时间:2019-01-07 作者:英语课 分类:VOA常速英语2008年(四月)


英语课
By Claudia Blume
Hong Kong
11 April 2008


The highly anticipated sale of the largest diamond ever to appear at an auction 1 in Asia has failed. But demand for Chinese art, expensive watches and other collectors' items was strong at auction house Sotheby's spring sales in Hong Kong. Claudia Blume reports.


It was the star lot of Sotheby's jewelry 2 auction at its annual spring sales in Hong Kong: a flawless, pear-shaped, 72-carat diamond, as big as a walnut 3. It was the largest diamond of its kind ever on offer at an auction in Asia, and Sotheby's had hoped to sell it for as much as $13 million.


But the sale fell through Thursday night after the final bid failed to meet the reserve price. Sotheby's spokesman Matthew Weigman says there was confusion among overseas buyers who placed their bids by phone.


"Bidders 4 from different countries had miscalculated the exchange rate and were uncertain of what they had would have to pay so they retracted 5 their bids," he explained. "We are currently negotiating a private sale of the diamond."


Other parts of this week's auction were more successful, however. Sotheby's set a new world record for the sale of a modern watch. A platinum 6 Patek Philippe wrist watch went for $1.5 million.


Demand for Chinese contemporary art remained strong, with Sotheby's achieving record sales of almost $52 million. The art auction's highlight was Zhang Xiaogang's oil painting "Bloodline: The big family No. 3", which was sold for more than $6 million to a Taiwanese collector.


Weigman says that for the first time, the auction house offered art from Southeast Asia in at the Hong Kong sale.


"What we discovered was that the Southeast Asian paintings category benefited very much from being in Hong Kong because people who were here to buy Chinese art saw the Southeast Asian paintings and began to bid on them," he said. "So we brought new buyers into the market for Southeast Asian and Vietnamese paintings."


The sale of Southeast Asian art achieved about  $8 million, exceeding forecasts.




n.拍卖;拍卖会;vt.拍卖
  • 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。
n.(jewllery)(总称)珠宝
  • The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
  • Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。
n.胡桃,胡桃木,胡桃色,茶色
  • Walnut is a local specialty here.核桃是此地的土特产。
  • The stool comes in several sizes in walnut or mahogany.凳子有几种尺寸,材质分胡桃木和红木两种。
n.出价者,投标人( bidder的名词复数 )
  • Bidders should proceed only if they intend on using a PayPal account to complete payment. Bidders的唯一形式,应继续只当他们在使用贝宝帐户,以完成付款打算。 来自互联网
  • The other bidders for the contract complained that it had not been a fair contest. 其他竞标人抱怨说该合同的竞标不公平。 来自《简明英汉词典》
v.撤回或撤消( retract的过去式和过去分词 );拒绝执行或遵守;缩回;拉回
  • He made a false confession which he later retracted. 他作了假供词,后来又翻供。
  • A caddy retracted his statement. 一个球童收回了他的话。 来自辞典例句
n.白金
  • I'll give her a platinum ring.我打算送给她一枚白金戒指。
  • Platinum exceeds gold in value.白金的价值高于黄金。
学英语单词
(R)-loxiglumide
abluded
active pressure
akumide
automatic roasting furnace
automotive design
balla
binary convolutional encoding
botment
buffed
cablecasts
catalysis element
chuck ... away
combined application
coming before
compiler manager
corn-picker
cost - of - living index
counter-offer
cross-stimulation
cylinder force
decomposition mechanism
detonating velocity
dextrane
digital data delay distortion
dimethylesculetin
DJSM
dorsal rays
Dublin Core
electrothermostal
Eucharistial
fast-laner
feed drum
financial accounting
flash media
flenge
flow bean choke
grading automatic sorter
gropeth
Harker Point
image of
imbricaria olivaeformis
imitation champagne
in memoriam
incentive compatibility
inscrolls
interprocess communications
Isles-sur-Suippe
james espy
lemakalim
litigious matter
Lopping-axe
lymphangiosarcoma
MacGyvering
mackaroon
MAG welding (metal active gas arc welding)
maisteresse
Maple-wax
mastonia rubra
Mdiq
metal-poor star
moighte
mucosus
NAIRS
nonpressure parts
nonsticky
normal hydrometer
onuss
OP (operation permit)
Ostellato
Pancrudo
pharyngotom
platypleura hilpa
podded propulsion system
prints off
projection printer
recovery.gov
rediffusion
republics of the marshall islands
reservoir sedimentation computation
rhythm guitar
samoud
sapatya (philippines)
simple branched acinar gland
sitogluside
size milk
space width of wormwheel
spathous
static test mode
step-by-step motor
thermoelectric property
thessalias
thistle funnel
thunder-gust
trumpet-shapeds
turfbound
two-layered ectoderm
universal galvanometer
user prompts
vegoil
Walter, Mitty
warm-up system