1 . Every year about 40,000 people attempt to climb Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. They ______ with them lots of waste. The ______ might damage the beauty of the place. The glaciers (冰川) are disappearing, changing the face of Kilimanjaro.

Hearing these stories, I’m ______ about the place — other destinations are described as “purer” natural experiences.

However, I soon ______ that much has changed since the days of disturbing reports of ______ among tons of rubbish. I find a ______ mountain, with toilets at camps and along the paths. The environmental challenges are ______ but the efforts made by the Tanzania National Park Authority seem to be ______.

The best of a Kilimanjaro ______, in my opinion, isn’t reaching the top. Mountains are ______ as spiritual places by many cultures. This view is especially evident on Kilimanjaro as ______ go through five ecosystems within a few kilometers. At the base is a rainforest. It ends suddenly at 3, 000 meters, ______ lands of low growing plants. Further up, the weather ______ — low clouds envelop the mountainsides, which are covered with thick grass. I counted twelve shades of green from where I stand. Above 4, 000 meters is the highland desert: gravel (砾石), stones and rocks. ______ you climb into an arctic-like zone with permanent (永久的) snow and the glaciers that may soon disappear.

Does Kilimanjaro deserve its reputation as a crowded mountain with lines of tourists ______ the atmosphere of peace? I found the opposite to be true.

2 . “Eco-mermaid” Merle Liivand wove a remarkable story with her attachment to the ocean. On March 7, she ________ her own world record by swimming a full marathon’s distance with a single fin (鳍) in Biscayne Bay, Florida. When Merle Liivand was a child, she had health problems, and began swimming to help her lungs get ________ . In one training session, she nearly ended up swallowing (吞下) some ________that was floating (漂浮) in the sea.

That ________ made her think of all the sea animals who faced ________ pollution every day. She decided to work to make people more aware of plastic pollution. Inspired by sea creatures, she began swimming with a special single swimming fin ________ both of her feet. This single fin allows her to swim by ________ both of her legs together. She believes swimming with it ________“a bigger message”.

Since 2022, she’s broken records, swimming vast distances — first in California, then in Florida, and this time swimming the________of a full marathon. Despite challenges like jellyfish (水母) stings, she ________ collecting trash along her route. Her dedication extends beyond records; it’s about community and global ________.

During her ________, a friend kayaked (划皮划艇) alongside, providing food and water and collecting the trash she ________. By the end of her marathon, the kayak held three bags full of trash. Liivand’s actions aim to ________a bigger goal: it’s not just about achievements, but about making a ________ impact on the world.

3 . The East African country of Kenya has been at the forefront of the global war on plastic since 2017, when officials banned plastic bags. In June 2020, the government intensified the efforts with a ban on single-use plastics in protected areas. Unfortunately, the measures have _________ made any impact. Hundreds of tons of industrial and consumer polymer (聚合物) waste continue to get _________ into landfills daily. However, if 29-year-old Nzambi Matee has her way, the unpleasant plastic heaps will soon be transformed into colourful bricks.

The material engineer’s search to find a(n) _________ solution to control plastic pollution began in 2017. She quit her job as a data analyst at a local chemical factory and set up a small lab in her mother’s backyard. It took her nine months to produce the first brick and even longer to _________ a partner to help build the machinery to make them. But the determined eco-entrepreneur was confident in her idea and did not give up.

She says, “I wanted to use my education in applied physics and material engineering to do something about the problem of plastic waste pollution. But I was very _________ that the solution had to be practical, sustainable, and affordable. The best way to do this was by _________ the waste into the construction and finding the most efficient and affordable material to build homes.”

Her company, Gjenge Makers, now hires 112 people and produces over 1,500 bricks a day. The pavers (铺路材料) are made using a mix of plastic products that cannot be reprocessed or recycled. The polymer is obtained _________ from factories or picked by hired locals from Nairobi’s largest landfill, Dandora.

The collected plastic is _________ with sand, heated at very high temperatures, and compressed into bricks that vary in colour and thickness. The resulting product is stronger, lighter, and about 30 percent cheaper than concrete bricks.

Matee, who was recently recognized as one of the Young Champions of the Earth 2020 — the United Nations’ highest environmental _________ — is far from done. Her dream is to reduce the mountain of trash in Dandora to just a hill by increasing production and expanding her offerings. She says, “The more we recycle the plastic, the more we produce affordable housing, and the more we create __________ for the youth.”

4 . Few people knew about online food delivery apps ten years ago, but today, many would find it hard to live without them. In China alone, over 400 million people use such apps. ________ online food delivery services have changed the way we eat, and they are also having a huge impact on our society.

These services have ________ brought us many benefits. They provide jobs for millions of people and help restaurants find more customers. Since the apps are very convenient, they also benefit consumers: we can now have meals delivered at any time of a day, ________ bad weather or busy schedules. This is especially true for people who work long hours, since they might not have time to cook. Not only do these apps _________ time, they also provide us with a wide variety of restaurants to choose from. They have proved to be useful for retired people as well: ________ who live far away from restaurants and supermarkets can now get hold of meals and groceries more easily.

