1 . On November 7, Lewis Pugh completed a one-kilometer swim in the freezing waters of King Edward Cove, off South Georgia in Antarctica. He was wearing only his swimming glasses, cap and Speedos!

Pugh is an advocate for our oceans and seas, working to protect these ecosystems with their large diversity of marine (海洋的) life. When asked why he doesn’t wear a wetsuit (防寒泳衣), Lewis says, “I ask world leaders to do everything they can to protect our oceans. Sometimes the steps they need to take are difficult and unpopular. If I’m asking them to be courageous, I must also be. Swimming in a wetsuit would not send the right message.”

It took Pugh about 19 minutes to complete the one-kilometer swim in Antarctica where the water averaged about 1. 6℃. He says that his body can only tolerate about 20 minutes in the freezing waters before it starts shutting down. As he swims, his body temperature steadily drops, which in turn causes his muscle control to drop, slowing him down. When he is done with his swim, his support team rushes him to a hot shower and it takes almost an hour for his body temperature to return to normal.

Doctors and Pugh caution that one must receive months of training to swim in such cold waters. Even expert swimmers who are unused to freezing water can drown within minutes because of the physical shock experienced by the body. Pugh says he trained for six months before this swim.

This is not the first time that Lewis has swum in dangerous conditions. In 2007, he swam one kilometer in the North Pole to draw attention to the melting Arctic ice due to climate change. In 2015, he swam in the Bay of Whales in Antarctica’s Ross Sea as part of his successful campaign to help set up a marine reserve there.

3 . How to Reduce Gift Wrap Waste

Wrapping paper may have “paper” in its name, but that doesn’t automatically mean it can be recycled.     1     Try these suggestions for cutting down the amount of wrapping paper you throw away.

Reuse what you have.     2     It’s estimated that the U.S. produces 4.6 million pounds of wrapping paper annually, and 2.3 million pounds of that stays in people’s homes, awaiting reuse.

Use different materials.     3     Select basic brown thick paper that can be made up with a bow, ribbons, leaves, pinecones or markers. Repurpose newspapers, old posters and children’s school artworks as wrapping paper. There are plenty of other eco-friendly alternatives to wrapping paper that are just delightful and celebratory.

    4     Use baskets, fabric, gift boxes or bags, tea towels, and more to contain and display your presents. Learn the Japanese art of wrapping, using beautiful knots(绳结) to fasten colorful, reusable fabrics in attractive ways. This way, you’ll have no wrapping paper waste to deal with.

Ask for better paper. Shops store what customers want, and recyclability should be a top priority, so let that be known when you’re out shopping. As explained by Simon Ellin, CEO of the Recycling Association, a trade body that represents about 90 waste management companies and paper merchants in the United Kingdom, “It’s a campaign we’ve been on all year — do you really need to design a non-paper wrapping paper? Make paper with recycling in mind!”     5    

4 . Greenland is the biggest island in the world. And the ice sheet that sits atop it is massive. “The pile of ice being so thick, it extends more than 10, 000 feet above the ocean. And if all that ice were to melt and go into the ocean, global sea levels would rise by 24 feet everywhere around the world,” said Jason Briner, a geologist at the University at Buffalo. The ice sheet is melting, of course. But just how much, compared to the past?

Briner’s team did a computer simulation（模拟）of the southwest of the Greenland ice sheet, which he says is a good proxy for ice melt across the entire ice sheet. The researchers plugged past climate data into that model to “ hindcast”, rather than forecast, the past activity of the ice sheet. They then checked the model’s predictions of the past shape and size of the ice sheet by looking at piles of rocks and dirt on Greenland today, which outline the edges of ancient ice. And the simulation was in good agreement with the actual situation.

Using that reconstruction of the ice sheet over time, the team could compare the ice sheet’s historic losses to those happening today under human-caused global warming. And they determined that Greenland is on track to lose more ice this century than during any century in the past 12, 000 years — possibly four times as much. The results appear in the journal Nature.

Ultimately it’s up to us how much ice actually melts. “Humanity has the button — the carbon button — and that button is going to influence the rates of ice loss from the Greenland ice sheet.” If the world goes net carbon zero by 2100, for example, Briner says ice loss could stop, entirely at the end of the century, according to one model. “That was what kept me from being completely depressed about our study. ” Dozens of countries have already announced goals to go net carbon zero by the middle of this century — so far the U. S. is not one of them.

