I work with Volunteers for Wildlife, a rescue and education organization at Bailey Arboretum in Locust Valley. Trying to help injured, displaced or sick creatures can be heartbreaking; survival is never certain. However, when it works, it is simply beautiful.

I got a rescue call from a woman in Muttontown. She had found a young owl(猫头鹰) on the ground. When I arrived, I saw a 2-to 3-week-old owl. It had already been placed in a carrier for safety.

I examined the chick(雏鸟) and it seemed fine. If I could locate the nest, I might have been able to put it back, but no luck. My next work was to construct a nest and anchor it in a tree.

The homeowner was very helpful. A wire basket was found. I put some pine branches into the basket to make this nest safe and comfortable. I placed the chick in the nest, and it quickly calmed down.

Now all that was needed were the parents, but they were absent. I gave the homeowner a recording of the hunger screams of owl chicks. These advertise the presence of chicks to adults; they might also encourage our chick to start calling as well. I gave the owner as much information as possible and headed home to see what news the night might bring.

A nervous night to be sure, but sometimes the spirits of nature smile on us all! The homeowner called to say that the parents had responded to the recordings. I drove over and saw the chick in the nest looking healthy and active. And it was accompanied in the nest by the greatest sight of all — LUNCH! The parents had done their duty and would probably continue to do so.

83-year-old Antonio Vicente has spent the last four decades of his life bringing the jungles of his childhood back to life. Today, his efforts are being rewarded, as the 【小题1】(complete) deserted land has become a beautiful jungle with wildlife again.

It was 1973 when Antonio began his work 【小题2】 a weekend hobby. However, it soon became a permanent way of life. Antonio spends whole days and nights in his jungle, 【小题3】(surround) with rats and foxes and eating banana sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Over the last 20 years, he 【小题4】(plant) about 50,000 trees on his land. As the forest grew, the water returned. Then the animals started making a home there. Today, the forest is alive with the sounds of birds and 【小题5】(insect) living there, and more species are settling in every year. “If you ask me 【小题6】 my family are, I would say all this right here, each one of these that I planted from a seed ,”he said.

Impressive as his lifelong 【小题7】(contribute) to reforestation(重新造林) is, his story is a very rare one. Data shows that nearly 19,770 acres of Brazilian rainforest 【小题8】(destroy) between August 2015 and July 2016. That makes Antonio’s work seem like 【小题9】 drop in the bucket(桶), but just imagine if we had more people like him, who cares 【小题10】(many) about water and clean air than money.

   During most time of the 1930s, the Great Plains region was destroyed by drought and high winds. Howling across the Great Plains, these winds swept up the soil of the over-farmed land and created serious sandstorms of dust. These black sandstorms were so thick that daylight seemed more like dusk. Year after year having passed without rain, the winds continued to blow, and the dust swirled endlessly. During this terrible period, the region came to be called the Dust Bowl.

But the causes of the sandstorms weren’t just drought and winds. In a strange way, patriotism（爱国主义）was partly to blame. During World War Ⅰ, the U. S. government encouraged farmers to support the war by planting more wheat. As farmers increased their production, their own profits increased. Following the invention of the farm tractor, farmers plowed up thousands of acres of grassland and planted wheat. Wheat production rose fast, but nature soon turned success into disaster.

When the drought began, farmers didn’t realize that, by plowing up the grassland, they had destroyed the land’s natural protection against soil erosion（侵蚀）. As the drought continued, one powerful windstorm after another blew across the Great Plains. Crops dried up and were blown away.

Nothing grew for years. Eventually most of the rich topsoil（表土层）was blown away. As years passed, all the moisture（水汽）in the ground disappeared, leaving even the deep roots of trees in dust.

The Great Plains became a deserted place, as thousands of people fled to California to escape the dust and look for work. Most found only low-paying agricultural jobs. But there were those who refused to leave. For these farmers, a program encouraged them to make use of new ways that would protect the precious topsoil from eroding. But bringing the soil back to life took time, and the farmers still needed rain. Rain meant more to the farmers than it ever had before. It meant a future.

When I was young, I lived in the countryside. At that time, the trees there were very green, that left a deep impression on me. The waters there was so clear that I even could see the fish swam. When it got dark, the air was cooler than it in the daytime. People liked to walk out of their houses to chat together. I liked to play games with my friends but run along the village happily. As the moon rose highly in the sky , the village was lighting. When I looked up, I could see moon and a few stars. They were so close to me. It seemed that I could touch on them. The life in the countryside were so wonderful.