英国物价大幅上涨，推高生活成本，英国人认为精打细算比以往任何时候都重要。本文浅议提高能源效率和减少开支的方法。

词汇：finance 财务管理

We all want to save money, and with the cost of living on the rise in the UK, it’s become more important than ever to watch what we spend. The biggest increase in our expenditure at the moment is on energy – the oil, gas and electricity we use to power and heat our homes. That’s why many of us are looking at ways to save energy so we don’t have to shell out on huge fuel bills.我们都想省钱，随着英国生活成本的上升，精打细算变得比以往任何时候都重要。目前，我们最大的支出增长是在能源上——我们用于家庭供电和取暖的石油、天然气和电力。这就是为什么我们中的许多人都在寻找节省能源的方法，这样我们就不必为巨大的燃料账单买单。

Making our home more energy efficient is the obvious way to save money. To try to achieve this, new homes in the UK will be banned from installing new gas and oil boilers by 2025. Having a heat pump instead can help save energy, but they’re unaffordable for many people, unless they’ve got spare cash stashed away.让我们的家更节能是显而易见的省钱方法。为了实现这一目标，到2025年，英国的新住宅将禁止安装新的燃气和燃油锅炉。使用热泵可以帮助节省能源，但对许多人来说是负担不起的，除非他们有多余的现金。

If your home feels like a money pit, there are some low-budget solutions you can turn to to lower your energy usage. Warm air escapes our homes easily, so adding draught excluders or a rolled-up towel to block these gaps will help. Investing in new double glazing will certainly insulate your home better, but if it is too costly, it might be worth using some heavy curtains to stop the heat escaping. Switching off lights is also a good idea.

如果你的家感觉像一个金钱坑，有一些低预算的解决方案，你可以转向降低你的能源使用。温暖的空气很容易从我们的家里逸出，所以添加通风排除器或卷起的毛巾来堵住这些缝隙将会有所帮助。投资新的双层玻璃肯定会使你的家隔热更好，但如果它太昂贵，可能值得使用一些厚窗帘来阻止热量逃逸。关灯也是一个好主意。

But there are lots of other little things we can do around the home that will help save energy, don’t cost a fortune and that just require tweaks to our behaviour. They could be as good as installing, fitting or making anything. Put lids on pots and pans when cooking – the food will be ready quicker. Use a microwave to reheat food rather than the oven. Don’t overfill your kettle when boiling water, and don’t leave electrical items on standby. Jo Patterson from Cardiff University’s Welsh School of Architecture told the BBC that a combination of small measures like these could reduce household energy bills by about 10%.

但是我们可以在家里做很多其他的小事情，这些事情将有助于节省能源，不花费一大笔钱，而且只需要调整我们的行为。它们可以像安装、安装或制造任何东西一样好。做饭时把锅子和平底锅盖上，食物会很快做好。用微波炉加热食物，不要用烤箱。烧水时不要把水壶装满水，也不要让电器处于待机状态。卡迪夫大学威尔士建筑学院的乔·帕特森告诉BBC，这些小措施的结合可以减少大约10%的家庭能源账单。 So, we’re being encouraged to be more fuel efficient. But our main aim isn’t just financial – we need to do it to reduce our carbon footprint, so that our energy usage doesn’t cost the Earth.因此，我们被鼓励更加省油。但我们的主要目标不仅仅是财政上的——我们需要这样做来减少我们的碳足迹，这样我们的能源使用不会让地球付出代价。

词汇表

save 节省，节约cost of living 生活费用spend 花（钱）expenditure 支出shell out （通常指不情愿地）支付（一大笔钱）bill 账单unaffordable 支付不起的stash 藏匿，存放money pit 大钱坑，需要不断投钱的无底洞。low-budget 低成本的invest 投资（购买）costly 昂贵的cost a fortune 极其昂贵，花大价钱tweak 稍作调整，稍稍改进measure 方法reduce 降低，减少financial 经济上的cost the Earth 让地球付出代价 (cost the earth 的原意是 “花费一大笔钱”)。 测验与练习1. 阅读课文并回答问题。 1. What will be banned from being installed in new homes in the UK by 2025? 2. How can you stop warm air escaping from your home? 3. Why might it be difficult for someone to install a heat pump or double gazing? 4. As well as helping our finances, what is the other benefit of using energy more efficiently? 5. True or false? Putting more water than you need in your kettle is not energy-efficient. 2. 选择意思恰当的单词或词组来完成下列句子。 1. I’m going to my brother’s wedding, so I have to _______ for a new suit. shelling out shell out out shell shells out 2. It’s quite _______ to take the train to London, so we’re going by bus instead. financial expenditure costly cost the earth 3. Our food _______ keeps rising, so I’m going to start buying supermarket branded goods. measures invest cost of living bill 4. My holiday to Spain _______, but it was well worth it! cost a fortune cost a fortunately cost the fortune costs a fortune 5. My grandma _______ all her money under the bed rather than put it into a bank. finance stashed measures unaffordable 答案1. 阅读课文并回答问题。 1. What will be banned from being installed in new homes in the UK by 2025?New homes in the UK will be banned from installing new gas and oil boilers by 2025. 2. How can you stop warm air escaping from your home?Adding draught excluders or a rolled-up towel to block gaps, or using heavy curtains will help. 3. Why might it be difficult for someone to install a heat pump or double gazing?Heat pumps and double glazing can be expensive to install. 4. As well as helping our finances, what is the other benefit of using energy more efficiently?It can reduce our carbon footprint. 5. True or false? Putting more water than you need in your kettle is not energy-efficient.True. Not overfilling your kettle