[考博英語]2018考博英語閱讀經濟學人文章每日精析：英國住房危機_考博_旭晨教育

2018 考博英語 閱讀經濟學人文章每日精析：英國住房危機

考博英語閱讀大部分博士研究生招生院校都使用《經濟學人》雜志文章作為題源，旭晨教育考博頻道為考博生們將其中的文章進行深度分析，希望能提高大家的考博英語閱讀水平，讀懂長難句。

英國住房緊張的局面一直沒有得到有效緩解，現在每年的住房缺口約為25萬套。由于相關支持政策匱乏等原因，英國選擇租房居住的人口比2000年翻了一番。同時，約有220萬戶年收入低于平均水平的家庭需要把1/3甚至更多的可支配收入用在住房上，這“影響了居民的日常生活和工作”。

Rooms for improvement

進步空間

How to solve Britain’s housing crisis

如何解決英國的住房危機

The outrageous cost of housing constrains the economy and poisons politics

這令人吃驚的住房成本束縛了經濟，并毒害了政治

Aug 3rd 2017

ON EVERY side, Britain’s politicians are grappling with problems of immense scale and nightmarish complexity. How to manage the departure from the European Union? How to help a crumbling health service cope with an ageing, weakening population? How to deal with persistent regional deprivation? Yet one national scourge that holds back the economy and poisons politics is readily solvable—politicians just need to be brave enough to act. That scourge is the cost of housing.

在各個方面，英國政客都在與大規模且噩夢般錯綜復雜的問題斗爭。如何解決脫歐帶來的影響?如何幫助一個搖搖欲墜的公共醫療服務應對人口日益老齡化且日益衰弱的情況?如何應對持續的地域性貧困?然而一個國家的禍害比如阻礙經濟和政治影響是容易解決的，政客們只需要足夠勇敢的行為。這個災禍是住房的成本。

grapple with:努力克服;扭打

nightmarish:a.惡夢般的

scourge:n.災難

Through the roof

超越上限

The ratio of median house prices to earnings in England hit 7.7 in 2016, its highest recorded level. In the past four decades house prices have grown by more in Britain than in any other G7 country. Home ownership has been falling for more than a decade, after rising for most of the past century. In London housing is outlandishly dear: before the Brexit vote sent the pound tumbling, it was the priciest city in the world for renters.

2016年，英國平均房價與收入的比率達到了7.7，創歷史最高水平。在過去的四十年，英國的房價已經上漲得比其它G7國家還要多。在過去大半個世紀上漲之后，住房自有率已經連續十年下跌。在倫敦，住房是出奇的昂貴:在英國退歐公投之前，英鎊暴跌，倫敦是世界上租房價格最高的城市。

median:n.中位數

Outlandishly 怪異的

The cost of housing has knock-on effects across the economy. As people are forced out to the suburbs, cities become less dynamic. Workers waste time on marathon, energy-sapping commutes. People from the regions cannot afford to move to cities where they might find work. Businesses cannot clear land to build. It is perhaps no coincidence that Britain’s growing housing mess has coincided with stagnant productivity.

住房成本對整個經濟產生了連鎖反應。當人們被迫搬到郊區時，城市變得不那么有活力了。工人們把時間浪費在馬拉松式、消耗能量的通勤上。郊區的人們支付不起搬到他們可能找到工作的城區的費用。企業不能清理土地用以建設。英國日益增長的住房市場混亂與生產力停滯相吻合，這也許不是巧合。

knock-on effect:連鎖反應

forced out 封殺出局，被迫離開

commute:n./v.通勤

stagnant:a.停滯的

All this has fostered a growing sense of inequity. Britons over the age of 65, a fifth of the population, own over 40% of the housing wealth held by owner-occupiers. Youngsters with rich parents can buy their first house thanks to the “Bank of Mum and Dad”. Everyone else must resign themselves to renting small properties for life, or to continuing to pay off their mortgage long after retirement. At the election in June half of all private renters voted for Labour and Jeremy Corbyn, up from a third who supported the party in 2010. As home-ownership declines, the Conservatives, in particular, are beginning to worry (see article)—as indeed they should.

