Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better if we did not bring so much material home in the first place.

The total amount of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a typical household’s waste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard.

Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of it for carrying this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in the first place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue, encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example.

But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to associate packaging with quality. We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This is especially true of food. But it also applies to a wide range of consumer products, which often have far more packaging than necessary.

There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realize just how much unnecessary material we are collecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but we have a mountain to climb.

In many countries today, laws protect wildlife. In India, the need for such protection 【小题1】（realize）centuries ago. About 300 years ago, 【小题2】 Indian writer described forests 【小题3】   were somewhat like national parks today. The killing of animals was 【小题4】（careful）supervised（监督）. Some animals were fully protected in the forest. Nobody was allowed 【小题5】（cut）timber（木材）, burn wood for charcoal, or catch animals for their fur. Animals which became 【小题6】（danger） to human visitors were caught or killed outside the park, so that other animals would not become uneasy.

The need for wildlife protection is 【小题7】（great）now than before. About a thousand species of animals are in danger of dying out, and the rate at which they are being destroyed 【小题8】（increase）. If we don't take 【小题9】（measure）to protect wildlife,some day our children will see no living creatures 【小题10】 themselves.

With the improvement of living standards, there has been a tendency that people begin to turn to cars.

So why not ride bicycles and lead a low-carbon life?

   The majority of the people make tree houses using a pile of wood, a hammer, and some nails. Mitchell Joachim, an architect from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has a（n）_______ vision（设想）. He _______ a day when homes will be created from living trees.

Joachim’s vision is _______ on an idea called pleaching（编织）, where tree branches are grown so that they _______ weave together. Since the growth patterns of trees are _______ by wind and sunlight, it may be _______ to control the way a tree develops.

These Fabricated Tree House Habitats would use trees grown into shapes as housing. One of the _______ of these designs is that trees would not have to be cut down _______.

“A 100 percent tree house would _______ years to create,” Joachim said. __________ the climate, a house could take anywhere from 5 to 30 years to grow. Fortunately, there’s a way to speed up the __________. Joachim __________ including ecological materials such as grasses and living branches in the housing designs. “This material would be able to move __________ the house grows,” Joachim said.

A home would become an actual ecosystem, a community of plants, animals, and bacteria working together. The trees would also give off water vapor（蒸气）that would assist in __________ the homes. Solar panels and wind would help provide __________. The tree homes might even have soil pockets, where plants could __________ in the structure itself.

Work has already __________ on Joachim’s first design — a house made from 50 percent recycled and 50 percent living things. Joachim is confident about the __________ of his work, as he uses __________ products without destroying nature.

“The environment and its study are very important. We need to __________ nature, and don’t take it for granted,” he said.