Meeting the landlord
Beth: Hello, Mr. Gao. We appreciate your letting us have the apartment.
LL: My pleasure. You're a sweet couple. Do you have any questions?
Beth: The ad said rent was thirty thousand. That includes utilities and phone, I assume.
LL: No, it doesn't. And there's a maintenance fee for each month. It's forty NT per ping.
Beth: That's another one thousand six hundred?
LL: Yes, but that doesn't include cable. It's for cleaning and trash removal. You just leave your trash outside your door.
rent (v.,n.)
房租;出租
A: We also want to move because it's too expensive.
我們也想搬家,因?yàn)樘F了。
B: Yes, the rent must be really high here.
是啊,這里房租一定很貴。
utility (n.)
瓦斯、電力、自來(lái)水等設(shè)施
A: Does your rent include utilities?
你的房租包括水電瓦斯費(fèi)嗎?
B: It includes water, but you have to pay for gas and electricity.
包括水費(fèi),不過(guò)要付瓦斯跟電費(fèi)。
assume (v.)
假定,假設(shè)
I assumed you had a boyfriend.
我猜妳有男朋友了。
maintenance fee
維修保養(yǎng)費(fèi)。這里是指大樓管理費(fèi)
Maintenance fees are just another way for landlords to rip us off.
管理費(fèi)只是房東剝削我們的另一種方法。
removal (n.)
搬運(yùn),移動(dòng)
A: What is the government doing about that toxic waste?
政府如何處理那些有毒廢物?
B: The new laws call for its removal by 2010.
新立法要求在二○一○年之前移除。
和房東見(jiàn)面
貝絲:哈啰,高先生。我們很感激你讓我們承租這間公寓。
房東:榮幸之至。你們這對(duì)夫婦人很好。有任何問(wèn)題嗎?
貝絲:廣告上說(shuō)房租是三萬(wàn)元。我猜那包括水電瓦斯跟電話費(fèi)吧。
房東:不,沒(méi)有包括。而且每個(gè)月還有管理費(fèi)。一坪四十元。
貝絲:那就是還要外加一千六百元?
房東:對(duì),不過(guò)那不包括有線電視。那是清潔跟收垃圾的費(fèi)用。你只要把垃圾放在門(mén)外就好了。