实战口语情景对话 第1116期:Ridiculously Expensive City 生活成本贵得离谱的城市

Meg: So Todd, I heard that you're from San Francisco and that it's really expensive there maybe to live. Is it – is that true?
梅格：托德，我听说你来自旧金山，那是个生活成本非常昂贵的城市。这是真的吗？

Todd: Yeah. It's ridiculously expensive. It's obscene actually. It's so hard to get other people to realize how expensive it is. You have to actually live there and then you can experience it firsthand. But basically, you know, your average small apartment is a minimum, a minimum of like $3,000 a month.
托德：对，那里的生活成本贵得离谱。实际上非常惊人。很难让其他人意识到那里到底有多昂贵。只有生活在那里，才能亲身体会到。基本上来说，一个普通小公寓的最低月租是3000美元。

Meg: Wow. That sounds really expensive.
梅格：哇哦，听起来真是太贵了。

Todd: Yeah.
托德：没错。

Meg: Well, so I don't know much about the San Francisco area. Is that like just in the main downtown part or anywhere in the city is it that expensive?
梅格：我对旧金山不太了解。是只有市中心比较贵还是那座城市的所有地方都很贵？

Todd: It's actually – yeah, it's pretty much the entire peninsula. And the high pricing affects all of Northern California. And the reason is because companies like Facebook, Google, Apple, Yahoo, Cisco – all these really big rich, rich companies pay people a lot of money. And so, there's a lot of money in San Francisco for the tech world, and that just drives up the prices for everything.
托德：实际上，基本上所有地方都贵。高昂的价格影响了整个北卡罗来纳州。我想这是因为脸谱网、谷歌、苹果、雅虎、思科等大型富有公司提供的工资很高。所以，旧金山的科技世界有很多钱，这就导致了所有物品价格的上涨。

Meg: So everyone who lives there like must be pretty rich?
梅格：那生活在那里的人一定都很有钱吧？

Todd: Yeah. So it's very high income. I think the average income is over $100,000 a year or something crazy like that.
托德：对。那里的收入非常高。我想平均年薪可能超过10万美元。

Meg: Wow.
梅格：哇哦。

Todd: Yeah, it's a lot.
托德：对，收入很高。

Meg: So if apartments are $3,000 a month, what about houses?
梅格：如果公寓的月租是3000美元，那房价呢？

Todd: Houses are ridiculously expensive. So your average house is probably – in San Francisco, a really small rinky-dink house can go for almost $1 million.
托德：房价更是贵得离谱。旧金山那种又小又旧的普通房屋的价格近100万美元。

Meg: Wow.
梅格：哇哦。

Todd: Yeah.
托德：嗯。

Meg: Wow. That sounds impossible.
梅格：哇哦。听上去真是不可思议。

Todd: Yeah. It sounds obscene. Yeah. Years ago I worked on the construction crew, and this was 15 years ago. And we were just renovating or painting a very small little shack. I mean, the house wasn't even that big and it was going for $1 million.
托德：对。简直骇人听闻。很多年以前我在建筑队工作，大概是15年前。我们的工作是翻新或粉刷一座非常小的房子。那个房子没有多大，而价格是100万美元。

Meg: Wow. So when you were working there, were you living in San Francisco also?
梅格：哇哦。你在那里工作时，是住在旧金山吗？

Todd: I was. And that's actually why I became a teacher in Asia, why I moved to Japan because we were losing our lease on our apartment, and I had to go find new housing. And not only is the house inexpensive but even if you have the money, you might not get a house because you have to go through this long process. It's almost like getting into college. You have to get through this interview process. And just going and finding an apartment is such a complicated process in San Francisco that I thought, "Oh, forget it, I'm just going to take the easy way out and go back and start teaching overseas again."
托德：对。那也是我现在在亚洲当老师的原因，也是我搬到日本来生活的原因，因为我们失去了我们公寓的租约，我必须要找新的住处。我来到日本不仅因为日本的房价便宜，在旧金山，即使你有钱，你可能也找不到房子，因为手续非常复杂。就像上大学一样。上大学要进行面试。在旧金山，找房子的手续非常复杂，所以我想“算了吧，我要找简单的方法，我要再去外国教英语。”

Meg: So if someone were interested in living in San Francisco, what would your advice be?
梅格：如果有人想在旧金山生活，你会给他们什么建议？

Todd: Don't, or make sure you have a lot of money or you have a really good job. I guess there are some ways around it. You can rent rooms and things like that. But it's doable because there is low-income housing. And if you live in the outskirts and if you are going to commute into the city, you could probably find something around $1,500 a month. But still, it's pretty expensive.
托德：不要去旧金山生活，除非你要很多钱或者有份好工作。应该有一些方法能让你在旧金山生活。你可以租房。这是可行的，因为旧金山有低收入住房。如果住在郊区，每天要通勤去市区，那可能可以租到月租金1500美元左右的房子。不过，这个价格依然很贵。

Meg: So work for Google first, then move to San Francisco.
梅格：首先要去谷歌公司工作，然后再搬到旧金山去。

Todd: Right. Exactly. Make sure you get that job at the tech company. And then once you have that job, then you're set.
托德：对，没错。确保在科技公司找到工作。找到工作以后，再准备。

Meg: Great. Well, thanks for sharing about San Francisco.
梅格：不错。谢谢你分享有关旧金山的情况。

Todd: Sure.
托德：不客气。