1 . According to the Solar Energy Industry Association, the number of solar panels installed(安装)has grown rapidly in the past decade, and it has to grow even faster to meet climate goals. But all of that growth will take up a lot of space, and though more and more people accept the concept of solar energy, few like large solar panels to be installed near them.

Solar developers want to put up panels as quickly and cheaply as possible, so they haven’t given much thought to what they put under them. Often, they’ll end up filling the area with small stones and using chemicals to control weeds. The result is that many communities, especially in farming regions, see solar farms as destroyers of the soil.

“Solar projects need to be good neighbors,” says Jordan Macknick, the head of the Innovative Site Preparation and Impact Reductions on the Environment(InSPIRE)project. “They need to be protectors of the land and contribute to the agricultural economy.” InSPIRE is investigating practical approaches to “low-impact” solar development, which focuses on establishing and operating solar farms in a way that is kinder to the land. One of the easiest low-impact solar strategies is providing habitat for pollinators(传粉昆虫).

Habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change have caused dramatic declines in pollinator populations over the past couple of decades, which has damaged the U.S. agricultural economy. Over 28 states have passed laws related to pollinator habitat protection and pesticide use. Conservation organizations put out pollinator-friendliness guidelines for home gardens, businesses, schools, cities—and now there are guidelines for solar farms.

Over the past few years, many solar farm developers have transformed the space under their solar panels into a shelter for various kinds of pollinators, resulting in soil improvement and carbon reduction. “These pollinator-friendly solar farms can have a valuable impact on everything that’s going on in the landscape,” says Macknick.

3 . Back in 2007, Uruguay had a serious problem with no obvious answer: The economy was growing very fast, but there wasn’t enough energy to power the rapid _________.

Then Ramón Méndez Galain, a physicist, started _________ different potential paths for Uruguay’s energy future. Finally, he wrote a plan that Uruguay could almost entirely _________ renewable energy. There would be less _________ and it would be the most economical choice Uruguay could make in the long run.

Méndez Galain’s plan was built around two simple _________ about his country. First, while there wasn’t a domestic (国内的) supply of coal or oil, there was a great deal of _________. Second, that wind blew over a country that was known for _________ grassland. His plan for Uruguay’s energy future was to _________ the empty grassland into hundreds of wind farms.

To solve the problem of how to pay for all those wind farms, Méndez Galain came up with a variation on a(n) _________ used by some electric plants in neighboring Brazil, in which state owned power plants handled energy generation, while __________ companies were in charge of power distribution and customer service. Méndez Galain’s plan changed the relationship to the __________, so that private companies would be in charge of setting up and __________ the wind farms, while the state-owned power companies would distribute that energy to its customers.

The strategy worked __________ well. Just within a few years, Méndez Galain had __________ what he had set out to do: 98% of Uruguay’s __________ comes from renewable sources.

4 . In the rich countries of the West, the electric vehicle revolution is well underway. Climate-conscious consumers drive Teslas or Polestars for reasons of morality and fashion. Poorer countries are also experiencing a wave of electrified trend. In Bangladesh, electric three-wheeler taxis, known as tuk-tuks, are rapidly replacing gas-powered ones on the streets. Such electric vehicles are climate friendly, cost effective, and help reduce air pollution.

Yet a glance under the hood (引擎盖) of these vehicles reveals a poisonous secret: each tuk-tuk runs on five massive lead-acid batteries, containing almost 300 pounds of lead in total. Every year and a half or so, when those batteries need to be replaced and recycled, about 60 pounds of lead leak into the environment. Battery recycling, often at small-scale unregulated factories, is a highly profitable but deadly business.

Lead is dangerous, and any exposure to it is harmful to human health. Lead that has entered the environment hurts people on an extraordinary scale. The numerous ways lead enters air, water, soil, and homes across the developing world — and the enormous damage it does to human health, wealth, and welfare — causes one of the biggest environmental crises in the world yet receives little attention.

The World Bank estimates that lead kills 5. 5 million people per year, which would make it a bigger global killer than AIDS, malaria, diabetes, and road traffic deaths combined. On top of the shocking deaths, the social burden of lead poisoning is extraordinary, as is its contribution to global inequality — our research on the cognitive effects of lead poisoning suggests that it may explain about one-fifth of the educational achievement gap between rich and poor countries.

