2014年考研英语二阅读 Text 4 原文翻译及答案解析

When the government talks about infrastructure contributing to the economy the focus is usually on roads, railways, broadband and energy. Housing is seldom mentioned.

当政府谈论基础设施对经济的贡献时，焦点通常集中在道路、铁路、宽带和能源上。住房很少被提及。

Why is that? To some extent the housing sector must shoulder the blame. We have not been good at con皿unicating the real value that housing can contribute to economic growth. Then there is the scale of the typical housing project. It is hard to shove for attention among multibillion-pound infrastructure projects, so it is inevitable that the attention is focused elsewhere. But perhaps the most significant reason is that the issue has always been so politically charged.

为什么会这样？在某种程度上，住房行业必须承担责任。我们一直不善于传达住房对经济增长所能做出的实际贡献。此外，典型住房项目的规模也有限。在数以十亿计英镑的基础设施项目中，很难争夺注意力，因此注意力不可避免地集中在其他地方。但或许最重要的原因是，这个问题一直具有强烈的政治色彩。

Nevertheless, the affordable housing situation is desperate. Waiting lists increase all the time and we are simply not building enough new homes.

尽管如此，经济适用房的情况依然紧迫。等待名单一直在增加，而我们根本没有建造足够多的新住房。

The comprehensive spending review offers an opportunity for the government to help rectify this. It needs to put historical prejudices to one side and take some steps to address our urgent housing need.

全面支出审查为政府提供了纠正这一问题的机会。它需要抛开历史偏见，并采取一些措施来解决我们紧迫的住房需求。

There are some indications that it is preparing to do just that. The communities minister, Don Foster, has hinted that George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, may introduce more flexibility to the current cap on the amount that local authorities can borrow against their housing stock debt. Evidence shows that 60,000 extra new homes could be built over the next five years if the cap were lifted, increasing GDP by 0.6%.

有一些迹象表明，政府正准备这样做。社区部长唐·福斯特暗示，财政大臣乔治·奥斯本可能会对地方政府可针对其住房存量债务借款的当前限额引入更多灵活性。证据表明，如果提高限额，未来五年内可以额外建造60,000套新住房，使GDP增长0.6%。

Ministers should also look at creating greater certainty in the rental environment, which would have a significant impact on the ability of registered providers to fund new developments from revenues.

部长们还应考虑在租赁环境中创造更大的确定性，这将对注册提供者通过收入为新开发项目提供资金的能力产生重大影响。

But it is not just down to the government. While these measures would be welcome in the short term, we must face up to the fact that the existing £ 4.5bn programme of grants to fund new affordable housing, set to expire in 2015, is unlikely to be extended beyond then. The Labour party has recently announced that it will retain a large part of the coalition's spending plans if it returns to power. The housing sector needs to accept that we are very unlikely to ever return to the era of large-scale public grants. We need to adjust to this changing climate.

但这不仅仅是政府的责任。虽然这些措施在短期内会受到欢迎，但我们必须面对这样一个事实：现有的45亿英镑资助新经济适用房的拨款计划定于2015年到期，不太可能延长。工党最近宣布，如果重新执政，将保留联盟政府支出计划的大部分内容。住房行业需要接受我们极有可能再也不会回到大规模公共拨款的时代。我们需要适应这种变化的环境。

While the government's commitment to long-term funding may have changed, the very pressing need for more affordable housing is real and is not going away.

尽管政府对长期资金的承诺可能已经改变，但对更多经济适用房的迫切需求是真实存在的，并且不会消失。

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