Text 1  The Lady on Pemberton Street

About the story

Protecting the environment seems a big and sometimes abstract problem, but it does concern us all. With the disappearing of ozone layer above two poles, the frequent occurrence of acid rain and the sandstorm, environmental problems kept the attention of the scientists as well as the common people.

Mable, in the following text is definitely one of those people who consciously protect the environment. Her decades' practice of cleaning the block has inspired many people around her to pay more attention to the environment issues and be a conscious cleaner. Have you ever noticed any examples of environmental heroes around you?

Language notes

1) The only place within our means was a row house on a little street called Pemberton.

（按收入状况，我们只能住在一条叫做潘伯敦的小街上的联立房屋。）

To live within one's means means to base one's expenditure upon one's income (量入为出地生活)； there is another phrase, to live beyond one's means (过着超过自已收入的生活).

a row house: one of a series of identical houses situated side by side and joined by common walls.

2) I also mentioned that I did handiwork on the side.

（我顺便提到还兼职做些手工活。）

On the side refers to work done or money earned apart from that coming from one's main occupation（工作或收入）额外地，附带.

e.g. His nominal wage is fifteen pounds a week, but he makes a few pounds more on the side.

3) There was a certain combativeness in her voice, as if those who did not help had sided with the dark forces responsible for litter, decay and dilapidation.

（她的声音带有某种好战情绪，似乎那些不提供帮助的人都站到了黑暗势力一边，要对垃圾、腐败、倾颓负责。）

To side with means to put oneself on the same side as somebody.

e.g. John sided with Adam in any argument.

4) That incongruous sight was soon eclipsed by a gushing fire hydrant and phalanxes of neighbors pushing brooms to work the water and dirt down the street.

（在消防水龙头冲洗和邻居们组成的大扫除方阵的努力下，街道上的污水和灰尘被清扫干净了，原先那种不协调的景象很快就消失了。）

A fire hydrant is a pipe from a water main for street-cleaning, putting out fires etc. (消防栓).

Phalanxes is a body of soldiers in close formation for fighting(方阵).

Text 2  It's Our World, Too!

About the story

As is the truth, in some regions the economy has developed at the sacrifice of environment. Just look at the grim facts of the environmental destruction around us, we will understand that we should undertake the responsibility of protecting the environment, otherwise we will inevitably fall the victims of the environmental disasters.

If every one of us increases consciousness of environmental protection, we can improve the quality of our life. Furthermore, the state has to work out the laws and regulations related to environmental protection. Only through compulsory regulations can we throttle the pace of environmental deterioration.

In the following story, the little boy called Andrew took up the legal weapons to fight against those who wanted to develop the wetland near his home into an apartment lot. His final victory no wonder has encouraged us to continue the battle of the environmental preservation, for "it is our world, too!".

Language notes

1) Using their field guides, he and a friend had learned to identify nearly all the plants and animals that lived there.

（靠着土地指南册，他和一个朋友学会了辨别在这块土地上生活的几乎每一种动植物。）

A field guide refers to something, such as a pamphlet, that offers basic information or instruction of a place.

2) Sitting at his kitchen table, Andrew went through a kind of metamorphosis.

（安德鲁坐在餐桌旁，似乎经历了一次变形。）

Metamorphosis means a change in appearance, character, condition, or function.

e.g. A butterfly is produced by metamorphosis from a caterpillar.

3) He called the state Audubon Society's Environmental Health Line and asked for ideas.

（他打电话给州奥杜邦协会环境健康专线，向他们请教。）

The Audubon Society is a society that seeks to protect the environment and its creatures, especially birds； named after John James Audubon, nineteenth-century painter and expert on birds.

4) He even proposed an alternative site for development: the old drive-in theater.

（他甚至提出另一个地点以供开发：破旧的汽车电影院。）

A drive-in theatre is a theatre designed to permit customers to remain in their motor vehicles while seeing a movie.

5) No reason to burn bridges, he told himself.

（他对自己说，没有必要做得过分。）

To burn bridges means to go so far in a course of action that one cannot turn back.

e.g. Think carefully before you resign - if you do that you'll have burnt your boats.

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