Natural English for Your Ears: Talking about Housing in the UK and USA (Can You Understand?) · To Fluency
本视频通过讲解英美房屋的大小、布局和文化差异，帮助学习者掌握实用英语表达和相关词汇，适合练习听力和文化理解。
This is Jack from To Fluency Now.
我是来自“To Fluency Now”的杰克。
Today's English episode, English lesson, is all about houses.
今天的英语节目（即英语课程）全部围绕“房子”这个主题展开。
Houses.
房屋。
Now, before you think maybe this is a little bit of a boring topic, or maybe you're not really interested in this topic,
现在，在你认为这个话题可能有点无聊，或者你对这个话题并不感兴趣之前……
give it a go.
试试看吧。
Which means try this episode because it's really fun.
这意味着你应该试试这一集，因为它真的很有趣。
You're gonna get lots of great phrases to learn English, and also we're gonna look at the difference between
你会学到很多有助于学习英语的精彩表达方式；同时，我们还会探讨这些表达方式之间的区别。
houses in the UK and houses in the USA.
英国的房屋和美国的房屋。
And starting with this fact, okay.
那么，就从这个事实开始吧，好吗？
Are you ready for this?
你准备好面对这一切了吗？
The average house size in the UK is around 76 square meters.
英国房屋的平均面积为76平方米。
Now, in the US, you're going to hear square feet, and this is around 800 square.
现在，在美国，人们通常使用“平方英尺”作为面积单位；这里的面积大约是800平方英尺。
Feet.
脚。
The average house size in the USA is 201 square meters, over 2,000 square feet.
美国的平均房屋面积为201平方米，约合2000多平方英尺。
So houses in the US are over two times the size as houses in the UK.
因此，美国的房屋面积是英国房屋面积的两倍多。
And this is something I noticed when I first came to the USA.
这是我刚来到美国时注意到的现象。
It was the size of the houses, and also the way that the houses are built, and where they are built,
这既与房屋的大小有关，也与房屋的建造方式以及它们的建造位置有关。
which is something we're going to talk about later.
这是我们稍后会讨论的内容。
Now you might be thinking, why are houses in the USA so much bigger than houses in the UK?
现在你可能会想：为什么美国的房子比英国的房子大得多呢？
Well, in the UK, in England, in Scotland, etcetera, land is limited.
嗯，在英国、英格兰、苏格兰等地，土地资源是有限的。
Land is limited.
土地是有限的。
So this means that there isn't as much land available and You think about the size of the UK versus the size of the USA,
这意味着可用的土地面积相对较少。再想想英国的面积与美国相比，就更加明显了。
you'll realise just how big of a difference this is.
你会意识到这其实带来了多大的不同（或：这种改变有多么显著）。
Additionally, the UK has a lot of older houses because many were built before modern space expectations.
此外，英国有许多较老的房屋，因为其中很多是在现代居住空间标准出现之前建造的。
When people wanted larger houses, and if you think about the industrial revolution in the UK, there were a lot of terraced houses built near factories,
当人们想要更大的住房时（如果考虑到英国的工业革命），许多联排别墅就被建在了工厂附近。
meaning that they were very small and a big row of houses all together.
也就是说，这些房屋非常小，而且是一排排紧密排列在一起的房屋。
So these are called terraced houses.
这些房屋被称为联排别墅（terrace houses）。
Now in the US, this is a country with more land, so building bigger houses is easier.
在美国，这个国家的土地面积更大，因此建造更大的房屋相对更容易。
Additionally, Americans often prefer open plan layouts with large living spaces.
此外，美国人通常更喜欢开放式布局的住宅，这类住宅拥有宽敞的居住空间。
So an open plan layout.
因此，采用的是开放式平面布局（即房间之间没有明显的隔断，空间相互连通）。
Is where the kitchen, the living room, and usually as well the dining room are all open without walls in between them.
这里厨房、客厅以及通常也是餐厅都处于开放状态，三者之间没有隔墙。
So someone's in the kitchen, you can see them from the living room.
有人在厨房里，从客厅就能看到他们。
Whereas in the UK, it's more common to have separate rooms for the kitchen, for the dining room,
而在英国，通常会将厨房和餐厅设置在不同的房间里。
and for the living room also.
客厅也需要（同样的设计或装饰）。
In the USA, a lot of homes come with basements.
在美国，很多房屋都配有地下室。
Now these are the areas underneath the main living area.
这些区域位于主要生活区下方。
In the UK, it's rare, from my experience,
以我的经验来看，在英国这种情况非常罕见。
except for in a few terraced houses, to have a basement where you can spend time in it instead of just a basement for storage.
除了少数联排别墅外，大多数房屋的地下室都不仅可以用来储存物品，还可以作为人们休闲、娱乐的场所。
Whereas in the USA, they like to build.
而在美国，人们更喜欢进行建设（即建造各种建筑物）。
A basement to have an extra bedroom, storage rooms, even bathrooms, and sometimes family rooms too.
地下室可以用来设置额外的卧室、储物间，甚至浴室；有时还可以用作家庭活动室。