时间:2018-12-11 作者:英语课 分类:万花筒2009年


英语课

The White House, it's a place presidential candidates dream of calling 'home'.


 "Thanks for having us."


 Fred Milani is no politician, but he does have a penchant 1 for presidential politics. In Atlanta, back in 2002, this Iranian-born real estate developer was in the market to build, and his wife had one request.


 "All she wants the house with the column, five minutes later, we decided 2 to build the White House."


Milani's Georgia home encompasses 3 16,500 square feet, exactly one third of its Washington counterpart. Here, he too has a West Wing with his very own Oval Office.


 "Why would you want an Oval Office in your home?"


 "If you build the White House, you want to have an Oval Office."


 Complete with the presidential seal on the ceiling.


 "So this is...?"


 "Lincoln bedroom."


 In this room, the Bill of Rights and the Emancipation 4 Proclamation hang on the wall.


 "A lot of people come here. They want to stay in this room."


 "Why's that?"


 "I guess Bill Clinton was charging 50,000 dollars a night."


 "How about you?"


 "It's free."


 But it's Milani's landscaping that doesn't exactly get his neighbours' vote.


 "I think it's gaudy 5 and it's disrespectful to the White House. And I have to look at it every day."


 Nevertheless, Milani, like thousands of Americans, has fallen victim to the housing market crash. Twice, he says, he's avoided foreclosure.


 "The economy's doing bad. Really, everybody in the construction, they suffer it. And I'm one of them."


 As a result, this White House is for sale. The presidential price tag? 9.8 million dollars.


 "So what's next, the Taj Mahal(1)?"


 "No, I just wanted to build maybe Congress. Always, I am in this building business."


 Mr. Milani's home has been on the market for a month and a half. So far, no buyers. But he says a few are interested from California and as far away as Dubai. And for all the former presidential candidates out there, it may not be 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue(2), but it's pretty close.


 Brooke Baldwin, CNN, the 'White House', in Atlanta.


 Notes:


(1)Taj Mahal: The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum located in Agra, India, built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. (From Wikipedia)


(2)1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: The White House, the United States presidential residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC. (From Wikipedia)


 



1 penchant
n.爱好,嗜好;(强烈的)倾向
  • She has a penchant for Indian food.她爱吃印度食物。
  • He had a penchant for playing jokes on people.他喜欢拿人开玩笑。
2 decided
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
  • 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。
3 encompasses
v.围绕( encompass的第三人称单数 );包围;包含;包括
  • The job encompasses a wide range of responsibilities. 这项工作涉及的职责范围很广。
  • Its conservation law encompasses both its magnitude and its direction. 它的守恒定律包括大小和方向两方面。 来自辞典例句
4 emancipation
n.(从束缚、支配下)解放
  • We must arouse them to fight for their own emancipation. 我们必须唤起他们为其自身的解放而斗争。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • They rejoiced over their own emancipation. 他们为自己的解放感到欢欣鼓舞。 来自《简明英汉词典》
5 gaudy
adj.华而不实的;俗丽的
  • She was tricked out in gaudy dress.她穿得华丽而俗气。
  • The gaudy butterfly is sure that the flowers owe thanks to him.浮华的蝴蝶却相信花是应该向它道谢的。
学英语单词
98
acidity
aerosol food
afghanistani
alloy irons
antibiolumphin
ashpan blower valve
automatic assembly
avi cable
bakeout degassing clamp
birchleaf pear
body-curved disease
bodywood
bottom relief map
Bozeman's position
bridge cloth
bullock blocks
bushing electric
call accepted signal
chondriomere
Cirbanal
close set
color constants
comebackers
commodity wastage
correptions
courier bag
Cunaxa
departmentation by process or equipment
electronic fire-control equipment
element name
encoded fields
end of astronomical evening twilight
engine pod
ensampling
epss network
featurism
ferret distemper virus
fiber-map
full electronic switching
gallucci
general-purpose diagnostic program
geographical north
geospatial engineering
glowfly
haberse
hardware stage
hexagonal mirror
hot penetration construction
Hudsonian godwit
Immobilon
interstitial distance (mather 1936)
investigation on audience
Krasnaya Polyana
layer-wound solenoid
leather loader
limestone neutralization treatment
maximal tubular excretory capacity
melanedema
natural rate of unemployment
nerr
non-coplanar transfer
norvasc
nosedives
OMR (optical mark reader)
optically positive
over bridges
partner with
Pashtunwali
patung series
paving stone degeneration of retina
permanent magnet moving coil meter
pivoted bucket carrier
plantar spaces
plunged into
prince fumimaro konoyes
prodan
psychoanalytical theory
Pterocles
pyrophoric lead
raw material of woodcharcaol
roller chamfer
schwab
Scythians
sequentially-lobed radar
signal smoke
signe de peau d'orange
slugft
So it goes
sp vol
spin space
Stackelberg decision theory
swansea
tandem electrostatic generator
terry swatch
the leaflets of the trifoliolate leaves
topochemical control
variable acceptance sampling
viscosity model
Warenford
weighing-appliance
zeomorphis