很多同学在四六级考试或者笔译考试中，经常感到读不懂文章，对里面讲内容很陌生。
其实，一个原因在于我们平时涉略的不广。
我们在平时阅读外刊的时候，可以多丰富一下自己的阅读面。
尤其要多丰富经济，政治，科技领域的内容。特别是经济领域，其实这个领域和我们的生活息息相关。
很多经济术语和经济概念都是需要了解一二的。
此外，正由于它和我们的日常生活很贴近，所以，一些日常用语，我们要知道。
比如，房子的平面图，房贷，首付款等等怎么说，可能很多人不能马上想到。
今天我们来读一篇经济周刊- Bloomberg Businessweek《彭博商业周刊》上的文章。
这是一篇讲述美国租房市场的文章，和我们有着同样的实际情况-租房难，租房贵。
里面可以积累很多房产领域的日常词汇。
文章标题：The Rent Is Through the Roof
这个标题很有“料”。
首先，rent指租金，肯定与roof 房顶有关。
其次，through the roof 穿过房顶，说明某个东西太高了。那什么东西这么高呢，就是租金rent。
Go through the roof是个习语，to increase sharply to a very high level
常用来形容价格增长的太快了，达到了一个极限-可以理解为疯涨。
Prices have gone through the roof since the oil crisis began.
Go through the roof 还有另外一个含义-非常非常生气，有点像我们中文的“火冒三丈”。
这个时候可以等同于hit the ceiling/roof
如 He went through the roof when I told him I’d lost the money.
接下来我们看正文部分。
第一段
The pandemic and a heated for-sale market have made affordable rentals scarce
疫情和升温的房产销售市场让价格合适的出租房更稀少
这段说明的租房难，租房贵的愿意-疫情和卖房。
✍affordable cheap enough that people can afford to pay it or buy it 可负担起的, 价格合理的=cheap
We offer quality products at affordable prices.-我们提供物美价廉的产品。
✍rental a house, car or piece of equipment that you can rent [可数名词]租借的房，车等（尤北美）
Is this your own car? -No, it's a rental.
✍scarce adj 缺乏的，罕见的
scarce resources 稀有、稀少资源
翻译这句：干旱时期，新鲜蔬菜很稀缺。
__________________________________.
✍关于scarce还有一个习语 Good men are scarce是指 Men who make good husbands or workers are rare，也就是我们中文里说的“绝世好男人”或者“好人难寻”。
这个单词和scare 很像，但两者的意思却没啥关系。
不过scare也有一个习语，很有中国风味。
✍frighten/scare the life out of somebody
让某人非常害怕，把某人吓一大跳， 或者像中文里的把某人吓的魂都丢了。
第二段
Soaring prices. Competition. Desperation. The dramatic conditions for U.S. homebuyers during the past year are now spilling into the market for rentals.
高企的价格，竞争，绝望。去年美国购房者面临的这些困境现在正蔓延到租房市场。
✍spill v 溢出
第三段
Landlords from Tampa, Fla., to Riverside, Calif., are jacking up rents at record speed. For each listing, multiple people apply. Some renters are forced to check into hotels while they hunt after losing out too many times.
从佛罗里达坦帕到加州河滨市的房东们在不断疯狂地涨租金。每当一套房源上市，就有很多人求租。
有些租房者因为一直租不到房子，被迫住进酒店。
✍jack up 急剧增长
jack 有千斤顶的 意思，所以jack up 就是顶起来，即上升，上涨
✍lose out 失败，输掉
✍landlord 房东-renter 租客
第四段
“Any desirable rental is going within hours” says Shannon Dopkins, a real estate agent in Tampa. “One woman passed on a place that was beat up with water damage. Somebody else decided to rent it.”
坦帕市的房产经纪人Shannon Dopkins说“任何一个好房源几小时就会被抢光。
曾经有位女士因为防水破坏问题放弃该房源时，其他人已经决定租下了。”
✍desirable rental 好房源
✍desirable 可取的，值得拥有的，称心如意的
第五段
After weakening early in the pandemic as the economy faltered and young people moved in with families to ride out lockdowns, the rental market is seeing intense demand. The number of occupied U.S. rental-apartment units jumped by about half a million in the second quarter, the biggest annual increase in data going back to 1993, according to industry consultant RealPage Inc.
受疫情初期，经济衰退以及年轻人搬回家与父母住在一起隔离的原因，租房市场疲乏之后，现在租房市场又出现了极大的市场缺口。
据产业咨询公司RealPage公司称，第二季度美国出租公寓数量上升了50万，成为自1993年以来年增长最大的一年。
✍falter 衰退，衰弱
✍ride out 安然度过
第六段
Rents on newly signed leases rose 17% in July compared with what the prior tenant paid, reaching to about 10 landlords, sometimes getting in line without seeing the properties first. A couple of days before her lease expired, Santiago took a last-ditch drive. She visited five apartment complexes, all filled. The sixth, a vast complex with 22 buildings, had one unit available.
