Humankind’s growing need for food is running up against thousands of other species’ need for space. By 2050, humans may need to clear an additional 3.35 million square 【小题1】 (kilometer) of land for agriculture. 【小题2】 (transform) these largely natural habitats would squeeze more than 17,000 vertebrate species from some of their lands. But changing how and where food 【小题3】 (grow) can minimize the impacts. “We can feed the planet without messing it up too badly,” says conservation scientist David Williams.

Today’s children spend an average of four and a half hours a day【小题1】 (look) at screens, watching television and using the Internet. In the past few years, an increasing number of people and organizations 【小题2】 (attempt) to change the trend. A couple of years ago, film-maker David Bond realized that his children, then aged five and three, 【小题3】 (addict) to screens to the point where he was able to say “chocolate” into his son’s ear without getting a response. He was aware that something needs to change 【小题4】 it might be challenging.

The demand for Chinese as a foreign language is growing fast, both in English-speaking countries like USA 【小题1】 in other countries like France. The number of the students studying Chinese 【小题2】 (increase) in recent years.

There 【小题3】 (be) a number of reasons for the interest. As China develops economically, opportunities for 【小题4】 (do) business increase dramatically. If you know your partner’s language, your chances of success increase. But there is also a renewed interest in the culture and traditions of China. In fact, the Chinese culture for over 5,000 years is 【小题5】 source of curiosity and fascination for people in other parts of the world.

A third reason is 【小题6】 learning Chinese is simply a challenge. With 【小题7】 (it)characters and complicated tone system,most speakers of other languages think Chinese must be incredibly difficult. But is it 【小题8】 (real) so? As one American student says, “One of the 【小题9】 (big) problems about learning Chinese is often fear-sometimes 【小题10】 (cause) by the teachers. I’ve studied quite a few languages, and none of them are as easy for me as Chinese.