Environmental protection is frequently talked about nowadays. The authorities are doing their best to arise the public awareness of the vital importance of the environmental protection. This issue is, indeed, worth following up. Environmental protection is closely related not only to our personal life, but also to the entire human race and the world’s further development. For one thing, the environment, in a narrow sense, determines the quality of  our individual life. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, etc. , all come directly from the environment. If they continue to be contaminated, we may have neither clean water, nor healthy food. For another thing, in a broader sense, the environment plays a decisive role in fate of mankind. As is known to all, the earth, up to now, is human being’s only dwelling place. We can expect that some day we will live on another planet, but I doubt that this day will come earlier than the day when the earth becomes a globe of waste, if we keep damaging the environment. Finally, the environment is essential to the further development of the world. Extensive industrialization, which has brought about all the convenience and facilities we enjoy today, has been depending on the comprehensive exploitation of the earth’s natural resources found in the environment. If we do not protect the environment properly, further development cannot be guaranteed. In a word, to protect the environment is an urgent task.Nevertheless, environmental protection is indeed a de manding task. Many people are still, either unconscious of the urgency of the task or deliberately damaging the environment for the interests of their own. Hence, we should adopt severe measures to prohibit people from doing more harms to the environment. Meanwhile, we need to make the gravity of the present situation known to all. In other words, punishment and instruction should be equally emphasized. Only in this way can we look forward to a cleaner and greener world.小题1:. . What does the underlined word contaminated（in paragraph 2）probably refer to?
The author’s purpose in writing the passage is to ________.
. From the passage we can know that ________.
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