2 . It won’t take you long to find out that Filiplnos (菲律宾人) are big fans of bananas. But what you might be ______ to learn is that we don’t just use bananas themselves. In fact, banana leaves are the main part of everyday life and have many different ______ . From wrapping food and ______ table covers to treating wounds-these leaves have endless ______ . At a young age, I ______ my family using them for all of these purposes and more, my favorite of which is kamayan.

Kamayan, which literally ______ “by hand,” is a practice in which you ______ around a large table covered with banana leaves and eat without plates and tools. The food is the main event, but the banana leaves ______ in a humble way — providing a subtle (淡淡的) and sweet ______ to the food placed on them. Getting everything ready is a very ______ experience: Every member of my family of 14 works intently to ______ ingredients (材料) into a rich harmony of colors and flavors — all seasoned (调味) with love and laughter.

When I think about these priceless moments, I am ______ that I’ve learned the importance of feeling ______   to nature. It is powerful to see how we can ______ single-use plastics by using this centuries-old innovative ______ . Thus we need everyone involved to create a world without plastic pollution and fight for the preservation of Earth for generation to come.

3 . My childhood is closely associated with the Yellow River. My father ______ to take me with him on his trips to Longyangxia Reservoir. At Longyangxia, I was ______ by the beauty of nature and as a child, I wanted to stay there and ______ up with the Yellow River. Li Bai, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, praised the ______ water of the Yellow River. He saw it as coming down from heaven and ______ the people living on the banks of the river. However, in 1997, for about 330 days, not a single ______ of water from the Yellow River went into the sea. ______ are not the only punishments given by nature. A friend of my father, a university professor, is doing ______ on the Yellow River. According to him, since there is no longer enough water to ______ the mud, the river may soon change its course ______ we allow this situation to continue. This is the ______ of unbalanced growth. If we’d taken care of the vegetation in the upper and middle ______ of the river, we would still be able to ______ it as Li Bai described it.

In fact, people have begun to ______ the problem. I have seen farmers _______ trees on mountain slopes in Shanxi province. I have seen them ______ up the hillsides carrying heavy buckets of water collected several kilometers away down in the valley to ______ around the trees. These farmers are ______ helping our Yellow River, just as the river has helped them. These unsung heroes gave me the confidence that with hard work of us all, we and nature will grow together, and ______ in the future, we will be able to drink the ______ water from the Yellow River-our mother river.

5 . An Environmental Educator Devoted to Adventurous Exploration

For more than 60 years, David Attenborough has undergone many adventures and devoted himself to informing humanity about the beauty and fragility of the natural world. His countless series and programmes, _______ by the BBC, have inspired and educated three generations or more, opening a window onto the world that would _______ have remained closed.

Attenborough was _______ environmental protection long before it was fashionable to describe such action as “green.” His pioneering approach made ecology, once the _______ of only naturalists and conservationists, a subject of mainstream interest.

During the early years of his _______ career, Attenborough just took the role of a keen observer, describing what he saw in nature and sharing in the viewer’s awe. But _______, his documentaries started to adopt a more serious _______.

In State of the Planet (2010), Attenborough used the latest scientific evidence and interviews with leading scientists to _______ the impact of man’s activities on the natural world. He later _______ the issues of global warming in The Truth About Climate Change (2016) and the ________ situations of endangered species in Saving Planet Earth (2017).

Attenborough’s programmes are among the BBC’s ________ international exports, ensuring that his message is heard by a(n) ________ audience. His down-to-earth style and never-tiring passion have spanned generations, cultures and continents, ________ his place in history as a uniquely important environmental educator.

Once, Attenborough said he would retire from making nature documentaries when he turned 80. That never happened—the TV explorer celebrated his 89th birthday this April and he is still lending his vision and voice to the ________ programmes he has made for decades.

“You’d be amazed at how much we have ________ to show,” Attenborough said. “The natural world is hugely varied with a vast number of species, and we will always find something new to show you.”

6 . Italian shepherds are taking the lead in forest fire prevention, by leading their animals to eat the bush. Laws once _______ such practices are being changed, as rural communities begin taking a _______ in forest management.

In thinner forested areas, larger animals feeding on plants were found to be _______ in reducing forest fire risk. Smaller animals like goats and sheep are _______ for areas that lack natural predators (天敌). In Italy, the eating habits of smaller animals make them perfect for _______ woody bushes.

Although a forest seems fascinating, _______ it’s no longer a natural ecosystem. When climate change regulations limited the shepherd’s _______ to work in woodlands, it was part of a continent-wide _______ to fight against deforestation. The effort worked well, with total forest _______ in Italy increasing by 75% since the 1960s. Red deer and other native animals have disappeared. Therefore, the ________ of sheep and goats meant that nothing prevented woody bushes from dominating the land, turning small fires into ________ ones.

Meanwhile, shepherds decided to write letters asking the permission to graze in the woods again. They hoped to carry out a ________ project of rural areas, where Italy’s worst wildfire within 40 years ________ its way from the mountain tops to the sea. They hoped to bring in more shepherds to control the fires and ________ eco-tourism in the area. It makes sense that those most invested in the forests’ ________ would be worthwhile to save them, which goes for both the shepherds and the animals.

7 .                                                                          How India’s air pollution is being turned into floor tiles (地砖)

As a 10-year-old living in Mumbai, Angad Daryani often _________ to breathe during football matches because of the thick smog surrounding the Indian megacity. The heavily polluted air seemed to worsen his asthma (哮喘).

India has the world’s worst air pollution. _________ to 22 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities, India’s toxic air kills more than one million people each year. Air pollution also _________ global warming. A major component of PMas is black carbon, which can absorb one million times more energy from the sun than carbon dioxide. Experts say _________ pollutants such as black carbon could help slow global warming and improve air quality.

_________ by his own experience of the effects of air pollution on his health, Daryani is one of a growing number of entrepreneurs hoping to clean up India’s skies. His solution is to capture the soot (煤烟) and other polluting particles in containers so it can be _________ something useful like building materials.

For Daryani, there is no time to spare — India must _________ reduce pollution to protect people’s health. “_________ all vehicles to electric will take at least 30 years. During this time, cities will choke up with air pollution,” he says.

His solution to the problem is a simple one — develop a low-cost system that can _________ the pollution so it can be turned into something else. After designing his first device, Daryani __________ a start-up in 2017 __________ building an affordable outdoor air purifier. Low-income households in India are at higher risk of dying from air pollution, __________ not producing it themselves.

A single purification device developed by Daryani can filter 300 cubic feet of air per minute and store 11,540 cubic centimetres of pollutants. But __________ just throwing away the captured pollutants, Daryani and his team decided to make use of them. Instead, the carbon captured in the containers is given to another Indian company called Carbon Craft Design, which uses the powdered pollutants to create stylish, handcrafted decorative flooring tiles.

Daryani’s company recently completed its first investment round, __________ $1.5m from US and Indian investors. Daryani plans to use this funding to run a pilot programme, deploying devices at schools, hotels and industrial projects across India this autumn. But he also hopes to make the technology __________ outside India in the next few years and the company has already received interest from South Korea and Mexico.