所有這些都滋生了一種日益增長的不平等感。年齡超過65歲的英國人占人口的五分之一，他們以業主占有的方式擁有40%的房屋財產。有富有父母的年輕人可以買他們的第一套房，多虧了“爸媽的銀行”。其他的人則必須放棄自己的意愿，終身租著小房子，或者在退休很久后繼續償還貸款。在六月的競選中，所有私人租房者中的一半將選票投給了工黨和Jeremy Corbyn，他們中的三分之一曾在2010年支持過這個政黨。隨著住宅自有率下降，保守黨開始了他們本來的擔心。所有這一切推動了不斷增加的不平等感。超過65歲的英國人占英國總人口的五分之一

resign:v.屈從;放棄;辭職

What makes Britain’s housing squeeze maddening is that, unlike many other problems, something can easily be done about it. Britain needs to get building. The consensus is that, to keep prices in check, it must put up 300,000 houses a year, double what it erected in 2015-16. Mr Corbyn says the answer is a huge expansion of public housing, like the one in the Wilson and Callaghan governments in the 1970s. This would be expensive, especially if such housing was let at below-market rates. And few Britons aspire to rent from the council for life.

不像其他問題那樣，住房問題讓人民發狂是因為在這方面有些簡單的措施可以做。英國需要建設。人們的共識是，要想保持價格的可控，它必須每年建造30萬套住房，這個數量是2015-16年建造房屋數量的兩倍。科爾賓表示，解決之道是大幅擴張公共住房，就像上世紀70年代威爾遜和卡拉漢的政府一樣。這將是很昂貴的，尤其是這類住房在低于市場價出租的情況下。而且極少數人愿意終生在市政機構租賃房屋。

maddening:a.令人抓狂的

Erect vt. 使豎立;建造;安裝

Better would be to unleash the market. A change to regulations on green-belt land, which surrounds cities and which is designed to block construction, is long overdue. Far from being a bucolic retreat, much of the green belt is intensively farmed. By one estimate, more of Surrey is devoted to golf courses than houses. Within Greater London enough green-belt land languishes to build 1.6m houses at average densities.

更好的是釋放市場。綠化帶被設計來包圍城市和抑制建筑，改變管理的條例一直延遲長久未兌現。并非是田園撤退，大部分的綠化帶被密集耕種。一項調查顯示，薩里郡的大部分土地被用來建設高爾夫球場而不是房屋。由于倫敦有足夠多的綠化帶，以現有平均房屋密度來看有能力建造160萬套房屋。

unleash:v.釋放

bucolic:a.田園生活的

reteat:n.撤退;休息場所

The government should also cut stamp duty, a land tax levied on property transactions. Over the long term the burden has risen, which is one reason why the rate of transactions has slumped. Abolishing or replacing stamp duty would help more young families live in decent homes. Oldies could downsize at less cost, freeing up more of Britain’s 25m or so empty bedrooms.

政府還應該削減印花稅，即房產交易征收的土地稅。從長期來看，這一負擔增加了，這也是為什么交易量下降的原因之一。廢除或取代印花稅將幫助更多的年輕家庭住上體面的房屋。老年人可以以更低的成本縮減開支，騰出更多的英國2500萬左右的空臥室。

stamp duty:印花稅

Decent adj. 正派的;得體的;相當好的

And Westminster needs to do away with the perverse incentives arising from local-government taxation, in particular the out-of-date system of council tax, which is levied on housing.(讀者試譯) Councils miss out on much of the extra local tax revenue from new houses, because it is hoovered up and redistributed by central government. But they are lumbered with the cost of providing local services for newcomers. That should change. Councils should be allowed to charge taxes that reflect the true values of properties—and keep the proceeds.

由于房產稅收收入被中央政府吸收和重新分配，地方議會失去了許多額外的地方房產稅收收入。但他們卻因為為新來者提供本地服務的成本而步履維艱。這應該改變。地方議會應被允許收取反映房產真實價值的稅收，并保留收益。

perverse incentives 激勵倒錯;不當誘因

hoovered up 吸納了

are lumbered with 拖累;堆滿無用之物

Economically straightforward is not the same as politically easy. Even so, Theresa May, the prime minister, has so far failed to show any mettle over housing. Her government has proposed nothing more than tweaks to a broken system. This lack of leadership feeds a crisis that is entirely unnecessary.

經濟上的易行并不等同于政治上的易行。即便如此，英國首相特里莎梅梅迄今為止仍未能在住房問題上表現出任何勇氣。她的政府除了對一個支離破碎的系統進行微調之外，什么也沒有提出。這種領導力的缺失助長了一場完全沒有必要的危機。

mettle n. 勇氣;氣質;耐力

Tweaks to 調整