Right now， most people's attention is on the COVID﹣19 pandemic. In     1    way， this pandemic is also warning us to protect our planet Earth.

World Earth Day， the international movement aiming     2    protecting and improving Earth's environment， is celebrating its 50th anniversary on April 22. For Earth Day 2020， the theme is climate action.    3    （celebrate） this， the Earth Day Network organized the Great Global Clean﹣up event. The network hoped that this would be the largest volunteer event in history， with people from all over the world    4    （set） up events to remove billions of pieces of trash from green spaces， urban communities and waterways. But due to the current ban on public gatherings and lockdown measures in many affected countries， clean﹣up events     5    （postpone）.

That said， the occasion will still continue in a digital way. "    6    it be coronavirus or our global climate crisis， we cannot shut down.    7    ， we must shift our energies and efforts to new ways to mobilize （动员） the world to action. " said Earth Day Network President Kathleen Rogers.

While the event may not reach its originally     8    （plan） grandeur（宏大）， Earth Day 2020 could play a role in helping us sustain     9    （environment） friendly changes， such as practices like teleworking and video conferencing     10    have become more prevalent （普遍的） in this time.

6 . I fell in love with Yosemite National Park the first time I saw it. My parents took us there for camping. On the way out, I asked them to wait while I ran up to El Capitain, a_________rock of 3,300 feet straight up. I touched that giant rock and knew_________I wanted to climb it. That has been my life’s passion(热爱) ever since—_________the rocks and mountains of Yosemite. I’ve long made Yosemite my_________.

About 15 years ago I started seeing a lot of_________, like beer cans, empty boxes, around the area. It’s beyond me why visitors started respecting the place_________and treated such a beautiful home-like place this way.

I tried_________trash(垃圾) myself, but the job was too big. I would_________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 decided something had to change.

In 2004, together with some climbers, I set a date for a_________. On that day, more than 300 people__________. Over three days we collected about 6,000 pounds of trash. It was amazing how much we were able to__________. I couldn’t believe the__________we made—the park looked clean!

Each year volunteers come for the cleanup from everywhere. In 2007 alone, 2,945 people picked up 42,330 pounds of trash.

I often hear people__________about 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__________.

8 . My name is Miranda Gibson. I have been at the top of a tree for five months now. Some people might wonder________on earth I would choose to do that.

I have walked through this forest many times. On December 12, 2011, ________rolled into the forest and the destruction (摧毁) began. I couldn’t________the thought that these forests would be________ forever. So, on December 14, 2011, I packed up my life, ________of my job plans, and climbed 60 meters to the top of this tree. I have been here ever since.

Life in the tree top can be________at times. I have times when I feel frustrated (沮丧的) and wish I could________, to anywhere, just have a ________of scenery for a minute! There are times too, when I feel terribly________.I miss my friends and family.________these times, I find myself loving the________.

Living on the tree has been inspiring. I am willing to________ here for as long as it takes,________I honestly hope it won’t be too________before I can put my feet on the ground below and stand in a forest that will never be________.

Many people like travelling abroad. The extra money     1     (bring) in can be of great benefit to these countries. However, tourism has not been good news for the environment. First, transporting millions of tourists to their holiday destinations     2     (pollute) the air and the seas. Secondly, some beautiful landscapes are destroyed forever due to the newly-built hotels. And finally, fresh water supplies are running low     3     tourists consume much water. To conclude, I think tourism has a lot of negative consequences on nature. If we want our planet to be a     4     (health) place, we need to travel less.

China was once the world’s biggest recipient of overseas trash. Because of a         1     (short) of enough raw materials, China began importing solid waste in 1980. The recycling of     2     (import) waste helped to fill that gap. Recycling foreign trash has support the development of China’s manufacturing sector and further boosted its economy. After     3     (process), garbage can be turned into materials that can be used to make products, such as chairs and bags. However, importing this waste has brought     4     (many) risks than benefits. Waste that can’t be     5     (proper) used is either burned or buried,     6     processing recyclables also leads to rivers, air and land pollution, as well as     7     (vary) diseases. But from Jan 1, 2021, China will make a sweeping ban     8     all imports of solid waste. According to China Daily, the ban taking effect in 2021 is the final stage of policies introduced in 2017, since     9    , the volume of foreign waste     10     (fall) by 68 percent, from 42 million to 13 million tons in 2019. “The victory of realizing the goal of zero imports of solid waste is in sight,” said Qiu Qiwen, from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.