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Building Plans for Wiki-Style House Available Online
About one third of the world's city dwellers live in substandard housing, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. But researchers say free plans now available online for building houses made of manufactured parts that perfectly fit together may help solve this problem.
The world population is expected to grow to more than 8 billion by 2030, and the housing situation in urban centers is already a huge problem. Building new homes the traditional way still takes weeks or months.
In a London neighborhood, a group of volunteers is constructing a house made of prefabricated plywood panels and parts, the so-called Wiki House. All parts were precisely cut in a Computer Numerical Control, or CNC machine, following a free plan downloaded from the Internet.
Co-founder of the U.K.-based WikiHouse Foundation, architectural designer Alastair Parvin, said this could be the solution for affordable housing.
WikiHouse is essentially a series of technologies we're developing aimed at massively simplifying the process of making really sustainable high performance houses to a point where almost anyone can do it," he said. "And to do that we're using the power of the web and digital manufacturing technologies like 3-D printing.”
Precise cutting allows a perfect fit for all parts, which speeds up the process of assembly. No special tools are required.
The Wiki House was built in 10 days for exhibition purposes. Then, it was taken apart and reassembled elsewhere for permanent use.
Parvin said the whole concept is based on the blueprints available online.
“Open-source software is now really established, it drives a lot of the software we use," he said. "What's happening now is that that's now coming into the world of physical things, so we're effectively building a kind of Wikipedia for physical stuff.”
Parvin said the project is in its early stages, with limited availability. But he said he expects it to grow as more people start showing interest in houses whose assembly requires no special skills.
詞匯解析
tolerance
難度：3星常用詞匯，屬常用6000詞
英漢解釋
n.寬容；忍耐力；容忍；公差
參考例句
用作名詞 (n.)
Tolerance is another name for indifference.
寬容是不關(guān)心的別名。
She had no tolerance for jokes of any kind.
她容不得開任何玩笑。
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current
難度：5星基本詞匯，屬常用1000詞
英漢解釋
n.趨勢；(水、氣、電)流
adj.現(xiàn)在的；流通的
參考例句
用作名詞 (n.)
Nothing disturbs the peaceful current of life in the village.
沒有任何事干擾村里一向平靜的生活.
用作形容詞 (adj.)
How long will she keep her current job?
她現(xiàn)在這份工作能維持多久?
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regarding
英漢解釋
prep.關(guān)于；至于
參考例句
用作介詞 (prep.)
She said nothing regarding your request.
她對你的要求只字不提。
I care about nothing regarding my future career.
至于未來,我一點兒也不關(guān)心。
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additional
pinlv: hanyin:
英漢解釋
adj.附加的；額外的
參考例句
用作形容詞 (adj.)
You should know the additional responsibilities that are incidental to the job.
你該知道做這項工作要承擔(dān)額外責(zé)任。
We are willing to pay an additional fee for immediate delivery .
我們愿意為即期交貨支付一筆額外的費用。
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blast
難度：4星核心詞匯，屬常用3000詞
英漢解釋
n.爆炸；巨響；一陣(強風(fēng))；嚴(yán)厲的批評；<美俚>愉快的經(jīng)歷
v.爆破；摧毀；發(fā)出巨響；用力撞擊；批評
參考例句
用作名詞 (n.)
27 school children were injured in the blast.
27名學(xué)齡兒童在爆炸中受了傷。
用作動詞 (v.)
A massive car bomb blasted the police headquarters.
一個巨大的汽車炸彈在警局總部爆炸。
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cancel
難度：4星核心詞匯，屬常用3000詞
英漢解釋
v.取消；作廢；注銷；抵消；刪除
n.取消；刪除
參考例句
用作動詞 (v.)
The match had to be cancelled due to the bad weather.
比賽因天氣不好只得取消。
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umbrella
難度：4星核心詞匯，屬常用3000詞
英漢解釋
n.傘；雨傘；庇護
參考例句
用作名詞 (n.)
The wind blew my umbrella inside out.
風(fēng)把我的傘吹得翻過去了。
Those small states are under the umbrella of the super power.
那些小國在超級大國的庇護之下。
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