But unlike many challenges faced by developing countries, lead poisoning is a problem that is fixable with some attention and a relatively modest financial investment. Better monitoring, research, and rules can help protect children all over the world from the dreadful effects of lead poisoning and reduce the massive global costs it brings.

6 . When most kids go to the beach, they’re too focused on making sandcastles and splashing around to notice litter, but several years ago, for 7-year-old Cash Daniels, noticing a plastic straw sparked a lifelong passion for saving the planet.

Cash, who is now known as the “conservation kid”, has always loved nature. He grew up fishing along the Chattanooga River, after all! But once he learned that 80 percent of all trash from land and rivers ends up in the ocean, he couldn’t sit back.

He started with cleanups along the river, something that quickly went from a family affair to a community effort with volunteers and neighbors. In 2019, Cash, together with a Canadian conservationist, Ella Galaski-Rossen, started a nonprofit called the Cleanup Kids. Despite living in different countries, they managed to create educational videos on their YouTube channel. “We hope to be a really big nonprofit that eliminates plastic in the U. S. and Canada,” Cash said. “We want to inform kids and adults in the landlocked states on how their actions are connected to the water and the ocean,” Cash said.

Cash was selected as one of America’s top 10 youth volunteers of 2021 by the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. He also earned the title of National Honoree, where he received a$5,000 grant to go to a nonprofit of his choice, and he became the first person to win the Youth Conservationist Award two years in a row from the Tennessee Wildlife Federation.

“I want to travel the world, teach others, and help them feel connected to the ocean. Because if you are connected to the ocean-if you love it and what lives in it—you’ll want to protect it,” he said. “This is my fun, and it becomes more fun with every new discovery.”

At the Shishou Milu National Nature Reserve in Hubei Province, about 2,000 creatures wander freely. Their numbers include 460 deer born this year, showing that the species,     1     was once endangered in China in the early 20th century, has staged a remarkable     2     (recover).

Often     3     (refer) to as sìbuxiang, a milu deer seems to consist of parts of various creatures. It has antlers (鹿角) like other deer, but seems to have the head of a horse, the feet of cattle and the tail of a donkey (驴).

    4     one of the animal’s three major protected areas in China, the Shishou reserve was established in 1991. Close to the Yangtze River, the area has a complete wetland ecosystem,an ideal habitat for the deer. Its conservation story provides     5     example for other endangered animals under a threat of extinction.

    6     (ensure) a safe environment, two engineers and eight rangers (护林员) are sent to get around the reserve. Advanced technologies are applied to help observe and analyze     7     (they) habits and environment. The efforts of those responsible for the deer have     8     (significant) resulted in the increase in numbers.

In the     9     (country) three major protected areas the Nanhaizi Milu Park in Beijing, the Dafeng Milu National Nature Reserve in Jiangsu Province, and the Shishou reserve——the number of the animal     10     (increase) from 39 to over 10,000 since 1986.

9 . Food waste contributes to ever-growing landfills (垃圾堆).    1     If you want to help the environment in your own way, you can start by reducing, or better yet, completely erasing food waste in your home. To give you an idea of where to start, here are some tips:

Don’t buy too much food whenever you go grocery shopping.    2     However, if your family cannot eat all the food before it goes bad, then it just adds to food waste. Taking several short grocery shopping trips every week instead of one long trip may help keep you from buying too much food, thereby cutting back on food waste.

Always make a shopping list.    3     That’s because you already know what things you need. Moreover, a list will prevent you from buying food items that you already have at home, which can help reduce the amount of potential food waste.

    4     For meats, you have to keep them in the freezer while fruits and vegetables should be stored in the crisper compartment (保鲜室). Although these tips may seem simple, they can help greatly reduce the amount of food waste that your family produces.

Use the “First-In-First-Out” method. For example, placing the newly bought foods at the back of the fridge or cupboard will encourage people to use the ones that are in the front row. This will ensure that you know what you have and reduce food waste.     5