如果大家覺得比較簡單，就當作泛讀材料了解了解，認識幾個新單詞或新表達方式也不錯。如果大家覺得這些材料理解上有難度，不妨當做挑戰自己的拔高訓練，希望大家都有進步^^
　　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 聯合國教科文組織（United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization）
　　strip of 剝奪
　　tourist sites 旅游景點；觀光地區
　　Shard 夏德倫敦塔（一座超高層摩天大樓，位于倫敦Southwark，2009年年底前開始施工，并計劃于2012年5月竣工，屆時將會是英國和西歐最高建筑。）
　　loom over 赫然聳立
　　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，法國諾曼底公爵。英格蘭第一位諾曼人國王。
　　deprive of 剝奪；失去
　　armoury museum 兵器博物館
　　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 王宮大殿
　　the Thames 泰晤士河
　　serene adj. 平靜的；安詳的
　　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 像迷宮般的
　　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. 引人矚目的
　　Tower Bridge 倫敦塔橋（從英國倫敦泰晤士河口算起的第一座橋，也是倫敦的象征，有“倫敦正門”之稱。）
　　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 對……關注較少
　　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?

　　【參考答案】
　　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.