【一起听英语】房产中介

 房产中介是帮我们介绍买卖的房子的一群人

Yvonne: Hello, I'm Yvonne Archer 1 and this is 6 Minute English. Today, I've been

joined by Alice. Hi Alice!

Alice: Hi Yvonne!

Yvonne: Now Alice, everyone seems to have something to say about estate agents or as

they’re known in the United States, real-estate agents - the people who help

others to buy or sell houses or flats. But what would you say about the

language they use?

Alice: Oh, it can be very descriptive and often, they make things sound better than

they really are.

Yvonne: Hmm – I have to agree with you on that one. Well, estate agents do seem to

have a language all of their own. For example, if they describe a house as

'characterful' – what would you think they meant by that, Alice?

Alice: Well, 'characterful' – so full of character, perhaps old, unusual and maybe that

there are quite a few things that need fixing. 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010

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Yvonne: Mm-hmm, definitely! But before we go any further, let’s have today’s question.

There are lots of old houses in London Alice, but do you know anything about

the smallest house?

Alice: The smallest house? I don't.

Yvonne: Well, the smallest house was built 1805 in central London and it's said that it

was used by people who were watching out for body snatchers – people who

stole bodies from the nearby cemetery 2 for medical examinations. Anyway, can

you guess how wide that house is, Alice?

a) 2.4 metres

b) 5.6 metres or

c) 1 metre

Alice: Oh, I think I'll go for 2.4 metres. I can't imagine anything smaller.

Yvonne: No - but I will tell you what the correct answer is later on. So, we’ve already

heard some language used by real-estate agents, but what about some of the

other things they write in advertisements. In 1968 it became illegal - against

the law – to advertise a house or a flat in a way that might discriminate 3 against

different groups of people or encourage discrimination. Listen to this example:

Insert 1:

Beautiful 3 bedroom house, close to temples.

Yvonne: Alice, why might that language be seen as discriminatory? 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010

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Alice: Well, it said ‘close to temples’. So maybe that might describe the perfect house

for people of a certain religion. But it could also seem like the sellers and the

estate agent won’t sell the house to people of any other religion.

Yvonne: Mmm… so using the words ‘close to temples’ could be used to exclude or

discriminate against people of other religions, or encourage discrimination

against them.

Alice: Hmmm, it's complicated. So estate agents have to be very careful about the

language they use to stay within the law.

Yvonne: Now one of the most interesting uses of language in estate agent adverts 4 are

the synonyms 5; finding words which mean the same thing. So, for example,

how many ways can you say the word ‘small’ without putting people off?

Here’s Paul Bonnett, an estate agent, who’s said that for the past 30 years, the

vocabulary estate agents use hasn’t changed much.

Insert 2: Paul Bonnett

You’ve got the compact, you've got the bijou, you've got the delightful 7, you've got

attractive (charming), you've got panoramic…

Yvonne: So there, we heard words that lots of estate agents use. Alice – can you explain

them for us, please?

Alice: Yes – we heard ‘compact’, which means that it’s quite small, but everything

that’s needed can still fit into it. We heard ‘bijou’ – that's more elegant. It

means that the apartment, the flat, is small and elegant. 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010

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Yvonne: Mm… and what about ‘panoramic’?

Alice: Well, that means there's a good view of the area. So you can see all around you

from the flat.

Yvonne: Now, Paul Bonnet 6 wanted the adverts from his real-estate agency to stand out

from all the others – to be more noticeable so that they’d attract more

customers. They decided 8 to make their descriptions more poetic 9 – like poetry.

Alice: And of course, while factual descriptions appeal to or satisfy our heads – our

intellect – poetry appeals to our hearts – how we feel.

Yvonne: It does, so here’s a factual description for a flat:

Insert 3:

Two bedroom, first floor balcony flat with some superb sea views towards the Palace

Pier 10.

Yvonne: Okay, we know there are two bedrooms, but did the description include

anything that appeals to your emotions, Alice?

Alice: Well, not really. I mean 'superb sea views' sounds quite nice, but nothing too

attractive.

Yvonne: No, so let’s hear a more poetic description of the same flat by the poet, Paul

Lyle. He's helping 11 Paul Bonnet write his adverts:

Insert 4: Paul Lyle

The room fills your eyes with air and space. The first thing you see is the sea meeting the

sky. The windows lead out onto the terrace, taking you above and beyond with room to

breathe. 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010

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Yvonne: Would you be interested in viewing that flat, Alice?

Alice: It sounds lovely! Filling your eye with air and space.

Yvonne: So adverts that appeal to our emotions but are also accurate and fair seem to

work quite well for us, don't they Alice?

Alice: They do.

Yvonne: Now earlier, I asked you how wide the smallest house in London is and what

you said was…

Alice: I think I went for 2.4 metres.

Yvonne: Oh, it’s actually 1.05 metres wide – really narrow.

Alice: So – compact and bijou!

Yvonne: Well, that’s all for today's "6 Minute English". Join us again.

Both: Bye!