Among the capitals of big economies, Beijing enjoys a surprising distinction. 【小题1】 its sometimes unpleasant weather, it hosts more species of birds than any other such city apart from Brasilia. Remarkably, however, birdwatching remains 【小题2】 (common).

In many countries, birders play an important role in 【小题3】 (spot) changes in bird populations and behaviour. A British enthusiast in Beijing Terry Townshend, has recently set up 【小题4】 means of doing so without needing to stand for hours outdoors. It involves a digital listening device 【小题5】 (fix) on the roof of a 15-storey building in northern Beijing. For several months until mid-November it recorded the night-time calls of migratory birds flying above. The sounds will be used to identify night-lying species, some of 【小题6】 are not commonly seen overhead by day. The technique has been used in America and Europe, but Mr Townshend thinks this is its first known 【小题7】 (apply) in Asia. Such devotion is rare among 【小题8】 (amateur).

China has little history of birdwatching. Only in the 19th century did the scientific study of birds begin. Birdwatching as a pastime 【小题9】 (emerge) only in the past two decades, helped by rising incomes that have allowed people to buy binoculars and cameras. There is a small but growing number of local birders who 【小题10】 (close) monitor bird migration and draw public attention to human threats to birds.

In every photo from our family vacation to Washington, D.C., I was showing off the souvenir I picked out at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo — a white, oversize, cotton sweatshirt with pandas 【小题1】 (dance) on the front.

Nearly 30 years later I found myself among 【小题2】 pool of photojournalists and video crews packed into the panda enclosure(围场), covering a small cub(幼兽) named Bei Bei for National Geographic.

After the photographs of Bei Bei 【小题3】 (publish), my editor suggested I ask zoo administrators if I could return periodically 【小题4】 (document) the first year of the cub’s life. They said yes.

On that first day with Bei Bei, I felt a little thrill as a zoo staffer took me down a quiet path to the back of the panda enclosure 【小题5】 the panda’s keepers were waiting. They introduced 【小题6】 (they), handed me shoe coverings and a mask, and led me through a series of gates and 【小题7】 (eventual) to Bei Bei.

Soon I was making regular 【小题8】 (stop) at the zoo to record the baby panda’s transformation. My kids had never been 【小题9】 (interested) in my job than when I was on the Bei Bei beat. When I mentioned the project 【小题10】 friends and neighbors, they would light up in ways I’d never seen. It turned out that everyone loved pandas.

【小题1】（see） from outer space, Earth is a blue planet, due to the fact that the ocean covers over 70 percent of its surface. According to a new study published in the journal Science, the ocean plays a great role in 【小题2】（slow）down global warming. It is “【小题3】important buffer（缓冲物）”,【小题4】The New York Times put it.

The oceans can absorb 93 percent of the heat trapped by the greenhouse gases 【小题5】humans release into the atmosphere. And the other 7 percent 【小题6】（absorb)by the air, land and ice caps, according to the Guardian.

“If the ocean wasn’t absorbing as much heat, the surface of the land would heat up much 【小题7】 （fast） than it is right now,” said professor Malin L. Pinsky at Rutgers University in the US. “In fact, the ocean is saving us from rapid warming right now.”

However, the ocean itself, as Discover Magazine noted, is heating up 40 percent faster on average than the United Nations 【小题8】（believe） five years ago. That means if the ocean temperatures increase 【小题9】this speed, the high water temperatures “will kill off marine ecosystems, raise sea 【小题10】 (level) and make hurricanes more destructive （破坏性的）”, the Guardian reported.