1 . Nuclear pollution is a serious global   ___________, brought to the forefront by major accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. These events have demonstrated the significant health and environmental risks _________by nuclear disasters. Not only have they caused immediate health problems, such as radiation sickness and increased cancer rates, but they have also _________lasting environmental damage and genetic changes in affected communities. As a result, nuclear pollution remains a pressing concern for governments, scholars, and individuals worldwide.

When nuclear accidents occur in coastal areas, the _________environment becomes a critical concern due to the crucial role that oceans play in _________the climate, ensuring food security, and supporting the livelihoods of billions of people globally. In recent years, the increasing threats to marine ecosystems from ocean pollution have _________public awareness of the need to protect the marine environment. Studies have shown that human activities pose a _________threat to marine environments, emphasizing the importance of improving environmental management and taking measures to mitigate environmental risks.

Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, efforts to cool the reactors by pumping in seawater resulted in the _________of a significant amount of nuclear waste in the water storage tank at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. _________attempts to manage this waste, the Japanese government’s decision to release nearly 1.26 million tons of nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean over the next 40 years has faced opposition __________neighboring countries, local ____________, and international environmental organizations.

This __________poses serious risks to marine life, fisheries, and human health. Radioactive isotopes present in the wastewater, such as tritium, carbon-14, cobalt-60, and strontium-90, can accumulate in marine organisms and ultimately affect human populations through the food ____________. Therefore, there is an/a ____________need for further research and mitigation measures to __________the widespread impacts of nuclear pollution on the environment and human health.

2 . Human beings have somehow managed to engineer the night to receive us by filling it with light. This kind of control is no different from the feat ( 壮 举 ) of damming a river. Its benefits come with_________ — called light pollution — whose effects scientists are only now beginning to study. Light pollution is largely the result of bad lighting design. _________ lighting washes out the darkness of night, altering light levels and light rhythms to which many forms of life, including ourselves, have_________. Wherever man-made light spills into the natural world, some aspects of life-migration, reproduction, feeding-is affected.

For most human history, the phrase “light pollution” would have_________. Imagine walking towards London on a moonlit night around 1800, when it was Earth’s most populous city. Nearly a million people lived there, _________ candles, torches and lanterns, as they always had. Only a few houses were lit by gas, and there would be no public gaslights in the streets or squares for another seven years. From a few miles away, you would have been more likely to_________ London than to see its dim collective glow.

We’ve lit up the night as if it were a(n) _________ country. As a matter of fact, among mammals (哺乳动物) alone, the number of species active at night is astonishing. Light is a powerful biological force, and on many species it acts as a magnet attracting them to it. The effect is so powerful that scientists speak of songbirds and seabirds being_________ by searchlights on land or by the light from gas flares on marine oil platforms, circling and circling in the thousands until they drop.

It was once thought that light pollution only affected astronomers, who need to see the night sky in all its glorious clarity. Unlike astronomers, most of us may not need a_________ view of the night sky for our work. __________, like most other creatures, we do need darkness. __________ darkness is pointless. It is as essential to maintaining our biological welfare as__________ itself; the price of modifying our internal clockwork means it doesn’t operate as it should, causing various physical discomforts. So fundamental are the regular rhythms of waking and sleep to our being that__________ them is similar to altering our center of gravity.

In a very real sense, light pollution causes us to__________ our true place in the universe, to forget the scale of our being, which is best__________ against the dimensions of a deep night with the Milky Way — the edge of our galaxy — arching overhead.

3 . What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is the largest of the five offshore plastic accumulation zones in the world’s oceans. It is located halfway between Hawaii and California.

PLASTIC __________

It is estimated that 1.15 to 2.41 million tonnes of plastic are entering the ocean each year from rivers. More than half of this plastic is less __________than the water, meaning that it will not sink once it encounters the sea.

The strong and floating plastics show resiliency(韧性) in the marine environment, allowing them to be transported over __________distances. They persist at the sea surface as they make their way off shore, transported by converging (汇聚的) currents and finally accumulating in the patch.

Once these plastics enter the gyre（环流）, they are unlikely to leave the area until they __________into smaller microplastics under the effects of sun, waves and marine life. As more and more plastics are discarded into the environment, microplastic __________in the GPGP will only continue to increase.

LOCATION

Due to seasonal and interannual variabilities of winds and currents, the GPGP’s location and shape are constantly changing. Only floating objects that are __________influenced by currents were likely to remain within the patch.

By simulating concentration levels in the North Pacific, the researchers were able to follow the location of the patch and found on average it orbits around 32°N and 145°W. However, the team observed seasonal __________from west to east and substantial variations in latitude（纬度）depending on the year.

IMPACT ON WILDLIFE

Plastic has increasingly become a very common substance in the ocean. Due to its size and color, animals __________the plastic for food, causing malnutrition; it poses entanglement（缠绕）risks and threatens their overall behavior, health, and existence.

Studies have shown that about 700 species have encountered marine debris, and 92% of these __________are with plastic. 17% of the species affected by plastic are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.

IMPACT ON HUMANS AND SOCIETY

Once plastic enters the marine food web, there is a possibility that it will contaminate the human food chain as well. Through a process called bioaccumulation, chemicals in plastics will enter the body of the animal __________on the plastic, and as the feeder becomes prey, the chemicals will pass to the __________—making their way up the food web that includes humans. These chemicals that affected the plastic feeders could then be __________within the human as well.

__________, yearly economic costs due to marine plastic are estimated to be between $6-19billion USD. The costs __________its impact on tourism, fisheries and aquaculture, and governmental cleanups. These costs do not include the impact on human health and the marine ecosystem due to __________research available.

4 . COVID-19 lockdowns had strange effects on air pollution across the globe

Ever since the covid-19 spread, many changes have come with the _____________ unstoppable virus. China has shown the first sign. Rightly after a strict nationwide lockdown was _____________ in late January, most people were restricted from leaving their homes at all for as long as 3 weeks. As a result, the authority ___________ a sharp decline in the direct emissions of air pollution on a scale never observed before. “Changes in emissions would be significant and ___________ studying for it may bring us new solutions to greenhouse effect,” says Jiset Deew, a chemist at the Harvard University, “The pandemic has caused lots of tragedies, but the lesson we can learn is important.”

Researchers found it a strange but ___________ chance to capture how human economic activity—particularly car traffic—dropped rapidly and thus to seek for the answer to the influence of ___________ traffic on air quality. “Running atmospheric chemistry experiments is often a ___________ task based on the lack of experimental conditions, so we have to _________ really complex reaction chambers and computer models,” says Tg, who now works on the project _____________ organic aerosols at MIT. “But in this unprecedented year, we finally get the chance to __________ our ideas and we hope the new findings will further our understanding of the mechanisms that rule atmospheric chemistry but also offer guidance for policy makers who seek to improve air quality and ____________ climate change.”

During the lockdown, passenger traffic plumbed, and traffic-related emissions—particularly CO₂ and NO₂—__________ accordingly. Vehicles powered by gas directly release huge amounts of CO₂ and NO₂. CO₂, a greenhouse gas, plays a major role in global warming. Besides, NO₂ plays a __________ part in atmospheric reactions that produce ozone which helps __________ UV light (紫外线). Now, experts are still working to __________ how the two gases changed during pandemic.