Gina帶美國老板Jason去購物。
Gina: Good morning, Jason. How did you sleep?
Jason: Pretty well, thanks. Still feeling the effects of jet lag a bit, but last night I got at lease six hours of rest.
G: Great! So, are you ready for a full day of shopping?
J: Yep. Let's do it. I'm pretty excited!
G: I know a place that should be perfect. It's called the "China Friendship Shopping Center" and it's pretty much like an American mall - except with more variety. You can even buy a live chicken there if you want.
Jason雖然有時差,但晚上睡得不錯,做好了去購物的充分準(zhǔn)備。Gina要帶他去“中國友誼購物中心”,It's just like an American mall, 跟美國的購物中心很象,mall is spelled m-a-l-l, mall, mall,是美國購物中心的通稱,mall,里有很多店家,出售各種商品。
J: Live chicken? (Chuckle) Thanks, but no thanks. So....tell me about bargaining. How can I do it like a local?
G: Well. I'll be honest and say you'll never be as good at bargaining as a local person. You're a foreigner and the sellers can see that. But...if you're smart, you can get bargains that are not too far away from the "local price."
J: Cool! Teach me!
Jason聽說購物中心還能買到活雞,覺得很好笑,說thanks, but no thanks,意思是謝謝,但不必了。Jason讓Gina教他討價還價,bargain is spelled b-a-r-g-a-i-n, bargain, 是砍價的意思,Gina說,你長一張老外臉,不可能 as good at bargaining as a local person,意思是不可能象本地人一樣砍價,local is spelled l-o-c-a-l, local,意思是當(dāng)?shù)厝?。不過如果懂行的話,還是能拿到跟本地人差不多的價格的。
G: For starters, you want to do a lot of scouting first. You've got to know what things cost.
J: Someone told me to go to a convenience store and see how much a soft drink or a tube of toothpaste costs. The idea is that by comparing the prices of those items, you can figure out the relative prices of everything else.
G: That could be helpful. But when you go into a shopping center...prices become very flexible. You have to be able to read the market.
Gina說,Jason首先要去摸清情況, scout is spelled s-c-o-u-t, scout, scout,是搜集信息的意思。有人曾告訴Jason, 可以找個便利商店,a convenience store, 看看飲料、牙膏等生活用品的價格,了解大概齊的價格標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。但是 Gina說,到了購物中心,價格彈性就會變得很大,所以還是要學(xué)會read the market,弄懂市場行情。