1 . Esther encourages her two kids to make crafts and drawings from old bits of packaging. She began _____ her family’s wastage when she moved house and decided that she would leave all single-use _____ behind and buy everything she need from second-hand shops.

She said, “It’s cheaper and you know that the items will _____ being used instead of being set aside — so it’s just perfect! Each of us plays a big _____ in taking care of the environment. It’s _____ to try to help rather than just keep complaining about the current situation.”

Any glass container is _____ and repurposed for something else. This means that the family only send a piece of _____ to landfill every two weeks on average. She tries not to buy any plastic at all, but when she does, she will get it _____ washed and recycled.

The family also grow their own tomatoes, lettuce, and some other vegetables in the garden, and have orange trees outdoors. Esther has also _____ herself in a community of friends who ______ items with each other that they need, like furniture or plates.

She said, “We tried to use the minimum ______ and take some toys and baby equipment from friends and relatives. If we really had to ______ anything, first we tried at the ______ market.”

To educate her kids, Esther takes them out on nature walks to the forest where they ______ rubbish as they go.” They enjoy this ______, because they know it’s better for the environment,” she said.

2 . As our Earth’s temperature rises because of climate change, it is having unexpected effects on our world’s forests. When temperatures rise, trees close their stomata(气孔) to _____ the loss of water, and this, in turn, slows down the _____ of photosynthesis(光合作用). As a result, these trees are shorter, grow more slowly, and thus have a _____ death rate.

Climate change also increases the _____ of droughts and wildfires. After wildfires, it takes a long time for the forest system to _____, and in some cases, the forests are _____ forever. Trees under the circumstances are also _____ to attacks by bacteria(细菌). In tropical forests, vines(藤本植物) that use the trees as _____ can often choke the trees and rob them of nutrients. Finally, humans have _____ the forest landscape through logging. When trees are replanted in the soil, they might never grow as large as the ______ trees that were cut down.

As these forests disappear, species that once called them “home” are forced to change, ______ the variety of those systems. ______, some endangered species are unable to ______ and die. Old-growth forests are disappearing in the regions of our world. When these old-growth forests die, younger forests that are reestablished in the same area will grow back weaker and smaller ______ poor vegetation. With trees dying increasingly and continuously, will future generations ______ the wonders of forests?

3 . Oleita thinks she may have a partial solution for two of her country’s persistent problems: garbage and poverty. It’s called the Chip Bag Project. The 26-year-old student and environmentalists from Detroit are asking for a(n)_______ of local snack lovers: _______ throw your empty chip bags into the trash, _______ them so she can _______ them into sleeping bags for the homeless.

Chip eaters drop off their _______ bags at two locations in Detroit: a print shop and a clothing store, where Oleita and her volunteer helpers _______ them. After they sanitize (净化) the chip bags in soapy hot water, they _______ them open, lay them flat, and iron them together. They use pad-ding (填料) from old coats to fill the insides.

It takes about four hours to _______ a sleeping bag, and each takes around 150 to 300 chip bags, _______ whether they’ re single-serve or family size. The ________ of the sleeping bag is “waterproof (防水的), light weight, and easy to ________ around,” Oleita told The Detroit News.

Since it started in 2020, the Chip Bag Project has collected more than 800,000 chip bags and has ________ 110 sleeping bags. Sure, it would be ________ to raise the money to buy new sleeping bags. But that’s only half the ________ for Oleita and her fellow volunteers. “We are ________ to making an impact not only socially, but environmentally,” Oleita says.

4 . I’m an ocean lover. Living in Montreal, far away from the ocean, makes it even more a dream land for me. And I _________ to visit the ocean at least once a year and I’ve been doing it for at least twenty _________.

When I was younger, I would _________ shells and rocks and bring them back home and ended up having tons of them on my shelves, floors, desks, etc. But as I _________ the ocean more and more, I started picking up the _________ left by careless people, picking up less and less _________ treasure. I was beginning to question my habits and one day, in California, I just had this idea.

I realised that a stone you find in the ocean has a(n) _________ colour that makes you pick it up but then, when it _________, you won’t find it as lovely anymore, so why pick it up in the first place? Anyway, I just realised then that natural things are nice in their natural _________ and that if everybody picked up every shell from the ocean, and __________ the wastes out there, the beach would become something not so nice very __________.

So I decided that day, when I was probably 28 or 29, that I would just “borrow” things from the ocean, and bring them back after a while, since that __________ of shells does so much good for me.

I __________ the quantity and keep it to the smallest amount. So if you’ve seen a strange lady picking up rubbish and __________ shells back into the ocean, from a box or a bag, on a beautiful sunny day, it was __________ me.

6 . Seventy-year-old Tububatu and his wife Taoshengchagan live in a village on the edge of Badain Jaran Desert in China. They’ve been spending every day since they retired in 2002 fighting against _____. Before Tububatu, others had tried but _____ and he just wanted to make a difference. He started out by _____ just 50 trees, but kept doubling his _____ to the point where he now plants thousands of trees a year.

