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,因為太貴了。
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、自來水等設(shè)施
A: Does your rent include utilities?
你的房租包括水電瓦斯費嗎?
B: It includes water, but you have to pay for gas and electricity.
包括水費,不過要付瓦斯跟電費。
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。這里是指大樓管理費
Maintenance fees are just another way for landlords to rip us off.
管理費只是房東剝削我們的另一種方法。
removal (n.)
搬運,移動
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。你們這對夫婦人很好。有任何問題嗎?
貝絲:廣告上說房租是三萬元。我猜那包括水電瓦斯跟電話費吧。
房東:不,沒有包括。而且每個月還有管理費。一坪四十元。
貝絲:那就是還要外加一千六百元?
房東:對,不過那不包括有線電視。那是清潔跟收垃圾的費用。你只要把垃圾放在門外就好了。