2015年ESL之旅行交通购物 06 Bidding on Online Auctions

Bidding on Online Auctions² 

Jermaine: Wait! You shouldn?t bid on that auction¹ right now. Wait until the last minute. 

Bethany: This auction has a buy-it-now price of $25 and free shipping³. 

Jermaine: Don?t pay the buy- it-now price. The minimum bid on this item is $10 and the current bid is only $12.50. There?s no reserve, so if you wait to bid, you may snag it for a much lower price than $25. 

Bethany: Okay, I guess I can wait, but why can?t I place a bid of $15 right now? 

Jermaine: First of all, the bidding on this auction goes up by increments⁴ of 50-cents, so the next bid would be $13.00. You could place a maximum bid of $15.00, but someone might outbid you at any time. 

Bethany: But couldn?t that happen anyway? Even if I wait until the last minute someone could sneak⁵ in and bid a higher price. 

Jermaine: You mean they could snipe you? They could, but not if you snipe them back. It?s all in the timing⁶. 

Bethany: You seem to know a lot about online auctions. 

Jermaine: That item you?re bidding on, guess who listed it? 

 

Script by Dr. Lucy Tse 

1 auction   

n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖

参考例句：

• They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
• They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。

2 auctions   

n.拍卖，拍卖方式( auction的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They picked up most of the furniture at auctions in country towns. 他们大部分的家具都是在乡村镇上的拍卖处买的。 来自辞典例句
• Our dealers didn't want these cars, so we had to dump them at auctions. 我们的承销商都不要这些车子，因此我们只好贱价拍卖。 来自辞典例句

3 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

4 increments   

n.增长( increment的名词复数 )；增量；增额；定期的加薪

参考例句：

• These increments were mixed and looked into the 5.56mm catridge case. 将各种药粒进行混和，装在5．56毫米的弹壳中。 来自辞典例句
• The Rankine scale has scale increments equal to the FahrenheIt'scale. 兰氏温标的温度间距与华氏温标的相同。 来自辞典例句

5 sneak   

vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行

参考例句：

• He raised his spear and sneak forward.他提起长矛悄悄地前进。
• I saw him sneak away from us.我看见他悄悄地从我们身边走开。

6 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。