The population of the Earth is growing faster. It is important that we look after the Earth. We need it!
The Earth gives us a lot of things. We also give the Earth a lot, but some of the things are not good.
In nature, when something dies, other animals and plants get food from it. Every animal or plant gives food for other animals or plants. However, animals can't get food from many of the things that we ‘give' the Earth. Animals and plants can't eat metal, plastic and glass. These things will stay in the ground for many, many years.

Some rubbish is very dangerous for plants and animals. In some places, many animals live together. One animal makes food for many more animals. If we put rubbish and chemicals in the water, the plankton(浮游生物) can die. If there isn't any plankton, many animals have nothing to eat.
So what can we do? Don't leave any rubbish in the countryside! Don't make so much rubbish!

    There are many kinds of animals that live in the forest, such as mice, rabbits, squirrels, bears.

    Animals in the forest depend on（依靠）one another for food. Many small forest animals, such as mice, eat green plants for food, and then larger animals eat them. This is called food chain. A food chain begins with the sun. The green plants in the forest use the sun's energy to make food for themselves. It's called photosynthesis(光合作用). Mice eat flowers and seeds that forest plants produce(生产).The mice get their energy from the plants, and the mice become food for a larger animal, such as the hunting hawk. So the energy from the sun passes from the plants to the mice to the hawk. A break（中断）in any part of this food chain means some animals may not have enough food to eat.

D

    There is a lake near a forest in Sweden. The water in the lake is very clear and everything is quiet and still. On the far side of the water is some farmland and further away, across the field, is an old church built on a hill. It has just stopped raining. The brook(小溪) flowing into the lake is full and there is still some half-melted(半融化的) snow from last winter on the ground.

    The reason the water is so clear, and everything is so quiet and still, is that most of the plant and animal life in and around the lake is dead. There are no birds because all the fish and insects, which the birds need for food, have disappeared. Many trees in the forest are losing their leaves and bark (树皮), and are sick and dying. Others were blown down by the high winds of last winter. A farmer is working in a field planting something, but unless he plants a stronger kind of seed this year, the crop will be between 25 to 40 percent lower than a few years ago. The stones of the old church tower are turning to powder and unless the tower is repaired soon, it will fall down.

    All the death and destruction(破坏) in this place is caused by the smoke coming out of factories and poisonous gases from cars and trucks. And yet this silent lake is hundreds of meters aways from the nearest factory and highway.

    Is your TV connected to the Internet? What about your chair, or your fridge? Probably they are not. But in the future, most things in your home may be connected, thanks to the so-called "Internet of things".

    The Internet of things may be coming sooner than you think. Earlier this year, A Samsung CEO spent a lot of time talking about the Internet things. He said that five years from now, every Samsung product will be part of the Internet of things, no matter whether it's a remote control or a washing machine.

    So, how do household(家用的) objects that are part of the Internet of things work? Well, think of a common chair. When connected to the Internet, the chair warms up when it knows the user has just walked into the room and is feeling cold.

    An Internet-connected camera could help people feel safer in their homes. It can know people's faces and has an infrared sensor(红外传感器), so even if it's dark it can see when someone passes by and send you a message on your smartphone to let you know who's there. If the person is someone you don't know, it can tell you that, too.

    But according to MIT Technology Review, whether companies are connecting dog food bowls or security systems to the Internet, there may be some problems. For example, many early connected-home objects don't have much built-in security, which means they could be hacked(被黑客攻击). Moreover, it could be difficult to get these new machines to work together especially when they are made by different companies. To fight this, many companies have joined the Open Interconnect Consortium, which had 45 members by late 2014.

    So, picture this: you enter your home. The temperature changes to make you feel comfortable. Your favorite music starts playing for you. Do you think that this would be a good thing? It may happen sooner than you think.

    The best way to teach your children to live a green lifestyle is to live that green lifestyle yourself. When kids see you picking up rubbish from the park, they see value(价值)in keeping public places clean Use these tips to introduce your children to green living：

    Use public transport. Use the car only when necessary; at other times, take trains and buses with your children.

    Ask for their help. Younger children often love grown-up activities. So have them carry a small bag of food waste to the bin, or let them help separate(分开)your recycling. Older children may want to take part in the activities like cleaning up the neighbourhood and organizing the daily recycling If they're not very interested, make environment-friendly activities a family-time priority (优先事项)

    _________________________ Petting farms for younger kids may help prevent(防止)farm animals from becoming something that they see only in books or on television. Many people believe that wild animals shouldn't be kept in any kind of zoos, but they do offer a valuable educational and conservation(保护)lesson. So if you want to visit a zoo, find a zoo that provides its animals with as natural an environment as possible