【语篇解读】本文是新闻报道类文章，作者在文中阐述了在英国Balcombe人们对于发展风电项目持有两种截然不同的意见，进而提出了自己的看法：如实报道这个问题，以便人们对此进行讨论并做出抉择。         As has been all too apparent in recent days at Balcombe, few issues cause greater concern than energy policy. Many village communities feel their countryside is being ruined by the power-producing machines of wind farms; yet they never take “direct action”, even though the planning laws put them at a severe disadvantage. And the generous subsidies (财政补贴) , which encourage the expansion of wind power, are not favorable to the village communities and set landowners in conflict with other residents (居民) .       Those who disagree with the rapid expansion of wind farms state that the damage they cause is out of proportion(比例) to the benefits they bring, because their energy output cannot match that of the carbon-based power stations they are supposed to replace. Supporters insist that wind must be part of a mix of renewables, nuclear and carbon, and that the country is committed to meeting EU (European Union) targets for non-carbon energy generation.       Against this background, the fact that there is an argument within the Government over whether to publish an official report on wind farms’ impact on the countryside becomes even more extraordinary. The two parties in the coalition (联合) government are in disagreement over what it should say.      We have some advice for the two parties: publish the report, and let the country be the judge.  Even if it contains evidence that wind farms are harmful, it will hardly be a pleasant surprise to people who do not like them. Equally, supporters must argue their case by acknowledging the concerns and explaining why they are either misplaced or worthy of much attention.      The suggestion that further negotiations are to take place to produce an “acceptable” report suggests that the politics of coalition government are doing the country harm in a certain way. Given the sensitivities involved, all the information should be available so that people can reach their own conclusions, rather than being left with the suspicion（猜疑）that facts are being replaced by political beliefs. 

  【语篇解读】作者在本文中通过对几项数据的对比，显示了美国之前的与当今的环境问题的不同。进一步说明当今人们的环境保护意识得到了加强，尤其是环境教育对此所起的作用。  Since the first Earth Day in 1970, Americans have gotten a lot “greener” toward the environment(环境). “We didn’t know at that time there even was an environment, let alone that there was a problem with it,” says Bruce Anderson, president of Earth Day USA.But what began as nothing important in public affairs has grown into a social movement. Business people, political leaders, university professors, and especially millions of grass-roots Americans are taking part in the movement. “The understanding has increased many, many times,” says Gaylord Nelson, the former governor from Wisconsin, who thought up the first Earth Day.According to US government reports, emissions（排放）from cars and trucks have dropped from 10.3 million tons a year to 5.5 tons. The number of cities producing CO beyond the standard has been reduced from 40 to 9. Although serious problems still remain and need to be dealt with, the world is a safer and healthier place .A kind of “Green thinking” has become part of practices.Great improvement has been achieved. In 1988 there were only 600 recycling（回收利用）programs; today in 1995 there are about 6,600. Advanced lights, motors, and building designs have helped save a lot of energy and therefore prevented pollution.Twenty –five years ago, there were hardly any education programs for environment. Today, it’s hard to find a public school, university, or law school that does not have such a kind of program.” Until we do that, nothing else will change!” say Bruce Anderson. 

【语篇解读】本文介绍了在众多商店中都运用的一个新方法，即用香味促进产品的销售。并解释了香味产品销售的原因。 What is the first thing you notice when you walk into a shop? The products displayed (展示) at the entrance? Or the soft background music?But have you ever notice the smell? Unless it is bad, the answer is likely to be no. But while a shop’s scent may not be outstanding compared with sights and sounds, it is certainly there. And it is providing to be an increasing powerful tool in encouraging people to purchase.A brand store has become famous for its distinctive scent which floats through the fairly dark hall and out to the entrance, via scent machines. A smell may be attractive but it may not just be used for freshening air. One sports goods company once reported that when it first introduced scent into its stores, customers’ intension to purchase increased by 80 percent.When it comes to the best shopping streets in Pairs, scent is just as important to a brand’s success as the quality of its window displays and goods on sales. That is mainly because shopping is a very different experience to what it used to be.Some years ago, the focus for brand name shopping was on a few people with sales assistants’ disproving attitude and don’t-touch-what-you-can’t-afford displays. Now the rise of electronic commerce (e-commerce) has opened up famous brands to a wider audience. But while e-shops can use sights and sounds, only bricks-and-mortar stores (实体店) can offer a full experience from the minute customers step through the door to the moment they leave. Another brand store seeks to be much more than a shop, but rather a destination. And scent is just one way to achieve this.Now a famous store uses complex man-made smell to make sure that the soft scent of baby powder floats through the kid department, and coconut (椰子) scent in the swimsuit section. A department store has even opened a new lab, inviting customers on a journey into the store’s windows to smell books, pots and drawers, in search of their perfect scent. 

