万花筒 Kaleidoscope 2007-08-05&08-06, 漂浮家园

When you call in the movers in the Netherlands these days, they may show up with tug¹ boats instead of a van. The housing market in Holland is foined. Literally² the Dutch have a * country lies below sea level have been fighting off the water for centuries, building their massive sea defenses higher and higher, but with the prospect³ of sea levels rising even more, they are taking a new tack⁴. Instead of worrying that their homes will be swamped by the water, they are building homes design to float on it. Big homes, developers like Mark Van Ommen offer open plain living areas. Roof top dens⁵ leaving onto wide decks.

This is the third floor, and leaving onto this, put this particular deck area.

Bedrooms like everything else with water views. But it's not just the lifestyle that it's appealing, this sort of home. Built in factories, essentially⁶ on a big shoe bauk shape floating concrete box, can be placed in areas that are out of bounds to regular housing because of the flood risk.

There's a change within the last couple of years in Holland, twice, quite drastic, en before what you said it's fighting the water, there's more of attendance of work cooperate with the water.

Some of the homes float all the time, others normally sit on the ground, but are built on the platforms that will float up when the water comes. Across Holland, there are growing establish communities of floating homes.

The Dutch call these houses arks, like Noah's, and they perform the same function. When the flood comes, and it will though float up with it. After centuries of trying to fighting off the sea, the Dutch are finally learning to go with the float.

It's not only smart, it pays. The houses like the Wister's canalside model and the land it's moored⁷ on cost what a comfortable land based home cost. And the values have like the water than rising. Not only that, what began as an environment necessity, has become a chic⁸.

And we've got well-known people there from Holland, so that, they work in the movies on * whatever and they live on what we *. Loyalties⁹ live in on more to a, in the last year.

So there's no shame at all obviously?

No, it's very popular, yeah.

And for a lot of reasons, becoming more popular all the time. Mark Phillips, CBS news, Amsterdam.

1 tug   

v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船

参考例句：

• We need to tug the car round to the front.我们需要把那辆车拉到前面。
• The tug is towing three barges.那只拖船正拖着三只驳船。

2 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

3 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

4 tack   

n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝

参考例句：

• He is hammering a tack into the wall to hang a picture.他正往墙上钉一枚平头钉用来挂画。
• We are going to tack the map on the wall.我们打算把这张地图钉在墙上。

5 dens   

n.牙齿，齿状部分；兽窝( den的名词复数 )；窝点；休息室；书斋

参考例句：

• Female bears tend to line their dens with leaves or grass. 母熊往往会在洞穴里垫些树叶或草。 来自辞典例句
• In winter bears usually hibernate in their dens. 冬天熊通常在穴里冬眠。 来自辞典例句

6 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

7 moored   

adj. 系泊的 动词moor的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London. 该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。
• We shipped (the) oars and moored alongside the bank. 我们收起桨，把船泊在岸边。

8 chic   

n./adj.别致(的)，时髦(的)，讲究的

参考例句：

• She bought a chic little hat.她买了一顶别致的小帽子。
• The chic restaurant is patronized by many celebrities.这家时髦的饭店常有名人光顾。

9 loyalties   

n.忠诚( loyalty的名词复数 )；忠心；忠于…感情；要忠于…的强烈感情

参考例句：

• an intricate network of loyalties and relationships 忠诚与义气构成的盘根错节的网络
• Rows with one's in-laws often create divided loyalties. 与姻亲之间的矛盾常常让人两面为难。 来自《简明英汉词典》