1 . 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.

2 . Peru demanded compensation (赔偿金) Wednesday from Spanish energy giant Repsol over an oil spill (石油泄漏). It might be caused by sudden and big _________ from a volcanic eruption near Tonga in the South Pacific because volcanic eruption can cause waves.

Authorities _________ three beaches on Monday _________ 6,000 barrels (桶) of oil were spilled during the _________ of an oil-transporting ship at the Pampilla oil-processing factory off the coast near Lima. The Repsol oil spill “is the worst _________ disaster in Lima in recent times, and has caused serious _________ to hundreds of _________ families. “Repsol must make an immediate _________ for their loss,” the authority said on Twitter. “This terrible situation has put plants and animals _________ in two protected areas,” it noted. Peruvian authorities found lots of dead sea animals __________ in oil. The spill happened on Saturday at the oil-processing factory in the Lima region, __________ a 3-kilometer stretch of beaches.

Officials of the factory __________ described the spill as “limited” and said it was working with authorities to __________ the beaches. “Controlling barriers that cover all of the affected __________ have been set up. And a team of __________ in sea and land have been sent,” said the factory, which __________ the spill on the waves caused by the volcanic eruption more than 10,000 kilometers away but not a bit on the mishandling of the workers who moved the oil barrels off the __________.

The oil-processing factory could face a __________ of up to $32.3 million, the __________ ministry of Peru said on Monday. And the prosecutors (公诉人) have opened an __________ into the company for environmental pollution.

3 . In Mumbai, there’s the ceaseless clamor of car homes as drivers edge through traffic. There’s pounding and buzzing from the construction of office towers and apartment blocks. Drumbeats and trumpet melodies spill out from weddings and countless festivals. And it’s all topped off by bellowing (大声吼叫的) street vendors and garbage trucks blasting Bollywood songs. Living in Mumbai requires a huge ______ for noise.

When Sumaira Abdulali began campaigning against noise pollution in India’s financial capital two decades ago, friends, acquaintances and even her lawyers insisted it was ______ . “People told me it’s foolish to even try, because Indians love noise,” she says. “We’re a noisy country.”

But in 2003, Abdulali won a lawsuit seeking to ______ environmental rules that had allowed loud music late into the night during a festival. ______ , the victory led to a ban on loudspeakers within 100 meters of schools, hospitals, courts and places of worship. And she has since won more than a dozen other actions both on her own and via the Awaaz Foundation (awaaz means “noise” in Hindi), which she launched in 2006.

The World Health Organization warns that noise is a top threat to human ______ , affecting not only hearing but also sleep, brain development and cardiovascular health. Abdulali claims Mumbai is the world’s ______ city. A study led by Ritesh Vijay, an expert from India’s National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, did find that noise levels in Mumbai and surrounding areas in 2020 dramatically exceed legal limits.

In recent years, the battle against noise has become increasingly ______ , with Abdulali often facing powerful interests who consider it an inevitable byproduct of growth. With increasing ______ , ever more people are exposed to continuous noise. In a rapidly expanding city such as Mumbai, with a population topping 12 million, demand for housing puts noise rules ______ development plans. Although sound barriers are required for construction projects, they’re expensive, so developers ______ installing them.

Traffic is a tougher problem. Noise on the road can reach 110 decibels (分贝) — a level that can lead to permanent hearing damage after just 15 minutes of exposure, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Luckily, ______ can help in the fight, Vijay says. He suggests devices that measure horn use, which would let officials offer ______ drivers rewards like deductions (扣除) on car insurance. Dynamic signaling, where sensors linked to stoplights detect traffic density, would improve vehicle flow and ______   the urge to resort to horns, he says. Local government also ______ . Mumbai decreed (颁布) India’s first “No-Honking” day in 2008, with police handing out booklets to raise awareness about traffic noise and imposing fines up to 1,000 rupees ($12) on offending motorists.

Far more important is the longer-term impact of the day-to-day noise, so that’s where Vijay believes activists should focus their energy. “In India we celebrate festivals with lots of noise,” he says. “But our ______ noise itself is beyond the allowed limit.”

8 . In the deepest dive in a manned submersible(潜水器), US explorer Victor Vescovo spotted and video-recorded a plastic bag and a pile of candy wrappers on the seabed.