 【语篇解读】本文讲述了非洲大陆的大象害怕发怒的蜜蜂，科学家Lucy的团队正在研究并验证这个现象，以便能利用它来保护庄稼。 Recordings of angry bees are enough to send big, tough African elephants running away, a new study says. Beehives (蜂窝)—either recorded or real—may even prevent elephants from damaging farmer’s crops.In 2002, scientist Lucy King and her team found that elephants avoid certain trees with bees living in them. Today, Lucy wants to see if African honeybees might discourage elephants from eating crops. But before she asked farmer to go to the trouble of setting up beehives on their farms, she needed to find out if the bees would scare elephants away.Lucy found a wild beehive inside a tree in northern Kenyaand set up a recorder. Then she threw a stone into the beehive, which burst into life. Lucy and her assistant hid in their car until the angry bees had calmed down. Next，Lucy searched out elephant families in Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya and put a speaker in a close to each family.From a distance, Lucy switched on the pre-recorded sound of angry bees while at the same time recording the elephants with a video camera. Half the elephant groups left the area within ten seconds. Out of a total of 17 groups, only one group ignored the sound of the angry bees. Lucy reported that all the young elephants immediately ran to their mothers to hide under them. When Lucy Played the sound of a waterfall (瀑布) instead of the angry bees to many of the same elephant families, the animals were undisturbed. Even after four minutes, most of the groups stayed in one place.Lucy is now studying whether the elephants will continue to avoid the sound of angry bees after hearing it several times. She hasn't tested enough groups yet to know, but her initial (最初的) results were promising enough to begin trials with farmers. She has now begun placing speakers in the fields to see if elephants are frightened away. 

 【语篇解读】本文介绍了一个公益组织Ashoka组织人们和贫穷做斗争，改善教育事业，致力于解决社会问题。鼓励人们做小生意，敢于变化，并为自愿改变社会环境的青年提供资金和帮助。  You may not have heard of Ashoka, but for the past 27 years, this association, founded by Bill Drayton, has fought poverty(贫穷) and sickness, promoted education and encouraged small businesses. To support these worthy causes, Ashoka provides money for the world’s most  promising “changemakers” seeking to solve (解决) urgent problems and would like to create a  world in which every citizen is a changemaker.Drayton believes that anyone can become an agent for change. The important thing is to simply give you permission. If you see a problem that you care about, you can help solve it. The young in particular are willing to accept this concept because at heart every child wants to grow into a happy, healthy, contributing adult. In fact, it is many young people’s ambition to set up programmes or businesses that improve social conditions. An excellent example is an Ashoka project started in 1995 in Dhaka, which handled the rubbish problem facing the city, helped local farmers and provided an income for poor people there.When Masqsood and Iftekhar began to study the problem of all the uncollected rubbish that lay inDhaka’s streets, attracting rats and disease, they discovered that 80% of it was natural waste. So they educated the poor people in the city to compost (把……制成堆粪)this waste. They knew that they would have a market for the end product because local farmers were struggling with chemical fertilisers (化肥) which were expensive and had reduced the natural minerals in the soil over the years. At first, they were refused, but once they were able to persuade them that there was money to be made, the project took off. In 2009 sales were $14,000.Drayton is optimistic that in ten years Ashoka will be making really serious, practical progress in bringing about social change by changing the way we look at economic development. 

