand______, do something about it.”

4 . Five years ago, we cut nearly every single tree across 19 acres here, piled and burned the branches and left the trunks where they lay. The goal was to restore one of the Ozarks’ rarest ecosystems, a type of dry and rocky grassland.

Logging down trees to bring back grass may seem puzzling in a time of climate change, as forest conservation and tree planting have become popular ways to keep carbon out of the atmosphere. But it is exactly what we should do in some parts of the Southeast. The climate and biodiversity crises are problems to be solved together. We can’t afford to rob biodiversity to pay for the climate. And grasslands are surprisingly good at pulling carbon out of the atmosphere. A single sunflower might not be the carbon grab that an oak tree is, but grass’s deep root systems store the element deep underground, where it can take hundreds or thousands of years to return to the atmosphere.

For the past century, the commonly held belief was that forests once covered most of the region from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. But we now know that’s not true. Much of the Southeast was a string of large and small grassland ecosystems with enormous biodiversity. All of these unique grasslands are under threat, but not all by tree invasion. The few remaining grasslands in Arkansas are being converted to grow rice, Virginia grasslands are being flattened by housing developers, and low-lying coastal grassy plain is facing sea-level rise. Because grasslands are so easily navigated (导航) and settled, they may be the most threatened ecosystems in the world.

And it’s obvious that everywhere, grasslands remain undervalued. Many conservation organizations working in the Southeast are still focused on tree planting and preserving existing forests. The Nature Conservancy’s Cumberland Forest Project covers 253, 000 acres of land in Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, part of an effort to store carbon and create continuous habitats for species migration during climate change. In fact, recent laws are beginning to lead us in the right direction.

7 . No doubt that humans have widely changed, developed, and exploited (开发) much of the natural world for our own ends. But how much of the land surface remains free of our often-harmful influence?

In a new study, scientists compared figures from four different sets of data using different kinds of methods and classification (分类) systems to answer this question. On average, the researchers say roughly half (48 to 56 percent) of the world’s land shows “low” influence of humans. While the figures may inspire many—stressing the vast expanse of significantly untouched lands that can still be protected through conservation measures—the study also shows just how much of the Earth has already been occupied and used by humans.

In fact, only about a quarter (20 to 34 percent) of the planet’s ice-free land surface shows “very low” signs of human influence, the researchers say, and the parts of the planet that we have left alone up until now constitute (构成) some of the least livable places on Earth. In other words, whether through urbanization, forestry, agriculture or other means, humans have applied the most influence on biodiverse land that presented ripe and easy opportunities for immediate human needs; in contrast, roasting deserts in the world’s hottest places, or frozen wastelands in its coldest spots, have been ignored.

Even so, the researchers say the results shown here give us a strong, clear marker that we can use to help structure existing and future conservation efforts by preventing disturbance on existing low influenced areas, meanwhile, recovering areas for conservation in land that has already been exploited too much.

“The encouraging takeaway from this study is that if we act quickly and decisively (果断地), there is a slim window in which we can still conserve roughly half of the Earth’s land in a relatively untouched state,” says biologist and lead author of the study, Jason Riggio.

There’s a chance, right now, to draw a line in the sand, and say “no more”.

9 . Almost a quarter of the UK’s sea swimmers may not swim in the ocean this year because of sewage (污水) dumping by water companies, according to a poll (民意调查). Sewage was dumped into waters near England’s most celebrated beaches for nearly 8,500 hours last year. And there were 1,504 discharges (排出) in 2022 on beaches supposed to be free from such pollution.

The poll spoke to 2,272 UK adults between 21 and 23 on July. Just over 30% said they typically went sea swimming during the summer, and of these 23% said they would not this year because of sewage dumping by water companies. More than two in five of the regular beachgoers also said they were less likely to visit the British seaside this summer because of sewage discharges.

The Department for Environment says government should allow the Environment Agency to charge unlimited fines on rule-breaking water companies. Fines are currently capped (上限) at £250,000. The Department for Environment has been calling for a sewage tax on annual profits and a ban on bonuses of water company managers. “Coastal communities are at the mercy of water companies who unapologetically discharge raw sewage into popular swimming spots,” Tim Farron, the Department for Environment’s spokesperson said. “The government needs to stop letting water companies off the hook and finally ban these terrible sewage discharges and defend our tourism sector.”

A Water UK spokesperson said standards at beaches had greatly improved since the 1990s but that the industry recognized it had been slow to deal with the harm to our seas caused by sewage overflows. “Over the next seven years, water and sewerage companies plan to spend £10bn—doubling current levels of investment—on sewage treatment,” they said. “As part of this, bathing waters will be among the first to receive funding.”

Today, giant pandas are one of the world's most well-known animals. And they are     1     (global) recognized as being a leading symbol of both China and nature conservation in general. But global interest     2     the animal only took off early in the 20th century.

The idea of the WWF's logo(标志)     3     (come) from Chi-Chi: a giant panda that arrived at London Zoo in 1961 — the same year that WWF     4     (create).

Aware of the need for a recognisable symbol that would break through all language barriers(障碍), WWF's founders agreed that the big, furry bear with her special black and white coat would make a great logo. The first sketches(草图) were done by the British environmentalist and     5     (art), Gerald Watterson.

Based on these, Sir Peter Scott, one of WWF's founders, drew     6     first logo. He said at the time that “we wanted an animal that was beautiful,     7     (endanger), and loved by many people in the world for     8     (it) attractive qualities. We also wanted an animal that had an impact(影响力) in black and white     9     (save) money on printing costs.”

The panda has since become a symbol not just for WWF,     10     for the conservation movement as a whole.