违法建设导致道路塌方

 　　Illegal Construction Leads to Road Collapse¹ in Downtown Beijing

　　The collapse happened near the northern part of Second Ring Road.

　　According to Beijing's urban planning commission, the owner had dug a basement about 18 meters deep in a courtyard, without first obtaining a construction permit.

　　The cave-in left a 10-meter-deep hole on the ground and caused the collapse of 4 neighboring houses. 15 people have been forced to evacuate² their homes.

　　An apartment building nearby is being monitored after its foundation was shaken.

　　Media reports say about 4,000 tons of cement have been used to fill the hole.

　　Wang Wei is an official from the city's construction watchdog.

　　"From the information we have so far, the owner started the operation without obtaining a permit for underground construction. This is a crime of illegal construction. The nature of the accident goes beyond that. It caused the road to sink and the surrounding houses to collapse. It should be regarded as an incident caused by illegal construction."

　　The accident soon grabbed public attention after media reports revealed that the courtyard belongs to Li Baojun, a lawmaker from Xuzhou city in Jiangsu Province.

　　Li has not commented on the accident, which happened over the weekend.

　　违法建设导致道路塌方

　　Officials from Xuzhou say they will deal with the case after receiving official notification from Beijing.

　　People living near Li's residence say they had reported the construction to the relevant authorities. Officials say they had ordered Li to stop the illegal construction last July but it continued in secret.

　　Bian Lanchun, a professor from the School of Architecture of Tsinghua University.

　　"There are many motives³ for illegal construction. Some people may commit this crime because of a lack of living space. But of course, there are some people who commit this act who are driven by other interests. I think to solve this problem, on one hand we should improve the legal system, and on the other hand advocate public involvement and build a more extensive supervision⁴ system."

　　Reports on illegal construction projects have been increasing in recent years.

　　In 2013, a massive rooftop villa⁵ in Beijing shocked the country. It had an area of 800 square meters and artificial gardens and rocks. It has since been demolished⁶.

　　For CRI, I'm Luo Wen.

1 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

2 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。

3 motives   

n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• to impeach sb's motives 怀疑某人的动机
• His motives are unclear. 他的用意不明。

4 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

5 villa   

n.别墅，城郊小屋

参考例句：

• We rented a villa in France for the summer holidays.我们在法国租了一幢别墅消夏。
• We are quartered in a beautiful villa.我们住在一栋漂亮的别墅里。

6 demolished   

v.摧毁( demolish的过去式和过去分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光

参考例句：

• The factory is due to be demolished next year. 这个工厂定于明年拆除。
• They have been fighting a rearguard action for two years to stop their house being demolished. 两年来，为了不让拆除他们的房子，他们一直在进行最后的努力。