湖北一对90后小夫妻仅用了2万元积蓄，便设计搭建成了一座二层楼的土团小屋。

因为不想成为“房奴”，一生被房贷压着，夫妻俩决心从钢筋混凝土的大城市回归怡然自得的田园生活。

门前花红草绿，屋旁果树成荫，生活过得自由自在，轻松无比。

这种返璞归真的田园生活，你们会喜欢吗？

When you are slaving away at your work every day or being tortured by all these hustle and bustle of a megacity that you live in, have you ever thought about getting away from it at all and live a simpler life？

It's a nice dream for a lot of people.

所以今天的Buzzword里, 我们就说一说终极的回归田园的生活方式叫做Off-the-Grid, 可以翻译成「脱离电网生活」。

Sounds a bit strange? Let me explain.

Living off grid or living off-the-grid means living in a property without connection to public utilities, like the main electrical grid.

这种生活方式, 它不依赖于现代生活的这些公共事业, 比如水、电、污水处理, 其中 grid特别就是指 main electrical grid集中的电网。

So in other words, off grid homes are completely autonomous. It is all about being self-sufficient, they rely on themselves.

因为国情不一样, 可能这么说, 还有很多人不能理解。

比如说澳大利亚、新西兰就看到过这种off-the-grid living, 比如说到树林里自己建一个房子, 它的电水全部都是自己解决。

This way of life is also known as homesteading, permanent camping, or living off the land.

Now you can go fully off-the-grid by generating your own electricity, digging wells, using septic tanks, composting, and growing your own food, and you probably stop using phones and the internet as well.

讲到off-the-grid也有不同程度, 有些人是非常硬核的, 他会自己发电, 自己挖水井;

或者想办法利用自然的水源, 连污水处理、堆肥一系列的事情都自己处理, 当然吃的东西也靠自己种, 完全告别手机网络这些东西。

But then there are also some others, they prefer to live partially off-the-grid. Now keep in mind this can be different from person to person.

还有的人只是想浅尝这种off-the-grid living, 这里面就会有各种不一样的选择了.

They can use, for example, solar power, but they may still rely on other utilities like city water or sewage.

他可能会用比如说太阳能之类的能源, 但是水和污水处理这些可能还是要用到公用设施。

Some people they even buy food at grocery store or have internet access. As you can see, it depends on what works best for you.

But the whole idea of living off-the-grid is trying not to be so dependent on modern urban living so that you can live in a more self-sufficient way.

但大部分想选择living off-the-grid的人, 都是希望能够过一种更加自给自足的, 更加简单的生活。

Let's be honest, it's not for everyone, especially that we're so used to modern conveniences;

but there are some benefits to this sustainable way of life.

脱离电网生活的好处

1 Small environmental footprints

You will use less water, produce less waste, and rely on alternative energy sources, renewable energy sources to generate electricity.

首先比起都市生活, 你个人对于环境的影响会更小。

2 Deeper connection with nature

A lot of people who live off-the-grid, they will live much closer to nature. And this will help you reconnect with nature.

This is also why off-the-grid living is more popular in places where they are a lot of beautiful and relatively safe natural areas.

你可以深度拥抱大自然。

3 Better health

When moving to the wilderness, people usually become more self-reliant, more active. And this can help prevent some health problems.

这种在大自然里自给自足的生活会让你的身体也变好。

4 Greater personal satisfaction

Learning new skills to survive without public utilities and solving problems on your own will boost your confidence.

在这样自给自足的生活中, 你有没有发现自己各方面的生存和动手技能逐日提升？

5 Lower stress and anxiety

For most people, the number one reason why they want to get away from urban living is because modern life makes them feel stressed and anxious, and living surrounded by nature can help you feel more relaxed

But of course as you can imagine, living off-the-grid has its own share of problems.

There are some important basics that you need to keep in mind should you ever want to consider some form of off-the-grid living, the three essential things for survival are water, food, and shelter.

如果你真要想尝试live off-the-grid, 首先要考虑的是生存的三个基本要素, 水、食物和住所。

Water is obviously the most important for survival. While if you live in the city, you never really have to worry about it.

When you go off-the-grid, you probably won't be connected to the public water supply. So you will need to find a way to get enough clean water to drink and use every day.

And then it's food. Getting food is super easy when you live in a city, especially if you're getting used to the convenience of just ordering take-away on your phone.

But when you live off-the-grid, you have to figure out a way to find food. That's why a lot of people pick up skills like hunting, fishing, gardening, farming.

These are useful skills that will help you meet your nutritional needs, survive and achieve self-sufficiency, of course when it comes to hunting and fishing, you also have to consider whether you are allowed to do so.

And the last one is shelter.

You need to have a safe and reliable place to live off-the-grid.

It could be a cabin in the woods, tiny house, or even an RV.

And since you no longer have the regular protection you take for granted when you live in a city, so you also have to think how you can protect yourself from animals, humans, and also natural disasters like wind, snow, rain, extreme weather condition.

So living off-the-grid is a nice fantasy to have. But if you wanna turn it into a reality, there are lots of work to be done.

Now let's move on to the sample sentence.

例句示范

Example 1：

-People who choose to live off-the-grid do so because they prefer to be self-sufficient.