During the just-ended Spring Festival holiday, former fisherman Wang Chaosheng kept     1    (he) busy tending to his fish ponds, adding new fry and welcoming     2     (visit), who would like to pay     3     (net) their own catch to take home with them.

Living in Sinan county in Southwest China’s Guizhou province,     4     60-year-old had spent 27 years as a fisherman on the Wujiang River, a branch of the Yangtze River. Working hard day and night in his younger years, Wang could make 300, 000 yuan to 400, 000 yuan a year     5     most. But Wang’s life changed on Jan 1, 2021, when a 10-year fishing ban     6     (introduce) — on the Yangtze for ecological conservation and green development.

Wujiang River     7    (flow) through nearly half the townships of Sinan county, and so before the fishing ban began, the county started putting measures to protect the welfare of the fishermen. Wang is one of those     8    (switch) to more ecologically friendly fish farming.     9     missing the old days of fishing, he understands that abandoning his boat “helps protect the environment” and that his new job is better-paid and     10    (sustainable).

“I used to catch fish, and now I keep fish. I’m still doing my job,” Wang said.

    1     (work) on building sites for over 20 years, Hua Shankui, 59, had never imagined he’d become an expert on planting grass. But this was     2     happened on a construction site he’s working on in Wuhan, Hubei Province.

The 18-hectare construction site of the Huashan section of Wuhan Metro Line 19 is situated near an ecological reserve. Efforts had to be made     3     (ensure) that the local environment would not be compromised. To reduce pollution, using dust nets to cover bare soil is a normal practice on construction sites. However, a     4     (decide) was made at the Huashan site to plant grass on the soil, a more eco-friendly method.

When Hua     5     (give) the task of leading a grass planting team, he knew nothing about gardening. The first question facing     6     team was what kind of grass they should plant. Hua turned to local gardeners,     7     recommended carpet grass, a species     8     (common) planted in urban landscaping.

However, months     9     planting the grass, few seeds of carpet grass grew roots as the soil at the site contains too many small stones. He tried different varieties of grass. After conducting     10     (repeat) experiments on a small piece of land, Hua found rye grass (黑麦草) to be the right species. Hua and his colleagues started to plant rye grass. Four months later, the piece of brown soil was covered in green grass, adding life to the construction site while cleaning the air.

Our planet is heating up due to something       1    (call) the greenhouse effect. This is one of the reasons why Earth is seeing more extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, forest fires and floods each year. But what exactly is the greenhouse effect, and       2    can we do to reduce it?

Let’s first think about a greenhouse – you may have one in your garden! It’s a glass structure that protects       3    (plant) against low temperatures by trapping heat inside. But, while this helps your plants grow, Earth is trapping heat in     4    same way, and it’s causing global warming. When fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and gas, are burnt for power, carbon dioxide is released as a waste product. It     5    (enter) the atmosphere and acts like a blanket around the planet, which means heat radiation can’t escape and the temperature increases.

The impact of gases on the Earth’s climate was first investigated in the 1820s. Eunice Foote, a scientist and women’s rights activist, tested the effects of sunlight on different gases that she put into glass cylinders. Her results       6    (show) that carbon dioxide traps heat more       7    other gases. The idea of the greenhouse effect was born.

So, what can we do     8    (reduce) the greenhouse effect? The UN recommends using more energy-efficient electrical appliances at home and switching to LED lightbulbs. Also, by washing your clothes at 30° instead of a       9    (high) temperature, around 40% less electricity is used over a year, according to the Energy Saving Trust. A change in diet is also something to consider. The charity A Well-Fed World, claim that plant-based foods, as opposed to meat and dairy, need less land and water to be produced. So, switching saves energy and lowers emissions,       10     contribute to climate change.

We only have one planet, so let’s try and take care of it as much as we can.

9 . There is such a thing as a free lunch, it turns out, as long as you don’t mind too much what it is. Tamara Wilson found hers a few streets away from her west London home — and as well as picking up some unwanted bread and fruit that would otherwise be thrown away, she made a new friend.

Wilson is one of 3.4 million people around the world using an app designed to encourage people to give away rather than throw away surplus (剩余的) food. “It’s such a small thing, but it makes me feel good and my neighbour feel good. And a lot of small acts can end up making a big difference,” she said.

The last few years have seen an explosion in creative ways to tackle food waste by linking supermarkets, cafes, restaurants and individual households to local communities. Olio, the app used by Wilson, saw a fivefold increase in listings during 2022, and the signs are that this rapid growth is continuing into 2023, said Tessa Clarke, its CEO and co-founder.

About a third of all food produced globally is wasted, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Almost 1.4 billion hectares of land — close to 30% of the world’s agricultural land — is dedicated to producing food that is never eaten, and the carbon footprint of food wastage makes it the third contributor of CO2. Reducing food waste is one of the most effective ways of tackling the global climate crisis.

Olio, Clarke said, was an attempt to change this on a small, local scale. “The app connects people with others who have surplus food but don’t have anyone to give it to because so many people are disconnected from their communities.” Users of Olio post images of surplus food that others in the neighbourhood might want. Olio also has a network of 24,000 volunteers who collect surplus food from local supermarkets and stores for app users to claim.

Despite the success of the app, it was hard to make a difference to the huge scale of food waste, Clarke added. “Even though we’re doing well, we’ve only scratched the surface (触及表面). But if everyone makes small changes in the world, we’d dramatically reduce the amount of food that ends up in bins (垃圾桶).”

Plastic pollution at sea is reaching     1     (worry) levels. According to a review of hundreds of academic studies, it will continue to grow even if significant action is taken now     2     (stop) such waste from reaching the world’s oceans. The review by Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute examined almost 2, 600 research     3     (paper) on the topic to provide an overview ahead of a United Nations meeting later this month.

As plastic breaks down into smaller pieces, it also enters the marine food chain,    4     (take) in by sea creatures from whales to turtles. What’s worse, some regions already contain dangerous levels of plastic, and others risk becoming     5     (increasing) polluted in the future. Getting that plastic out of the water again is nearly impossible,    6     policymakers should focus on preventing any more of it entering the oceans in     7     first place. Matthew MacLeod, a professor of environmental science at Stockholm University,    8     (involve) in a separate study not long ago,    9     also concluded effective measures are required immediately because of the possible global impacts.

While consumers can help reduce plastic pollution by changing their behavior, governments have to step up and accept     10     (responsible) for solving the problem. It’s a global problem and it needs global solutions.