  【语篇解读】本文为一篇记叙文，用倒叙的手法叙述了著名的潜水员Larry的潜水经历，以及他带着女儿延续家族的传统继续潜水的故事。           Larry was on another of his underwater expeditions(探险)but this time, it was different. He decided to take his daughter along with him. She was only ten years old. This would be her first trip with her father on what he had always been famous for.      Larry first began diving when he was his daughter’s age. Similarly, his father had taken him along on one of his expeditions. Since then, he had never looked back. Larry started out by renting diving suits from the small diving shop just along the shore. He had hated them. They were either too big or too small. Then, there was the instructor. He gave him a short lesson before allowing him into the water with his father. He had made an exception. Larry would never have been able to go down without at least five hours of theory and another similar number of hours on practical lessons with a guide. Children his age were not even allowed to dive.      After the first expedition, Larry’s later diving adventures only got better and better. There was never a dull moment. In his black and blue suit and with an oxygen tank fastened on his back, Larry dived from boats into the middle of the ocean. Dangerous areas did not prevent him from continuing his search. Sometimes, he was limited to a cage underwater but that did not bother him. At least, he was still able to take photographs of the underwater creatures.Larry’s first expedition without his father was in the Cayman Islands. There were numerous diving spots in the area and Larry was determined to visit all of them .Fortunately for him, a man offered to take him around the different spots for free. Larry didn’t even know what the time was, how many spots he dived into or how many photographs he had taken. The diving spots afforded such a wide array of fish and sea creatures that Larry saw more than thirty varieties of creatures. Larry looked at his daughter. She looked as excited as he had been when he was her age. He hoped she would be able to continue the family tradition. Already, she looked like she was much braver than Larry had been then. This was the key to a successful underwater expedition. 

 【语篇解读】本文为一篇记叙文。主要讲述了音乐天才Samuel Osmond的故事。他虽然不懂乐谱，也从来没有上过钢琴课，但是他却能够演奏很难的乐曲而且记忆力超强。 Samuel Osmond is a 19-year-old law student from Cornwall,England. He never studied the piano. However, he can play very difficult musical pieces by musicians such as Chopin and Beethoven just a few minutes after he hears them. He learns a piece of music by listening to it in parts. Then he thinks about the notes in his head. Two years ago, he played his first piece Moonlight Sonata（奏鸣曲）by Beethoven. He surprised everyone around him.Amazed that he remembered this long and difficult piece of music and played it perfectly, his teachers say Samuel is unbelievable .They say his ability is very rare, but Samuel doesn’t even realize that what he can do is special. Samuel wanted to become a lawyer as it was the wish of his parents, but music teachers told him he should study music instead. Now, he studies law and music.Samuel can’t understand why everyone is so surprised. “I grew up with music. My mother played the piano and my father played the guitar. About two years ago, I suddenly decided to start playing the piano, without being able to read music and without having any lessons. It comes easily to me ---I hear the notes and can bear them in mind---each and every note,” says Samuel.Recently, Samuel performed a piece during a special event at his college. The piece had more than a thousand notes. The audience was impressed by his amazing performance. He is now learning a piece that is so difficult that many professional pianists can’t play it. Samuel says confidently, “It’s all about super memory---I guess I have that gift.”However, Samuel’s ability to remember things doesn’t stop with music. His family says that even when he was a young boy, Samuel heard someone read a story, and then he could retell the story word for word.Samuel is still only a teenager. He doesn’t know what he wants to do in the future. For now, he is just happy to play beautiful music and continue his studies. 

台风“海鸥”于2014年9月16日登陆海南文昌，对中国华南沿海地区造成很大影响。

首批包括一名英国人在内的60名埃博拉病毒疫苗志愿实验者即将接受新疫苗实验。鉴于前期类人动物活体实验没有出现副作用，对曾与埃博拉病毒有过接触的动物具有保护作用，科学家们对于这种新疫苗的成功抱有很大的信心。

针对儿童的暴力在世界各国普遍存在。一份来自联合国的报告称大多数受害者生活在贫穷和中等收入国家。作者建议我们要制定合理的法律和政策来保护儿童。