美国有线新闻 CNN 美国木材价格频创新高 为房价推波助澜

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck? Home builders and new home buyers probably don't care. They just wish the animal would chuck more of it. There's a national shortage¹ of lumber² in the U.S. and it's selling at its highest rate since 2006. Why?

一只土拨鼠会扔掉多少木材？房屋建设者和新购房者可能并不在意。他们只是希望土拨鼠能多扔一些。美国正面临全国性的木材短缺，而且目前木材的销售速度达到2006年以来的最高水平。原因为何？

The American business magazine Fortune says it's supply and demand. Last year, lumber producers were temporarily shut down because of coronavirus concerns. At the same time, people working from home decided³ to buy more wood for projects around the house. So lumber started disappearing from stores like Home Depot⁴.

美国商业杂志《财富》表示，这是供求关系。去年，由于担心冠状病毒，木材生产商暂时停产。同时，在家工作者决定多买些木材，用于房屋周围的工程。因此，木材开始从家得宝这样的商店消失。

Another factor, interest rates for home loans started hitting record lows last year, so people flooded the housing market because their dollar went further. All of this resulted in very short supplies of wood while there was tremendous demand for it. So lumber prices went through the roof hitting record highs.

另一个因素是，去年房屋贷款利率开始创下历史新低，因此人们纷纷涌入房地产市场，因为他们手中的美元会“走得更远”。所有这些因素都导致木材供应严重短缺，而对木材的需求量却巨大。因此木材价格飙升，创下历史新高。

That drove up the cost of building houses. It drove up the cost of buying new houses. So when will this end? Nobody knows. Some experts say prices will start to settle this summer, others say we'll be in 2022 before lumber prices come back down.

这不仅导致建造房屋的成本增加。还抬高了购买新房的成本。这种情况何时能结束？没人知道。一些专家表示，木材价格将在今年夏天稳定下来，木材价格要到2022年才开始回落。

1 shortage   

n.缺少，缺乏，不足

参考例句：

• The city is suffering a desperate shortage of water.这个城市严重缺水。
• The heart of the problem is a shortage of funds.问题的关键是缺乏经费。

2 lumber   

n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动

参考例句：

• The truck was sent to carry lumber.卡车被派出去运木材。
• They slapped together a cabin out of old lumber.他们利用旧木料草草地盖起了一间小屋。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 depot   

n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站

参考例句：

• The depot is only a few blocks from here.公共汽车站离这儿只有几个街区。
• They leased the building as a depot.他们租用这栋大楼作仓库。