His _________ of plastic waste 11.2 kilometers below sea level in the Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean, the deepest known point in the Earth’s oceans, means there is _________ on this planet plastic waste cannot reach, _________ it has been found on Mount Qomolangma and in both Arctic and Antarctic waters.

Since the patent(专利) for plastics was _________ in 1907, 8.3 billion tons of plastic products have already been produced, of which 6.3 billion have been poured into oceans _________ processing.

Most of the discarded(丢弃) plastic products _________ in the ocean. In the Pacific Ocean, plastic garbage and other waste have already formed a(n) _________ that’s 1.6 million square kilometers in size. That is the size of Mongolia.

Every year, about 8 million tons of plastic waste flow into the ocean. It is _________ that the total weight of plastic waste will reach 12 _________ tons by 2050, more than the total weight of oceanic fish.

This plastic waste __________ life in the oceans and on the land alike by filling in their stomachs so they cannot eat, or __________ around their bodies so they cannot breathe. It pollutes the __________ and prevents plants’ roots from digging deep into the ground. Plastic micro-particles(微粒) also join the water __________ and enter the bodies of animals, including humans. As humans are at the top of the food __________ , plastic micro-particles accumulate inside our bodies.

We must do something to __________ the situation. Don’t get plastic bags at the supermarket and take your own reusable one __________ . Give up fast delivery lunches and instead cook or go to the restaurant. Get into the __________ of sorting your garbage.

But that’s so much __________ said than done. Environmentalists have been __________ behavioral changes for at least three decades, yet we __________ to use a growing amount of plastic products.

9 . With about 100,000 marine animals being choked or injured by plastic every year, the danger posed by the pieces of plastic floating in our oceans is well- known. However, given that most of the small plastics measure less than 0.5 mm, collecting them is a _______task. Now, some Dutch environmentalists have found a way to catch plastic waste _______ it reaches the open seas and falls to pieces.

The 1,500-square-foot Recycled Floating Park is now floating in the Rotterdam Harbor in the Netherlands. Scientists _______by developing a "plastic fisher”, a floating garbage _______ device. Fitted with two folding arms that enlarge several feet into the water, it uses a net to _______wrappers, bottles, any other garbage that floats past.

The movable device, which took a year and a half to be perfected, was then placed at the edge of the harbor to collect the city that trash _______ in the New Meuse river, which rose in France and passed through Belgium, and the Netherlands, before _______ into the North Sea. Since Rotterdam's New Waterway Canal links the river to the North Sea, it was the_______ place to catch the “fresh" plastic waste before it disappeared into the open waters and broke into _______.

The waste collected by the "plastic fisher" and hundreds of volunteers, who ________the river banks, was then made into 28 hexagonal(六边形的）floats which were________ to create the park. Some of the blocks are ________to visitors, while others house various types of plants and even trees for nesting birds. The bottom of the floats provides a suitable ________for algae, mussels, and fish. The recycled ________can also be used to build sports stadiums, public walkways, and cultural centers.________, Recycled Floating Park's success will encourage countries worldwide to take on similar plans.

10 . Production of bottled water has grown over the past thirty years from nothing into a $16 billion-per-year business. However, more and more people have been against bottled water use, and environmentalists are _______ people to go back to the tap.

The first reason why you should seriously think about _______ bottled water, they say, is that it’s bad for the environment. Producing plastic bottles _______ vast quantities of oil. As a result, factories create poisonous waste and send it into the environment. What is more, the vast majority of plastic water bottles aren’t _______. In almost every part of the world, unwanted water bottles take up landfills (垃圾填埋地) and send dangerous gases into air and water when they are burned. In other words, bottled water is a major _______ to global warming.

Secondly, the _______ of bottled water requires a lot of fuel. In the USA alone, one billion bottles of water are moved around each week in trucks, giving off polluting gases. In fact, some high-priced water is _______ from one side of the planet to the other.

Finally, bottled water isn’t even better for your health. Tap water rules in many countries are far _______ than those for bottled water. Furthermore, tap water contains fluoride, which is added to help build strong teeth and prevent tooth decay (龋齿). Consequently, as the use of bottled water has _______, tooth decay has become more serious.

To sum up, by stopping the use of bottled water, and encouraging others to do so, you will be doing the planet an enormous favor and ________ your own health as well.