7月份新签约租赁租金比之前上涨了17%。
要租房成功得约10个房东，有时甚至要排队才能看上房。
在租期到期的前几天，圣雅各决定放手一搏，去好好找房。她去了五个公寓大楼，全部住满，没房源。
第六个公寓大楼有22栋建筑，只有一间是空房。
✍lease 租赁合同
✍tenant 租户
✍apartment complexes 公寓大楼
第七段
The two-bedroom cost more than $1,900 a month, including a mandatory cable bill—more than Santiago would have paid if she had renewed her old lease. She could hardly afford it but took it. “I didn’t know how hard it was to find something,” she says. “Looking back, maybe I should have stayed.”
这套两居室的公寓每月租金超过1900美元，包括强制性的有线电视费。这比圣雅各续租还贵。
尽管超出自己开支，但她还是租下了这套房。圣雅各说“我没想到租房这么难。如果能重来，我或许还租原来的房子吧。”
✍mandatory cable bill强制性的有线电视费
✍renew the old lease v 续租
第八段
Dopkins, the Tampa real estate agent, says she recently represented a woman who had to shelve plans to move there for her job. After exhausting her relocation package on application fees, the client now plans to commute two-and-a-half hours from her home in Ormond Beach, Fla.
Dopkin一位坦帕市的房产经纪人说，最近代替一位女士因为工作而搁置在那里租房的计划。
在把安置费花光到申请费上之后，Dokpin的客户现在打算从佛罗里达奥蒙德海滩的家通勤两个半小时上班。
✍shelve to decide not to continue with a plan 搁置
✍commute 通勤
第九段
The soaring demand is most pronounced in Sun Belt cities that have seen an influx of pandemic arrivals. The Phoenix area had the country’s biggest rent increases for single-family houses in June, with an almost 17% bump from a year earlier, according to data from CoreLogic. It was followed by Las Vegas, Tucson, and Miami.
在阳光地带房租上涨最明显，因为疫情导致很多人流向此地。
据CoreLogic公司的数据，凤凰地区是全美独户住房租金上涨最快的地方，比上一年上涨了17%。
紧随其后的是拉斯维加斯，图森和迈阿密。
✍pronounce v 宣布
✍influx 涌入
✍single-family house 独栋房屋
第十段
It’s a reversal from the pre-pandemic norm of tight housing in denser, pricier cities—places such as New York and San Francisco, which saw office workers flee during lockdowns. Those areas still have an overhang of high-end apartment inventory aimed at white-collar professionals. Yet demand is picking up.
这里就呈现了一个逆转。很多办公室职员因封锁从疫情前像纽约和旧金山这样人满为患，价格昂贵的城市逃离。
而这些城市仍然有瞄准白领职员的大批高端公寓库存。
✍reversal 逆转
✍overhang 过剩（物）
第十一段
Renters now crowding the market have higher salaries, in part because many of them, in normal times, would be buyers. The average income for new lease signers in July hit a record $69,252, according to RealPage.
现在涌进市场的租客们工资很高。在正常时期，这些人都是购房者。
据RealPage称，七月份签约租房的租客平均收入达到了69252美元的记录。
第十二段
Year-to-date, incomes shot up 7.5%. “It’s always been hard to find a home if you have limited income,” says Jay Parsons, deputy chief economist for RealPage. “What’s crazy now is you can have a relatively high income and still have a hard time.”
年初至今，收入暴涨7.5%。RealPage的副首席经济师Jay Parsons说“当你收入不足时，买房是件难事。而现在的情形是，即使你收入不错，买房仍很困难。”
✍Year-to-date 年初至今
第十三段
Even comparatively sleepy areas such as Springfield, Ill., three hours from Chicago, are experiencing shortages. Landlord Seth Morrison says his only apartment listing attracted a couple dozen calls before he took it down. “We have 270 units, and we don’t have any open,” he says. “In a city like Springfield, in a state like Illinois, to have this sort of demand is just crazy.”
即使像距离芝加哥3个小时车程的比较冷门区域如伊利诺斯州的斯普林菲尔德也正经历着房源短缺。
房东Seth Morrison说他唯一的公寓放在网上后立马就有几十通电话打来。
随后他就下架了房源。他说“我们有270间房，任何一间都没公开销售。
在像伊利诺斯州首府斯普林菲尔德这样的城市，有着这么大的房源数简直是疯了！”
✍sleepy area 冷门区域
✍take sth down 拿下，下架
欢迎把那句翻译写出来。
干旱时期，新鲜蔬菜很稀缺。-________________________.
你来翻一翻：
好房源-_________
年初至今-________
搁置计划-________
续租-_________
down payment-______
closing cost-_______
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