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.

Artists Show Concern for Environment at Smithsonian Craft Show

The United Nations says more than one million plant and animal species are likely to die out because of human activity. That threat 【小题1】 the environment and concerns about climate change influenced people attending the Smithsonian Craft Show last month. The show gave recognition to artists 【小题2】 (create) environmentally sustainable works.

The Smithsonian Committee is made up of volunteers from the Washington, D.C. area. Joann Symons is the group’s president. “In recent years, we’ve noticed that the artists in our shows have been working with more renewable materials and methods 【小题3】 are environmentally safe. That’s 【小题4】 we’ve decided that we will reward those efforts by offering a Sustainability Award every year at our show,” said Symons.

At the show last month, 120 artists from across the United States presented works of art in 12 different materials. Twenty-one artists met the requirements for sustainability. By doing so, they won the right 【小题5】 (compete) for the Honoring the Future Sustainability Award. The winner received a prize of 1,000 dollars.

Mary Jaeger creates her works of art in a nearly 100-year-old factory building in Brooklyn, New York. She makes artworks that 【小题6】 be worn as clothing. It combines the time-honored qualities of Japanese textiles with modern Western designs. Jaeger won the “Honoring the Future Sustainability Award” for her silk creations. She makes them by hand, combining earlier projects with materials 【小题7】 (leave) over. The artist said, “【小题8】 I look at these beautiful silks that I have acquired over the years of designing, I wanted to repurpose them into something that was truly beautiful, but completely different than the original product...”

Fran Dubrowski 【小题9】 (head) Honoring the Future, a nonprofit organization that provides the sustainability award. She said the group 【小题10】 (set) up to take advantage of the power of art to educate and engage the public on climate change.

Among all the members in the cat family, the Siberian tiger is the largest in size. Also known as the Northeast Tiger in China, the Siberian tiger is one of the most 【小题1】 (endanger) animals in the world, mainly living in Russia’s Far East and Northeast China. Now about 500 Siberian tigers are believed to be living in the wild. Long ago, Siberian tigers 【小题2】 (be) all over Northeast Asia and Russian Far East, but today they are found mainly along the Chinese-Russian border and 【小题3】 (possible) in North Korea. The main reason for their decrease in numbers is the 【小题4】 (disappear) of their natural habitat. Fortunately, steps 【小题5】 (take) to save this magnificent creature in recent years and as a consequence numbers are 【小题6】 the rise.

Recently, a wild Siberian tiger has been spotted in a forest area in Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province. 【小题7】 (suggest) the ongoing improvement of the local ecological environment, according to forest rangers (护林人). News report says that footprints and excrement (排泄物) of a suspected Siberian tiger were found by local forest rangers and they checked the infrared (红外线) cameras in the area and saw 【小题8】   appeared to be an adult wild tiger. A DNA test of the tiger’s excrement has confirmed that it is 【小题9】   new adult male tiger. rather than the one rescued and later released into the wild in 2021. “This is the fifth adult wild Siberian tiger 【小题10】 has been spotted in the Muling forest-area in recent years,” they said.