Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 703, Attending an Auction.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 703.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpodcom.
Download a learning guide for this episode and help support this episode by becoming a member of ESL Podcast.
This episode is called Attending an Auction.
An auction is where you try to buy things by offering or saying that you will pay more money than the other people.
Let's get started.
This is so exciting.
I've never been to an auction before.
Sit down.
It's about to start.
The auctioneer is on the podium with her gavel, and she's ready to start the bidding.
Are you bidding on the first lot?
No, the reserve is too high.
See, the opening bid is over $10,000.
I'm not surprised.
Items of that quality don't appear on the auction block very often.
What are those people doing on the phone?
They are bidding on behalf of people who can't be here, the absentee bidders.
Hey, stop waving that paddle around.
The auctioneer is going to think that you're placing a bid.
Oh, sorry.
Listen, the price is up to $30,500.
Going, going, gone.
The auction house is going to make a nice commission on that one.
This is so much fun.
Shh, I'm going to bid on the next lot.
Where's the paddle?
The paddle?
Yeah, the paddle.
Where did you put it?
I had it just a minute ago.
Find it, or else I'm putting your head on the block.
The auction block?
No, the chopping block.
Our dialogue begins with Diane saying to Martin, this is so exciting.
I've never been to an auction before.
An auction.
A U C T I O N is a place where things are sold to people and who will pay more than the other people who are there.
You can go to an auction for art, for cars, for land, for really anything that can legally be sold.
That's an auction.
I say I'm going to pay $10, you say I'll pay $11.
I say, okay, I am going to pay $12, and so forth.
Martin says to Diane, sit down.
It's about to start.
Many auctions anyway, are held in a room and there are people sitting there and each person is given a number on something called a paddle, which we'll talk about in a second, and they hold that number up if they want to buy the item.
Martin says to Diane, sit down, it's about to start.
The auctioneer, the person whose job it is to lead the auction, to announce what's being sold, and to ask people how much they want to pay, the auctioneer is on the podium with her gavel.
A podium P-O-D-I-U-M is an area that is higher up than the surrounding floor where a speaker will stand so that people can hear him or her.
Professors in college or teachers in high school often have podiums.
They put their paper on the podium and they stand behind it, facing or looking out toward the class.
The auctioneer has something called a gavel, G-A-V-E-L.
A gavel is like a small hammer wooden hammer that you hit against the table to get people's attention.
In a courtroom where there is a judge, the judge typically has a gavel.
At an auction a gavel's purpose is to indicate that the thing that they are selling has been sold.
That you cannot try to buy it after that point.
Martin says the auctioneer is ready to start the bidding.
Bidding comes from the verb to bid.
To bid is to say that you are going to pay a certain amount of money for something at an auction.
Bidding is the process of many people taking turns announcing how much they're willing to pay for something.
Here in the United States, the most popular online auction is eBay.
E-B-A-Y dot com.
People say, I'll give you $10.
No, I'll give you $10.50.
Okay, I'll give you $11.
Those are two different people you wouldn't want to bid against yourself.
That is, offer prices higher than your own price.
That would be crazy.
Speaking of crazy, Diane says, are you bidding on the first lot?
Here the word lot L-O-T means a group of objects, a group of things that are sold together at an auction.
Lot has a lot of different meanings.
Take a look at our learning guide for more explanations.
Martin says, no, he's not bidding on the first lot.
The reserve is too high.
The reserve at an auction is the minimum price at which something will be sold.
So I give my computer to the auctioneer.
I say to him, sell this computer, but I will not accept anything less than $400.
That's the reserve, the $400, the minimum I will accept.
The auctioneers typically keep a percentage for themselves, of course, usually around 30%, I think.
Anyway, Martin says the opening bid is over $10,000.
The opening bid is the bid that the auctioneer proposes or suggests as the first price.
After the auctioneer suggests a price and someone says okay, I'll pay, that The auctioneer doesn't suggest any other prices.
They will instead ask people if they're willing to pay more.
So if you say, I'm going to pay $10,000, I'll say, okay, $10,000, do I hear $11,000?
Do I hear means, is there anyone who will say they will pay $11,000?
And someone may say yes.
You say, okay, $11,000, $11,000, $11,000.
Do I hear $12,000, $12,000, $12,000, $12,000?
For some reason, auctioneers like to talk and repeat things very fast.
So in our story, the opening bid is over $10,000 for the first lot.
Martin says, I'm not surprised.
Items of that quality don't appear on the auction block very often.
The expression an auction block refers to a raised area where you can see the thing being displayed, the thing that is being sold.