The couple have been growing their little desert forest at their own expense, so they live a very _____ life. Even though they mostly plant drought-resistant (耐旱的) types, they still make sure to water them at least once a day to make them grow _____.

Although they’ve been _____ by some neighbors who think they are sure to fail, they haven’t given up. The couple have planted over 266 hectares of desert over the last 20 years and have no _____ to stop.

Apart from _____ the spread of the desert, Tububatu is also making a living by planting, as the desert-living cistanche is a(n) ______ medicinal (药用的) plant that can sell for up to 100 yuan per kilogram.

It’s reported that so far they have planted over 70,000 trees, ______ more than 1 million yuan of their savings. The ______ conditions have damaged their health and they look older than they actually are, but they refuse to _____their battle against the desert.

The couple have received several ______ and honors from the government over the years, becoming good _____for all environmentalists.

7 . One of my best memories during high school occurred last November, when Dr. Jane Goodall came to our school. She is one of the best-known _____ in the world.

Although I have been part of Roots & Shoots since 2006, I had never imagined _____ Dr. Goodall so soon in my lifetime. So when I heard that Dr. Goodall was going to visit our school, I almost screamed with _____. For the entire month leading up to her _____, I could feel the anticipation (期望) _____. When she eventually came to our school to share her _____ all around the world, my heart beat so _____ that I could even hear it thumping (怦怦地跳) in my chest.

I was so used to seeing her in photos and _____ her as a peaceful, calm and quiet woman. But here she was a real-life person before me. I found that she was much more _____ than I had expected. I would never forget her ______ steps going down the platform after her presentation to the school. She looked really like an activist who was ______ to protect the environment and wildlife.

I have already been in Roots & Shoots and ______ about the environment and animals for years, but listening to Dr. Goodall talk about her work ______ inspired me quite a lot. It was then that I became truly ______ to what I was doing. Even if I wasn’t really sure what I could do to make a difference, I was still willing to give it a ______.

9 . More than half the world’s population live in cities, and by 2050 the UN expects that proportion to reach 68%. This means more homes, roads and other infrastructure. Such a construction ________ does harm to tackling climate change, though, because making steel and concrete generates around 8% of the world’s carbon-dioxide emissions. If cities are to ________ and become greener at the same time, they will have to be made from something else.

As it happens, Chicago might become part of the ________. In recent years, as architects have become increasingly interested in modern timber (木材) — construction methods, wooden buildings have been getting steadily ________. The current record is held by the 85-metre-tall Mjostarnet building in Norway, completed in 2019. But this would be ________ by the River Beech Tower, a 228-metre building proposed for a site beside the Chicago river.

As the AAAs meeting heard this week, wood is one of the most ________ sustainable alternatives to steel and concrete. It is not, however, everyday wood but a material called engineered timber, composed of different layers for specific purposes. Besides engineering the shape of a component, designers can arrange the grains (纹理) in the layers to provide levels of ________ that equal steel, in a product that is up to 80% lighter. Engineered timber is, ________, usually assembled into large sections of a building in a factory. That cuts down on the number of ________ that have to be made to a construction site.

All this ________ to carbon-dioxide emissions. Michael Ramage of the University of Cambridge told the meeting of a 300-square-metre four-storey wooden building that generated 126 tonnes of CO₂. Had it been made with ________, emissions would have risen to 310 tonnes. If steel had been used, they would have topped 498 tonnes. Indeed, from one point of view, this building might actually be viewed as “carbon ________”. When trees grow, they lock carbon up in their wood — in this case the equivalent of 540 tonnes of CO₂, representing a long-term reduction of CO₂ from the atmosphere.

If building with wood takes off, it does raise concern about there being enough trees to ________. But with sustainably managed forests that should not be a problem, says Dr Ramage. A family-sized apartment requires about 30 cubic metres of timber, and he estimates Europe’s sustainable ________ alone grow that amount every seven seconds. Nor is fire a risk, for engineered timber does not burn easily, because the inner cores of large ________ timbers are protected by a charring (炭化) layer if burnt.

10 . Eradajere Oleita is a 26-year-old student and environmentalist. She has got something about the _________ to two of her country’s problems: garbage and poverty. It’s called the Chip Bag Project. Oleita is asking a _________ of local snack lovers: Rather than throw empty chip bags into garbage cans, _________ them so she can turn them into sleeping bags for the _________.

Chip eaters _________ their empty bags at two locations in Detroit: a print shop and a clothing store, where Oleita and her volunteer helpers _________ them. After they disinfect (消毒) the _________ in soapy hot water, they slice them open and iron them together. Then they use cotton and liners (内衬) from old coats to line the insides. It _________ about four hours to sew a sleeping bag, and each requires around 150 to 300 chip bags, _________ on whether they’re single-serve or family-size.

Since its start in 2020, the Chip Bags Project has __________ 110 sleeping bags. Sure, it would be __________ to raise the money to buy new sleeping bags. However, that’s only half the __________ for Oleita. “We aim to make a(n) __________ not only socially, but environmentally,” said Oleita. “It is worth __________ chip bags and using them to help the homeless. __________, they would land in the garbage.”