Nowadays, our living conditions are becoming increasingly serious owing to the destruction of our environment. Many plants and     1    (animal) are endangered, and all the food chain has been destroyed,     2     has aroused a wide concern among people.

It is obvious that there are many reasons     3     this phenomenon. Firstly, the overuse of natural resources has a bad effect on     4     balance of natural ecology. Secondly, the population of the world is increasing rapidly, making the world too     5     (crowd) for us to live in. Thirdly, it is the smoke released from factories and cars that     6     (pollute) the environment badly.

Personally, I hold the view that effective measures must be taken     7     (improve) the present situation. To begin with, the government must     8     (sure) pass laws to prevent people from throwing rubbish everywhere, and prevent factories from harming the environment. Besides, as a member of the society, we are bound to do something for environmental     9     (protect), such as planting more trees,     10     (recycle) natural resources and so on. I’m sure that things will be better in the near future if we insist on doing like this.

Factory farming involves     1     (keep) farm animals inside buildings to increase the production of meat or eggs. According to an institute, “74% of the world’s poultry, 43% of its beef and 68% of its eggs     2     (produce) in this way.”

The main     3     (argue) for factory farming is that, apart from being a lot cheaper than     4     (tradition) or organic farming, it     5     (provide) more food for a world population that has already reached seven billion. As factory farms do not use many workers, the costs are low and the production is high. Moreover, factory-farmed animals suffer from     6     (few) diseases than those living outside.

On the other hand, opponents of factory farming say that it is cruel to the animals. For instance, many farm animals are kept in small spaces     7     they can hardly move. In addition to this, factory farming has a negative impact     8     the environment because it creates a lot of waste products, and uses a lot of chemicals to control insects and drugs     9     (treat) diseases.

To sum up, despite producing cheap food, factory farming is bad for the planet and for the animals themselves. We should try to reduce this kind of farming, although we would have to pay more for our eggs     10     meat.

Noisy Earth

When we think of pollution, we usually think of harmful toxins in the environment. For example, air pollution is    1    air that can be dangerous to breathe. But there is another kind of pollution which can be just as harmful to living things as other types of pollution.

Noise pollution consists of loud sounds in the environment that are    2    . Just like other types of pollution, noise pollution is caused by humans and is mainly a problem in urbans. Car alarm sirens, construction work and the roar of engines are just a few examples of noise pollution.

Why should we be concerned about noise pollution? According to a World Health Organization report, noise can cause serious health problems. It may    3    people of sleep and causes heart disease and hearing loss. These problems are    4    hazards for people who work in noisy places. Musicians, mechanics, police officers, and airport workers all have to put up with noise pollution.

Physical health problems are just some of the effects of noise. Noise also affects learning ability and memory. Noise poses a threat to animals in nature as well, which can cause them to die from lack of food. For example, some types of birds cannot find food in areas that have bad noise pollution. Whales, for example, produce sounds in order to     5    with each other. Noises in the ocean from ships and other human activities can    6    whale communication. The noises can also affect the ability of whales to find a    7    , which could reduce whale populations. In addition, researchers discovered that noise pollution can cause physical harm to those marine animals. They found several dead giant squids off the coast of Spain. In this respect,     8    from the guns of naval ships in the area tore holes in the squids’ statocysts. Statocysts are organs behind the squids’ eyes that help them maintain    9    . Damage to the statocysts made it impossible for the squids to swim, eat, or reproduce, and they died.

Countries around the world recognize that noise pollution is a real problem. Many government agencies already control noise from trucks and buses. Noise barriers covered with plants along the highway    10    reduced noise for nearby apartment dwellers. With these health and safety regulations and increased awareness, we may be able to live in a quieter world.

6 . Coca -Cola, PepsiCo and Nestle have been accused of “zero progress” on reducing plastic waste, after being named the world’s top plastic polluters for the third year in a row.

Coca -Cola was ranked the world’s No. 1 plastic polluter by Break Free From Plastic in its annual audit, after its beverage bottles were the most frequently found discarded on beaches, rivers, parks and other litter sites in 51 of 55 nations surveyed. Last year it was the most frequently littered bottle in 37 countries, out of 51 surveyed.

The annual audit, undertaken by 15,000 volunteers around the world, identifies the largest number of plastic products from global brands found in the highest number of countries.     1    

Coca -Cola came under fire from environmental campaigners earlier this year when it announced it would not abandon plastic bottles, saying they were popular with customers. In March, Coca -Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle and Unilever were found to be responsible for half a million tonnes of plastic pollution in six developing countries each year in a survey.

“     2    But instead they are continuing to pump out harmful single -use plastic packaging,” said Emma Priestland, Break Free From Plastic’s global campaign coordinator. Priestland said the only way to halt the growing global tide of plastic litter was to stop production, phase out single use and implement reuse systems. “Coca -Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestle should be leading the way in finding real solutions to reinvent how they deliver their products,” she said. Coca -Cola said it was working to address packaging waste, in partnership with others, and disputed the claim that it was making no progress. “     3    And the plastic can be recycled into new bottles,” a spokesperson said. “Bottles with 100% recycled plastic are now available in 18 markets around the world, and this is continually growing.” The spokesperson said Coca –Cola had also reduced plastic use in secondary packaging, and that globally ”more than 20% of our portfolio comes in refillable or fountain packaging“.

A spokesperson for PepsiCo said the company was taking action to tackle packaging through “partnership, innovation and investments”. They said it has set plastic reduction goals “including decreasing virgin plastic in our beverage business by 35% by 2025“, and was also ”growing refill and reuse through businesses like SodaStream and SodaStream Professional, which we expect will avoid 67 billion single -use plastic bottles through 2025”.

    4    But it recognised more was needed: “We are intensifying our actions to make 100% of our packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025 and to reduce our use of virgin plastics by one-third in the same period. So far, 87% of our total packaging and 66% of our plastic packaging is recyclable or reusable.”

Air pollution, global warming and overflowing landfills are the most serious environmental problems we are currently facing today.

The main cause of air pollution is the burning of fossil fuels.Other human activities,such as construction and the burning of waste,also contribute to air pollution.The effects on our health can be very serious.You can easily contribute to     1     (reduce) air pollution by using public transport.

Global warming     2     (cause) by the build-up of carbon dioxide and other pollutants in the atmosphere.These trap the sun’s heat and warm up the planet.Global warming has already caused     3     wide range of problems.

Landfills are used for waste disposal in many countries around the world.However,due     4     the amount of waste our lifestyles produce,these landfills are now reaching full capacity.When this happens,the chances of dangerous     5     (chemical) in the waste entering our water supply increase.The amount of waste in landfills in China     6     (rise) greatly over the last decade.The government is now trying to find alternative waste disposal methods.Apart from the three Rs (Reduce,Reuse and Recycle),some experts have begun advocating the fourth R — Responsibility.They believe     7    although recycling waste is effective,the most effective way of solving the problem of overflowing landfills     8     (be) to encourage people     9     (take) responsibility for reducing the waste they produce     10     (they).

In recent years, organic farming   ________ (popularity), so our class had a discussion about it. ________ (opinion, topic).

80% of students are in favor of it. Firstly, they think organic farming ________ (beneficial, environment) by reducing the level of pollution. Secondly, it reduces the costs of agricultural production. However, 20% of them insist that now organic food ________ (meet, demand), and that there is still a long way for organic farming to provide sufficient food.

In my opinion, we should ________ (attitude, organic farming), and I believe that it will be very mature in the future.