admin 全新版大学进阶英语综合教程(二)课文+翻译
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Unit 1
After
living
in
the
24-hour
city
of
Las
Vegas,
Nevada
for
nearly
ten
years,
my
family
and
I
decided
to
slow
things
down.
My
daughter
wanted
a
horse.
My
husband
wanted
property.
My
son
wanted
a
dirt
bike.
I wanted our family to be more
self-sufficient.
None
of
us
felt
that
this
could
be
accomplished
where
we
were
living
and
we
all
agreed
that
a
move
to the country would be great for everyone.
Before
long
we
set
about
looking
for
a
home
in
Yucca,
Arizona,
a
very
small
town
of
less
than
1,000
people.
It was while I was scanning listings from our real estate
agent
that I first
learned
of
it.
There was a home for sale there on 40 acres.
When I called to
inquire
about the property,
I was informed that there was no electricity
available
in the area.
What? No electricity? I almost
dismissed the idea immediately.
The
property
was
off
the
grid.
It
was
not
connected
whatsoever
to
any
utilities
—
power,
water
or
sewer.
Power
was
supplied
by
a
wind
turbine
and
solar
panels.
Water
had
to
be
hauled
in
and
stored
in
two
tanks
located
on
the
property.
Forty
acres
would
give
us
plenty
of
room
for
all
of
our
animals
and
give
my
husband
and
son
space
to
ride
their
ATVs.
Besides,
what
better
way
is
there
to
become
more
self-sustainable?
After giving it some thought, we decided to
put in
an offer
and moved in
on
Thanksgiving Day.
When we first moved to the property, we did some remodeling and stayed in our motor home.
We were
confronted
with
real
challenges
at
the
time.
The
power
kept
going
out,
the
main
water
line
to
the
house
broke,
the plumbing backed up into the front yard
and the generator died.
But the
setbacks
just made us work harder.
We slowly got things fixed and moved into the house
after
38
days
in
the
RV.
The
next
challenge
was
to
become
familiar
with
your
power
system,
and
to
learn the
ins and outs
of hauling your own water and
generating
your own power.
Our off-the-grid system
consists of
eight solar panels (1,000 watts) that are mounted on a sun
tracker rack.
We also have a wind turbine that generates 3,000 watts in 24 mph winds.
The energy
generated by the wind and sun is stored in 16 6v golf cart batteries.
We also have two 2,500-gallon
above-ground water tanks and a 250-gallon propane tank.
Every weekend, we haul two 275-gallon water
tanks to the nearby town of Yucca and fill them with water, which we then pump into our big water tanks.
While living here for the past four months has been a big
adjustment, there are many benefits to
living
off
the
grid.
I
think
one
of
the
greatest
is
teaching
my
kids
the
importance
of
conservation.
They
used
to
take
water,
power
and
gas
for
granted.
The
first
week
we
were
here,
we
used
almost
1,000
gallons
of water.
With only a 5,000-
gallon water tank, it didn’t take them long to understand that we had to
use less water.
We started taking quicker showers, doing only full loads of
laundry, turning off the
water while brushing our teeth or shaving.
Over-consumption is even more clearly demonstrated by our electricity usage.
We have a digital
readout of how many volts of DC power we have stored in our batteries at any given time.
If you turn
on a light or the TV, the number goes down.
In order to protect the batteries, the system is set up
to shut the inverter off if the volts get too low.
Then the power goes out.
When we first moved in,
we
lost
power
almost
daily.
After
this
happens
a
few
times,
it
becomes
clear
very
quickly
just
how
often
you waste electricity.
Everything from lights and ceiling fans to computers and radios were left on
when they were not
in use.
The cell phone chargers were
plugged in even when they weren’t charging
anything.
All
of
this
uses
unnecessary
power.
We
are
steadily
learning
to
be
more
diligent
with
our
power usage.
In
addition,
we
are
also
trying
to
make
other
changes.
They
include
reducing
the
amount
of
trash
we
generate by
recycling
and composting, growing our own
organic
vegetables, and reusing and
