如果大家觉得比较简单，就当作泛读材料了解了解，认识几个新单词或新表达方式也不错。如果大家觉得这些材料理解上有难度，不妨当做挑战自己的拔高训练，希望大家都有进步^^
　　Bad news. Unesco may soon strip London's two most prominent tourist sites, Westminster's Parliament Square and the Tower of London in the City of their world heritage status. Chief reason is the towering Shard, which will be western Europe's tallest building, now looming over both of them from its launch pad on the south side of London Bridge. Westminster's grouping of Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and Whitehall is probably far enough away to survive the shock. The Tower of London is a different matter.
　　Unesco 联合国教科文组织（United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization）
　　strip of 剥夺
　　tourist sites 旅游景点；观光地区
　　Shard 夏德伦敦塔（一座超高层摩天大楼，位于伦敦Southwark，2009年年底前开始施工，并计划于2012年5月竣工，届时将会是英国和西欧最高建筑。）
　　loom over 赫然耸立
　　The rough-and-tumble old citadel has become such a London familiar that few people really know it. William the Conqueror's White Tower still sits nobly in the centre of the composition, sadly deprived of the original limewash that gave it its name. Inside are the original apartments, two chambers to each floor, and a Norman chapel. In the basement is a magnificent armoury museum. This remains the finest 11th-century structure in Britain.
　　William the Conqueror 征服者威廉，即威廉公爵，法国诺曼底公爵。英格兰第一位诺曼人国王。
　　deprive of 剥夺；失去
　　armoury museum 兵器博物馆
　　On the river side of the Tower is Traitor's Gate and a suite of medieval chambers fitted out for Henry III (who kept a zoo in the grounds). This mini-palace has been recreated, complete with throne room and peaceful oratory looking out over the Thames – a serene view touched by the sadness of those passing to their deaths beneath.
　　throne room 王宫大殿
　　the Thames 泰晤士河
　　serene adj. 平静的；安详的
　　Within this palace runs the last medieval street in London, a maze of ancient walls, steps and turrets. Here are the Bloody Tower, Raleigh's prison chambers, the Crown Jewels and the "leads" where Princess Elizabeth walked and contemplated death or coronation during the reign of her Catholic half-sister, Mary. The Tower enclave as a whole is a remarkable medieval town within a town. When inside, we can just about lose ourselves in Beefeaters, ravens, blood, guts and history.
　　a maze of 像迷宫般的
　　lose oneself in 沉浸于；沉迷于
　　Until the 1960s Tower Hill, overlooking the tower itself, was surrounded by the buildings, mostly warehouses, of a working Georgian and Victorian city. Most eye-catching of all, Tower Bridge, designed by the City architect, Horace Jones, in 1886, rose downstream in deference to the tower itself. The most famous bascule bridge in the world and still working, it perfectly complements the battlements and vigour of the Conqueror's fortress. Visitors can climb it and look down on river and city beneath, getting a closer and more evocative view than from the big wheel upstream.
　　eye-watching adj. 引人瞩目的
　　Tower Bridge 伦敦塔桥（从英国伦敦泰晤士河口算起的第一座桥，也是伦敦的象征，有“伦敦正门”之称。）
　　That is about it. As Unesco rightly suggests, no city in Europe has shown less concern for the setting of its historic buildings than London. St Katherine's Dock just downstream of the bridge has been partly restored, but its tower facade is wrecked by an overwhelming glass box by Lord Rogers, and by the appalling concrete Tower Hotel. Whoever allowed this to be put up should be shot, and one day I assume it will be taken down.
　　show less concern to 对……关注较少
　　take down 拆下；推倒
　　Across the river lies the benighted site of warehouses cleared in the 1970s and left fallow as planners argue over what to do next. Had the waterfront been restored, as happened downstream in Wapping, this area would have been yielding rent and jobs for a quarter of a century. That is the true cost of so-called redevelopment.
　　Directly opposite the Tower is the mayor of London's oval building designed by Lord Foster and described by former mayor Ken Livingstone as a "glass testicle". It lurches strangely towards the river with, to its right, the frigid More London development. Meanwhile, on the north bank upstream of the Tower, is a giant atrium block also by Foster, blundering across the contour.
　　These buildings show not the slightest respect for the Tower or Tower Bridge. They are monuments only to insipid steel and glass.

　　Question time:
　　1. Why does the auther suppose that Unesco may strip Westminster's Parliament Square and the Tower of London in the City of their world heritage status?
　　2. What's the author's attitude to the warehouses and oval buildings?

　　【参考答案】
　　1. Because no city in Europe has shown less concern for the setting of its historic buildings than London, the towering Shard looms over both of them from its launch pad on the south side of London Bridge.
　　2. He resolutely opposes such buildings, in his opinion, They are monuments only to insipid steel and glass.