However, we must not forget the ________ of online food delivery services. For one thing, they make it even easier to order unhealthy food, ________ in sugar, fat and salt. Food safety is another problem: it can be hard to ________ where the food actually comes from, and whether the owner is legally permitted to run a restaurant. As couriers (外卖员) need to deliver the orders as quickly as possible, some ________ traffic rules. In recent years, there have been a number of terrible traffic accidents because of this. ________, the industry is creating unbelievable amounts of packaging waste: over a million tonnes of online food delivery boxes are thrown away every year. Experts assume that this number will continue to ________ in the future, and this will have an increasingly negative impact on the environment.

There are many advantages of these services, but we need to make sure that we make the right choices ________. We should do our best to limit waste, especially when it comes to ________, so as to contribute to sustainable development. We also need to think about what we eat and the impact on our health. Next time you are thinking about ________, you should ask yourself whether you really need to. In most cases, it's better to walk over to the supermarket, buy the ________ you need, and then cook them yourself.

6 . I fell in love with Yosemite National Park the first time I saw it. I went there for camping with my parents. On the way out, I asked them to wait while I ran up to EI Capitan, a huge rock of 3, 300 feet straight up. I touched that ________ rock and knew immediately I wanted to ________ it. That has been my life’s ________ ever since—climbing the rocks and mountains of Yosemite. I’ve long made Yosemite my home.

About 7 years ago I started seeing a lot of waste,________ beer cans, empty boxes, around the area. It’s beyond me why visitors started respecting the place less and treated such a beautiful ________ place this way.

I made an attempt to clean the place myself, but the job was too ________. I would spend an hour or two on the job, only to find the area trashed all over again weeks later. Finally, I got so tired of it that I had to ________ an idea to change the situation.

In 2018, together with some climbers, I set a ________ for a cleanup. On that day, more than 300 people appeared there. Over three days we ________ about 6,000 pounds of trash. It was ________ how much we were able to achieve. I couldn’t believe the difference we made—the ________ looked clean!

Each year these climbers come for the ________ from everywhere. In 2022 alone, 2,945 people picked up 42,330 pounds of trash.

There are many people around us who are ________ with their surroundings. If you are one of them, I would say the only way to change things is by ________ rather than complaining. We need to teach by example. After all, everybody has his ________ to protect the environment.

7 . Sitting back in my seat, I can’t quite believe that I’m about to travel along the railway that many foreign experts thought was “impossible”. All this time, the song “Sky Railway” has been ___________ inside my head. The words “railways like massive dragons are winding among the mountains” seem particularly _________ as I travel across the “roof of the world”.

I was one of the people who came from all parts of China to work on this railway._______   years to finish, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is a record of all of our efforts to _______ the most difficult engineering challenges. How to _______ the delicate ecosystem (脆弱的生态) was the most important.

The first landmark to catch my eye is the splendid Qingshuihe Bridge, the world’s longest bridge built over permafrost. Look! A group of Tibetan antelopes is moving _______ the bridge, with some stopping to eat grass at their _________. Thirty-three passages(通道) have been built under the railway to allow the animals to move safely and freely in their natural _______. Wild animals such as these Tibetan antelopes have now been using these _______ for years. They seem totally __________ that we are speeding past at over 100 kilometers an hour.

To prevent ________ to wetlands and grasslands, 675 bridges with ________ about 160 kilometer were built between Golmud and-Lhasa.

The journey has been flying by, and before I know it, we have reached Tanggula Station.________at over 5,000 metres above sea level, this is the ________ railway station in the world. In locations such as this, the thin air,________weather and high levels of UV radiation presented perhaps the greatest ________ for railway workers. To make sure we stayed ________, several oxygen-making stations were built. We were also able to enjoy ________ breaks in lower areas.

As we pass Cuona Lake, I feel a sense of pride and achievement. It is so close to the railway that I want to ________ and touch its pale blue mirror-like surface. I am proud that we built our “impossible” railway, and did so with the ________ that the environment deserves. It truly is an extraordinary “Sky Railway”.

8 . The first time ever I realized that plastic was a serious matter for our planet was during a road trip in Western Australia, almost 12 years ago.

We ______ at a supermarket along the Coral Bay coast to buy some groceries and the lady at the counter told us they didn’t sell any shopping bags in order to prevent plastic in the ______ and to help preserving the endangered turtles (海龟) living in that area. After a first reaction of surprise, we ______ all our shopping in our arms and left.

This was just one of the many experiences I’ve lived that made me more aware of my ______ and pushed me to adopt different habits to live and ______ more sustainably.

Our trip to Borneo was another life-changing ______ that has strengthened my determination to have a ______ lifestyle. While traveling in some Asian countries, we came to know that ______ drinkable water was always a challenge. So we had to travel with our water bottle, and we ______ to avoid using plastic during our trip.

Besides, we were also deeply ______ by our stay on Libaran Island. A ______ turtle conservation project and the community had made big efforts to ______ the beaches and creatively reuse plastic for ten years. Despite that, the shore is washed daily with tons of plastic coming from the tides.

Facing this global issue ______ raised in me a feeling of sadness and anger that soon turned into ______: to do as much as possible to reduce plastic in our life. Small changes can ______ a difference!