Following pressure from animal activist groups , Apsara, the management authority for the Angkor Archaeological Park in Siem Reap, Cambodia announced in June 2019 it would ban elephant rides in early 2020. Now the process has already begun.

An Apsara press【小题1】 (represent) said, “The elephant is a big animal, 【小题2】 it is gentle and we don’t want to see the animals 【小题3】 (use) for tourism activities anymore. We want them to live in their【小题4】 (nature) surroundings.”

In 2016, an elephant named Sambo died at Angkor Archaeological Park, 【小题5】 (draw) worldwide attention. Her death was blamed 【小题6】 a combination of heat stroke arid exhaustion from ferrying so many human beings around. Two years later, the World Wildlife Fund 【小题7】 (publish) an in-depth look at the dwindling populations of the Asian elephant, noting that the 【小题8】 (species) population had declined by 50% in just three generations.

The ban comes at a time when more and more travelers and tourism organizations around the world have moved to eliminate animal-related attractions. Most recently, Trip Advisor-one of the world’s biggest travel listings and booking sites--announced that 【小题9】 would not sell tickets to any sites 【小题10】 breed whales or dolphins in captivity, such as the theme park Sea World in the US.

Leonora, a 51-year-old from the Philippines, 【小题1】(make) women’s dresses out of waste materials in recent years since she believes 【小题2】(wear) such clothes can be cheap and look good. To make her dresses, she uses 【小题3】foot-operated sewing (缝纫) machine to join together the waste materials, including recycled newspapers, plastic wrappers and rice bags, 【小题4】which Leonora makes her designs. The bubble (泡沫) wrappers from delivery packages are nice-looking and suitable for a good design, 【小题5】(particular) for making wedding dresses. They are also used for everything from wedding decoration to birthday 【小题6】(party).

In Asia, there is plenty of waste material for Leonora to apply. Most of the world’s ocean waste 【小题7】(carry) by Asian rivers. And her country, the Philippines, is responsible for one third of Asia’s ocean plastic pollution.

“The dresses are really 【小题8】(impress). It’s important to recycle such materials so we can help our earth,” said Lalaine 【小题9】buys clothes from Leonora.

Most of her dresses are used in the beauty 【小题10】(compete) and are popular with young girls. “I get delighted whenever they win. The designs are simple, but they still win,” she said.

About 385, 000 people from 192 countries take part in the yearly project to count birds. The event【小题1】(launch)for the first time 25 years ago.

Steve and Janet Kistler from the American state of Kentucky are among those 【小题2】(involve) themselves in it. They’ve done so every year【小题3】the now-international tradition started in 1998. For Moira Dalibor, 【小题4】 schoolteacher from nearby Lexington, this is her first event. She’s leading a group of students and parents to a garden 【小题5】(collect) data.

Becca Rodomsky-Bish,【小题6】works at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in New York, is the project’s leader. The Lab organizes the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) along with the National Audubon Society and Birds Canada. “Every year we see increased participation, and 2022 was a big jump,” Becca said. In India, which had the 【小题7】(high) participation outside the US last year, tens of thousands of people submitted bird checklists.

The worldwide data goes into the eBird database used by scientists for research on different bird 【小题8】(population). The GBBC is part of a rise in “citizen science" projects in which volunteers collect data about the【小题9】(nature) world for use by researchers. The information helps researchers track the numbers of different kinds of birds, which then helps with their 【小题10】(protect).