托福词汇介绍之“空中楼阁”用英语怎么说？

位于北京白石桥路45号的人济山庄小区B栋楼顶天台上惊现一栋两层别墅，假山大树俱全。此为顶层一住户用6年时间建成，被网友称为北京“最牛违建”。昨日，海淀城管已在该违建住户门口张贴了限期整改通知书，要求其15天之内申诉或自行拆除，否则将报经海淀区政府批准后予以强拆。

 

【相关英文报导】

 

The owner of an illegally-built two-story "rooftop villa" constructed on the rooftop of a high-rise apartment building in Beijing said Tuesday that he would tear it down within 15 days, after local authorities posted a notice on his door Monday and attracted wide public attention.

在北京一座高楼大厦屋顶，一位业主违章搭建了一座两层的“空中楼阁”。海淀城管于周一在他家门上贴了整改通知，责令其15天内拆除“空中楼阁”，这一事件吸引了广泛关注。之后，业主在周二表示同意拆除。

 

Zhang Biqing, the owner of a penthouse in a 26-story building in Renji Shanzhuang, a residential compound in Beijing's Haidian district, admitted Tuesday that he illegally built a small sunlight room on the rooftop, and gradually expanded it with rocks, trees and artificial landscapes that take up some 800 square meters, reported the Legal Mirror.

据法制晚报报道，这座26层高的大楼位于北京海淀区的小区人济山庄，顶层业主名叫张必清。本周二，他承认违章搭建了一个小型阳光房，并逐步添置了假山、树木和其他人造景观，最终占地近800平方米。

 

Zhang said that the structure is not a "villa" but said it is a grape trellis that he recently built to house vegetation as "thermal insulation" to reduce the heat absorbed by the rooftop in summer, and the "rocks" were made by a light-weight material to enclose the chimneys that would blow unpleasant kitchen and bathroom odors to his apartment, and he later added bonsai trees to make it "look good."

张必清说屋顶建筑并非是“空中楼阁”。只是因为夏日酷热，他搭了葡萄架作为屋顶绿化吸收热量，起到“热绝缘”的作用。而那些“假山”的材质十分轻巧，是为了解决顺着排气管道飘出的厨房和厕所异味而加上的。随后，张必清为了“美观”又装饰了些盆栽。

 

【单词讲解】

 

文中的rooftop villa可以解释为“空中楼阁”，直译为屋顶别墅。其中rooftop一词意为屋顶，与其相关的习惯用法有“shout something from the rooftops”，译为广而告之、公开宣布或是使众人皆知。villa则是别墅、庄园住宅的意思。在英国，寻常百姓住的房屋可大致分为三种类型：semi-detached house 两户相连房屋， detached house 独门独户的院落和 terraced house 连栋房屋。

 

另外，文中的thermal insulation，是一个科技术语，意思是热绝缘。类似于thermal shield（隔热层）。