In general, the expression means available at an auction or to be auctioned.
Diane says, what are those people doing on the phone?
Martin says they are bidding on behalf of people who can't be here, on behalf of means to do something for someone else.
So if there's an auction in Paris and I can't be there, I send a friend of mine and the friend will bid on something and talk to me on the phone and say do you want to pay 11000?
And I say no or yes.
And then that's how I can participate in the auction.
He says, Martin, the absentee bidders are talking on the phone.
The absentee is the person who isn't there.
They are absent.
To be absent is the opposite of to be present.
If you're present, you're here.
If you're absent, you're not here.
At school, we talk about people being present in class or absent from class.
Notice present in class, absent from class.
The prepositions are different.
So these are absentee bidders, people who are not physically there.
Martin says, hey, stop waving that paddle around.
To wave is to move back and forth in the air.
A paddle is a flat, round, or square piece of wood that has a number on it.
If you are familiar with the game of ping pong or table tennis, the ball is hit with a small paddle.
It looks a little like that kind of paddle.
It has a handle on it where you can pick it up with your hand.
And if you hold it up in the air, that tells the auctioneer that you're willing to pay that higher price.
So the auctioneer doesn't know your name, but he can see your number and he writes that number down saying okay, that person will pay 11000.
Well, Diane the dummy, she starts waving the paddle around.
Martin says the auctioneer is going to think that you're placing a bid.
To place a bid means the same as to bid, to say that you will pay a certain price for something.
Diane says, oh, sorry.
Listen, the price is up to $30,500.
Going, going, gone.
Gone.
After the auctioneer decides that no one else will pay a higher price, he or she will say that phrase going going, gone.
And when they say gone, they take the gavel, the little hammer, and they hit the table to indicate that that item is sold.
Diane says the auction house, the company that runs the auction, is going to make a nice commission on that one.
A commission is a percentage of the sales price that you receive for selling a certain thing.
We talk about people at stores working on commission, meaning they will get a percentage of the price.
Many salesmen and saleswomen are working on commission.
Diane says, Martin indicates for her to stop talking, to be quiet.
He says, He says, I'm going to bid on the next lot, the next group of things.
Where is the paddle, he asks.
Diane says, the paddle?
Martin says, yeah, the paddle.
Where did you put it?
Where did you place it?
Diane says, I had it just a minute ago.
She had the paddle just 60 seconds ago.
Martin says, find it or else I'm putting your head on the block.
Or else is a phrase used to show another person that you have to do what I am telling you to do, or there will be negative consequences.
You don't even have to say what those negative consequences actions will be.
You might say give me my pen back, or else meaning if you do not give me my pen back, bad things will happen to you.
Of course, some people will say, or else what?
Asking specifically, or else I will punch you in the nose.
I will hit you in the face.
In this case, Martin says if Diane can't find the paddle, he's going to put her head on the block.
The block is also a term we can use to talk about when they used to kill people by cutting or chopping, we would say, off their head.
We would call the place where you put your head down the chopping block.
It would be a large piece of wood that would hold your head until the person chopped it or cut it off.
Well, that's what Martin is saying he's going to do to Diane which, of course, would be illegal in most countries.
You can't just go killing people.
Diane says the auction block.
She's confused.
She's not sure where her head will be.
Martin says no, the chopping block, which is what we just explained.
In general, the expression on the chopping block means that you are risking something valuable.
You may lose something valuable.
Or a company might say, The employees are on the chopping block.
They are in risk of losing their jobs.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
This is so exciting.
I've never been to an auction before.
Sit down.
It's about to start.
The auctioneer is on the podium with her gavel and she's ready to start the bidding.
Are you bidding on the first lot?
No, the reserve is too high.
See?
The opening bid is over $10,000.
I'm not surprised.
Items of that quality don't appear on the auction block very often.
What are those people doing on the phone?
They are bidding on behalf of people who can't be here, the absentee bidders.
Hey, stop waving that paddle around.
The auctioneer is going to think you're placing a bid.
Oh, sorry.
Listen, the price is up to $30,500.
Going, going, gone.
The auction house is going to make a nice commission on that one.
This is so much fun.
Shh, I'm going to bid on the next lot.
Where's the paddle?
The paddle?
Yeah, the paddle.
Where did you put it?
I had it just a minute ago.
Find it, or else I'm putting your head on the block.
The auction block?
No, the chopping block.
On behalf of everyone here at ESL Podcast, I want to thank Dr. Lucy Say for another great script.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2011 by the Center for Educational Development.
