VOA慢速英语：居住在海运集装箱中

Many people do not earn enough money to buy a house in the San Francisco Bay area. Housing prices in northern California can be very high.

在旧金山港湾区，许多人赚不到足够的钱来购买房子。加州北部房价可能很高。

So, some young people have begun making their own houses out of shipping containers. It takes a lot of work and creativity to make a home from the large metal boxes. And those who are doing it must often fight local laws that limit where such homes can be placed.

因此，一些年轻人开始用海运集装箱来建造自己的房子。使用大的金属箱来建造房子需要耗费大量的工作及创造力，而且那些用集装箱来建造房子的人们通常要与地方法律作斗争，其限制建造这样的房子。

Shipping containers provide experimental housing

Heather Stewart is an artist. She and 19 other people live and work in a small community. Their neighborhood is made up of shipping containers and other kinds of small houses. Most are standard containers, measuring only about six meters long.

希瑟·斯图尔特是一位艺术家。她和其他19人在一个小社区居住及工作。他们那个地段都是由集装箱建造的或其他类型的小房子。大多数都是标箱，尺寸仅为约六米长。

On a recent day, Ms. Stewart was adding electrical wiring and pipes for drinking water to her home. She and the others are working together to improve their community.

最近，斯图尔特女士为了使饮用水可以流到家中，因此又架上电线、铺上管道。她与其他人共同努力以改善他们的社区。

"We kind of all have enough tools that we canpass them around, so then everybody has the resources they need to build what they want."

“我们有足够的工具，我们可以四处分发，这样每个人都拥有他们所需要的工具来建造他们想建造的房子。”

Heather Stewart and her friend Luke Iseman have been living in the community since April. Before then, they lived in Oakland, a city near San Francisco. But officials forced the two to remove their shipping container houses from a property they had bought with friends. Officials said they were violating local laws that barred people from living in an industrial area.

自四月份以来，希瑟·斯图尔特与她的朋友Iseman一直生活在该社区里。在此之前，他们居住在奥克兰，位于旧金山附近的一个城市。但官员们迫使他们两个拆除他们的集装箱房屋，该地段是他们与朋友一起购买的。官员们声称，他们违反了地方性法规，其禁止人们生活在工业区。

So they moved to a large warehouse. They and their friends have placed more than 10 containers inside the building. Each container costs about $2,000. The group wants to keep the small community secret from local officials. Visit the website www.chinavoa.com to get more information!

于是他们搬到一个大仓库。他们与其朋友已经在该仓库内放置了10多个集装箱。每个集装箱的花费约为$2,000美元。该群体希望对当地官员保守保密。

Luke Iseman says he got the idea to live in a shipping container after he helped build a metal-working factory inside a shipping container. The container was then sent to Kenya. He says he realized then how useful the huge boxes are.

Luke Iseman说，在他帮助在海运集装箱内建造一个金属加工厂后，他萌生了居住在海运集装箱内的想法，而后，该海运集装箱被送到肯尼亚。他说，他这时才意识到这些巨大的箱子是多么有用。

"A roof that doesn't leak and a floor that's level. So from there, it's more or less aesthetic modification."

“屋顶不漏、地面水平，因此，从那里，或多或少可以在美感方面做些改进。”

He and his friends say the lack of reasonably priced housing means people must be creative.

他和他的朋友们说，合理房价的缺乏就意味着人们必须要有创意。

Camille MacRae lives in a container house in the same community as Mr. Iseman and Ms. Stewart.

卡米尔·麦克雷与Iseman先生和斯图尔特女士一样，也居住在位于同一社区的集装箱房子中。

"It's really interesting to be in this space because there are other people doing similar things, and just to have sort of like this richness ofideas and exchanges happening."

“居住在集装箱里面，这真的很有趣，因为有其他人在做类似的事情，并且这只是某种丰富的思想并且发生了交流。

People in other cities are building shipping container houses. And Mr. Iseman says the San FranciscoBayarea may have similar housing communities that are hidden from local officials.

其他城市的人们正在建造海运集装箱房屋。而Iseman先生说，旧金山海湾地区可能有类似的住宅社区，但当地官员是不知情的。

"People have been secretive about it because institutionsimpose large fines if you don't comply with their rules."

“人们对此一直守口如瓶，因为如果你不遵守他们的规则，这些机构会处以巨额罚款，。”

I'm Bob Doughty.

我是鲍勃·道蒂。

Mike O'Sullivan reported on this story from Oakland, California. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

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Words in This Story

standard– adj. normal or traditional in appearance

pass them around– expression. to share; to offer something to each person in a group

resource(s) – n. a supply of something that someone has and can use when it is needed

aesthetic modification – expression. changes to the appearance of something

impose – v. to cause (something, such as a tax, fine, rule or punishment) to affect someone or something by using your authority

comply– v. to do what you have been asked or ordered to do (often + with)