5 . Many people know that rubbish is a big problem on the Earth. What many people don’t know is that rubbish is becoming a problem in outer space too. Years of space exploration (探索) have left tons of “space junk” (太空垃圾) around the planet.

According to the reports of BBC, there are more than 22,000 pieces of rubbish in space around the Earth. And these are just the objects that are easy to see. There may be millions of smaller pieces of rubbish that we can’t see.

The pieces of space junk move around the planet at very high speeds. They move so fast that even a very small piece can become dangerous. If they crashed (碰撞) into each other, it could cause explosions that might even hurt people on the Earth. If the tiniest piece of rubbish crashed into a space shuttle (航天飞机), it could blow open a hole as big as an elephant.

To help solve this problem, countries around the world have agreed to limit the time their space tools stay in space to 25 years. Each tool must fall safely into the Earth’s atmosphere, or upper parts of the sky. There, it will burn up, and it won’t crash near the Earth.

6 . Walking along any beach in the world, you will find plastic of some kind on the shoreline, offering a reminder of the throwaway culture of the present day world. Now, a study has sounded a fresh warning on the damage caused to the marine (海洋的) ecosystem due to plastics, which eventually has an effect on human health due to the seafood we eat

In a paper titled “A Growing Plastic Smog”, researchers called on governments around the world to take firm action to handle the “plastic pollution” of the world's oceans.

The plastics break down over time into minute particles(微小颗粒) that cannot be seen by eyes, but find their way into the ocean ecosystem and into the seafood humans consume. “Microplastics are a problem because they are mistaken for food and eaten by small marine animals.” Charlene Trestrail said. “Once eaten, microplastics can damage an animal’s intestines(肠), and give out potentially harmful chemicals inside animals.”

Charlene Trestrail, a researcher at the University of Technology Sydney, said “the study shows just how big the problem is and that much of the blame was placed on the plastics industry for failing to recycle or design for recyclability.”

Paul Harvey, an environmental scientist, said “Globally, we have reached a point where we can no longer ignore the plastic pollution pandemic(流行病) that is infecting our oceans. This research shows us that beach cleanups and citizen science projects that focus on the environmental problems of plastics have little impact on solving the problem.”

Marcus Eriksen, lead author of the study, said that the findings were a “stark warning that we must act now at a global scale”. “Cleanup is useless if we continue to produce plastic at the current/rate, and we have heard about recycling for too long, while the plastic industry refuses any commitments to buy recycled material or design for recyclability. It is time for policymakers, governments and businesses to wake up and take the issue seriously.”

Driving cars has made people     1     (anger) and stressed out and caused the real costs socially. Take Britain, for example. In the last 20 years, the number of cars on the roads     2     (go) up by 25%. Over     3     last decade, an average of 2,500 people have died every year in vehicle accidents. Traffic is one of the major     4     (cause) of global warming and climate change. Almost 30,000 deaths per year are caused by air pollution. Some types of cancer are     5     (relate) to traffic pollution.

A friend working for a green-living organization gave some advice about how     6     (give) up driving. Firstly, use your legs. Regular exercise can cut the risk of heart disease     7     50%! Secondly, use public transport. Thirdly, think before     8     (go). Before you get into your car, think about     9     you really need to make that journey. Fourthly, share cars. It is much cheaper and     10     (kind) to the environment. Lastly, take action! Don’t just sit around and complain!

9 . The African penguin is expected to go extinct in the wild in just over a decade, given its current population decline. The main reason is a lack of food caused by disturbance to ocean conditions from global heating and competition from the commercial fishing industry. According to a study, scientists have identified a possible additional cause, one that is an entirely new threat and that further prevents the penguins from finding food: noise pollution from marine (海洋的) ships in a bay.

Since 2016, a new shipping practice has started at Algoa Bay. The bay offers ship-to-ship refueling for ships anchored offshore. Since the start of this practice, marine traffic in the bay has doubled. The number of bulk carriers (散货船) pulling into the bay has increased by ten times as much. Thus the noise levels in the area had doubled and the population of penguins has dropped sharply. High noise levels affect the ability of marine animals to find food, communicate or navigate properly.

Researchers used data from ship identification tools to estimate underwater noise from passing ships. They also attached underwater microphones and accelerometers (感应器) to some of the penguins. Recording the noise will tell researchers what the penguins are hearing, if they’re talking while hunting, if they’re changing their movements in response to noise, and if the noise is drowning out their hunting conversations. This will allow researchers to determine whether the sound disturbance is a direct cause of the penguins’ ongoing difficulties in finding sufficient food.

The study is the first to explore the effects of ocean traffic noise pollution on seabirds and the consequences of offshore shipping activities on underwater noise levels. Experts are considering proposing various global best-practice approaches to reduce some of the impacts of noise pollution, such as policies that limit the number and size of ships allowed into a bay of this kind. “We also need more scientific monitoring of noise, before these measures are put in place and afterward, so that we have a proper understanding of what works.” a researcher said.

10 . Unless action is taken immediately, there is a good chance that all the oceans of the world will be dead. How can this possibly happen?

We have already seen that people allow all sorts of waste products to flow into the sea. It is almost impossible to measure how much waste water and industrial waste end up in our oceans, but we can find out how much oil is poured into them legally and illegally. It is illegal to pour oil into the sea close to the shore, but when a ship is many miles out to sea there are no such rules. Scientists have different ideas as to the amount of oil put into the sea, but the lowest figure for oil poured in European waters alone is nearly 200,000 tons every year. Some people say the figure could be ten times as high.

It is not only our coasts that suffer from oil pollution. Among other things, many shell fish (creatures which live in water), and have a hard shell — oysters and mussels, for example — now have high amounts of poisonous substances. Next time you have shell fish to eat, how can you be sure that they are free from oil pollution? You cannot see the effects and you cannot taste them, either. It is really quite a problem.