"Every little piece of plastic manufactured in the past 50 years that made it into the ocean is still out there somewhere,"

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

An article about the giant soup of plastics floating in the Pacific. Apart from the intrinsic value of being informed about environmental problems, I am sure that, in one form or another, a question on this matter will  arise in the CAE exam. I am going to look for other environmentally based articles to give you ideas and vocabulary etc. Meanwhile read this article and the following article linked here.  They are both pretty easy to read and the second one is especially informative.
Below are some useful phrases for the first article:

growing at an alarming rate
debris / a vast expanse of debris:  detrito oceanic
flotsam: restos flotantes
a build up of plastics in the seas: a growth of plastics...
leash: una correa
to barf: American English to vomit.
to cut back on: a good phrasal verb meaning to reduce the amount of something.

Not all garbage ends up at the dump. A river, sewer or beach can't catch everything the rain washes away, either. In fact, Earth's largest landfill isn't on land at all.

"We need to turn off the taps at the source. We need to educate people on the proper disposal of things that do not break up, like plastics," she says. "Opportunities for recycling have to increase, but, you know, some people buy three bottles of water a day. As a society, we have to get better at reusing what we buy."

Useful phrases for the second article:
The second article is written in more of a chatty style to attract attention. It is very informative.  Read it carefully.

The floating junk yard sloshed into the public spotlight / slosh: the slap or splash of liquid
thanks to growing media coverage
despite the oft-cited claim that: despite the fact that it is often claimed that..
This is an example of using a noun phrase instead of a verb phrase, which I believe is valued in CAE writing.  It makes it sound more advanced.
ghost fishing: abandoned nets that float around and catch animals on their own
to entangle: enredardse
to mistake something for something or somebody for somebody else: confundir algo con algo
swallow plastic bags mistaking them for jelly fish
plentiful : abundante
wreak havoc: causar estragos
an increasingly evident link between plastic trash on land and plastic trash at sea

Reuse, Reduce, Recycle

An easy to understand video (an American girl´s school project) describing exactly what we were talking about in 1ºeso.  There are loads of passives which the Trinity examiner will want to see and the content and phrases below are equally valid for any article about recyling at any level.

Interesting phrases:
Going green: to become environmentally friendly.
Ignorance is bliss: Being really happy because you don´t know what is going on.
Another phrase we did in 2ºEso which means more or less the same is "out of sight out of mind"
plus another one for maybe advance level "what the eye does´t see the heart does´t grieve over"
purchases are made: things are bought
to purchase: to buy
consumption: consumo
landfill site: a hole in the ground where all our waste gets dumped
biodegrade, decompose
junk mail: the letters and publicity that come through the post that you haven´t asked for.
opt out from mailing lists: ring up companies to tell them you don´t want this junk mail anymore.
switch to electronic statements and bills: receive your banking information by email and not paper.
She asks:"What if teachers gave extra points to students who used both sides of the paper for homework etc?" Interesting idea eh 1ºeso!!

"I want to tell the factories they make too much pollution. Because of them Xinglong village is sick."

An article and video about pollution in China.

Phrases and vocabulary
breakneck economic growth: incredibly fast economic growth, maybe so fast it will break your neck.
takes its toll on the nation´s health: has a negative effect on the nation´s health
I looked up take its toll because it is a common phrase in English but there is no specific translation in Spanish so click above and have a look.
impoverished: extremely poor
outsourced dirty industry: in this context outsourced means that other countries have sent out (exported) their dirty industries for China to deal with, obviously paying China to do so, but it is the citizens who pay the price.
acrid stench: a really unpleasant strong smell
layer of soot: thick black smoke

Feeding the Chinese Medicine Market

A disturbing picture of a tragic situation unfolding in many parts of Africa.  More than 200, maybe closer to 300 elephants have been slaughtered in Cameroon.  Read the article and the links within the article and find out why locals in the national park don´t mind this happening.

Phrases and vocabulary:

slaughter: matar brutalmente

a smuggler: contrabandista

poaching: caza furtiva

unbridled: desenfrenado

ivory tusk: colmillo de marfil

[hunters] leave trails of dead elephants in the wake of their hunts: tras su caza

groups of ten strong: groups of ten people

Dr Jekyll and Mister Mourinho

They say you either love him or hate him.  I know I don´t feel like that about him  but I can definitely say that he fascinates me.

I have copied an article from El País (a rather long article) about Mourinho. Throughout the article I have highlighted phrases that I think will be useful for a CAE  competition entry where you have to nominate a person to receive a prize or title etc. At the end I have collected them all together to make it easier to remember them and use them. The article isn´t difficult to understand but there will be words you don´t know.  If you are a Real Madrid fan it might be of more interest. However, despite it being a long article, try and read it through obviously making note of the relevant phrases.

Elephants are paying the price for Asian economic success.

Because more Asian people are living in Africa, especially Chinese, there is an increased demand for the sex organs of elephants which in some Asian cultures is considered an aphrodisiac.
A link to another video will shortly follow.

Phrases: 

under severe threat: in great danger, in this case of extinction

dwindling herds:  disminuir (dwindle), manada (of elephants)

a by-product of: in this context, a secondary and sometimes unexpected result
to pay their respects: presentar sus respetos
prompted: instigated

smugglers: contrabandista

Elephant Hunting in Thailand

In 2ºeso we were talking about keeping animals in zoos and words like "poaching" and "in danger of extinction" came up.  Here is an easy article containing these words along with these others.

Phrases:

Elephant tusks are sought: passed of seek, to look for

Baby elephants are poached: to poach is to hunt illegally

A comparison: the longer...... the sooner

logging: cutting trees into logs
pachyderm: animal with thick skin