奇速英语阅读理解：今天和广大英语阅读爱好者分享的主题是如果买房子就像逛淘宝那样快递上门？产品种类越多，就越难创造一个流动的市场。房地产是最麻烦也是最重要的问题之一。没有两个房子是完全一样的。雪上加霜的是，大多数买家和卖家都是一个链条上的环节。

　　Instant buyers are changing the way people buy and sell their homes

　　即时买家正在改变人们买卖房屋的方式

　　Zillow’s i-buying business is doing well

　　房地产的即时买卖（i-buying）业务发展得很好

　　A WELL-FUNCTIONING market is one that enables buyers and sellers to execute transactions quickly,easily and cheaply.Take the market for oil,or for blue-chip shares.Lots of buyers and sellers,gathered on commodity or stock exchanges,mean lots of bids and offers.Transactions are speedy and fees low.

　　transaction/trænˈzækʃən/|CET4 TEM4

　　N-COUNT A transaction is a piece of business,for example,an act of buying or selling something.交易

　　commodity/kəˈmɒdɪtɪ/|CET6 TEM4

　　N-COUNT A commodity is something that is sold for money.商品

　　一个运作良好的市场是一个能让买卖双方快速、轻松、廉价地完成交易的市场。以石油市场或蓝筹股为例。大量的买家和卖家聚集在商品或股票交易所，这意味着大量的买卖。交易速度快，且费用低廉。

　　【搭配与表达】

　　blue-chip shares

　　头等股票，蓝筹股

　　&The government also plans to buy up blue-chip shares.

　　另外政府也计划大量认购蓝筹股。

　　Company bonds,by contrast,vary in their tenor(the length of time till they fall due)and coupon(interest rate).That makes it much harder to match buyers and sellers.To create liquidity,institutions such as investment banks act as intermediaries,holding an inventory of corporate bonds and guaranteeing to buy from or sell to their clients at any time for a(hefty)fee.

　　liquidity/lɪˈkwɪdɪtɪ/

　　N-UNCOUNT In finance,a company's liquidity is the amount of cash or liquid assets it has easily available.资产折现力，流动性

　　intermediary/ˌɪntəˈmiːdɪərɪ/|CET6 TEM8

　　N-COUNT An intermediary is a person who passes messages or proposals between two people or groups.中间人，中介

　　相比之下，公司债券的期限(到期时间)和票面(利率)各不相同。这使得买家和卖家之间的撮合变得更加困难。为了创造流动性，投资银行等机构充当了中介机构的角色，持有公司债券的库存，并保证在任何时候以(高昂的)费用从客户手中买进或卖出。

　　【搭配与表达】

　　Company bonds公司债券

　　&Foreign currency negotiable securities including government bonds,company bonds,and stocks.

　　外币有价证券，包括当局债券、公司债券、股票等；

　　【长难句分析】

　　To create liquidity,institutions such as investment banks act as intermediaries,holding an inventory of corporate bonds and guaranteeing to buy from or sell to their clients at any time for a(hefty)fee.

　　此句中，“To create liquidity”作目的状语；“institutions such as investment banks act as intermediaries”是句子的主干，“holding an inventory of corporate bonds and guaranteeing to buy from or sell to their clients at any time for a(hefty)fee.”为并列的现在分词结构作伴随状语。

　　The more varied a product is,the harder it is to create a liquid market.One of the most troublesome—and important—is the market for homes.No two are exactly alike.Compounding the difficulties,most buyers and sellers are links in a chain.

　　troublesome/ˈtrʌbəlsəm/|CET4 TEM4

　　ADJ You use troublesome to describe something or someone that causes annoying problems or difficulties.令人烦恼的

　　产品种类越多，就越难创造一个流动的市场。房地产是最麻烦也是最重要的问题之一。没有两个房子是完全一样的。雪上加霜的是，大多数买家和卖家都是一个链条上的环节。

　　Two-thirds of Americans who are selling a home are also looking to buy another.A delay at one point in a chain holds up transactions all along it.So intermediaries in the property market offer a bespoke service,matching individual buyers and sellers and taking a chunky fee.

　　property/ˈprɒpətɪ/|CET4 TEM4

　　N-UNCOUNT Someone's property is all the things that belong to them or something that belongs to them.财产

　　bespoke/bɪˈspəʊk/

　　ADJ(esp of clothing or a website,computer program,etc)made to the customer's specifications(尤指服装、网站、电脑程序等)定制的

　　三分之二正在出售房屋的美国人也在考虑再买另外一套。一个链中某一点的延迟会一直阻碍事务的进行。因此，房地产市场的中介机构提供定制服务，为个人买家和卖家牵线搭桥，收取高额中介费用。

　　Enter i-buyers(instant buyers),who aim to play the role in homebuying that investment banks play in the corporate-bond market.They use fancy algorithms that analyse data,from the number of bedrooms to local crime rates,to estimate what a property should sell for.

　　investment/ɪnˈvɛstmənt/CET4 TEM4

　　N-UNCOUNT Investment is the activity of investing money.投资

　　algorithm/ˈælɡəˌrɪðəm/

　　N-COUNT An algorithm is a series of mathematical steps,especially in a computer program,which will give you the answer to a particular kind of problem or question.(尤指计算机程序中的)演算法

　　进入i-buyers(即时买家)市场，他们的目标是像投资银行在公司债券市场中一样，在购房中扮演角色。他们使用奇特的算法来分析数据，从卧室的数量到当地的犯罪率，来估计一处房产应该卖多少钱。

　　Then they buy it,tidy it up and sell it.Opendoor,a startup based in San Francisco that launched in 2014,now offers i-buying services in 20 American cities.

　　launch/lɔːntʃ/|CET4 TEM4

　　V-T If a company launches a new product,it makes it available to the public.推出(新产品)

　　然后他们把房子买下来，整理好，再卖出去。总部位于旧金山的初创公司Opendoor在2014年上市，现在在美国20个城市提供i-buy服务。

　　【拓展理解】

　　Opendoor

　　Opendoor是一家帮助用户“绕过”房地产经纪人和经纪公司的线上房产中介服务平台，通过其网站和移动应用程序，人们可以直接购买和出售房产。事实上，Opendoor扮演了一个“虚拟中间人”的角色，正如该公司自己所形容的那样：“如果你正在卖房子，就把房子卖给我们，这样能够让你不再担忧空房闲置好几个月的麻烦，也消除了其他很多买卖交易中的不确定性因素；如果你正在买房，可以轻松浏览我们平台上提供的海量Opendoor住宅，找到最中意的完美住宅，之后在标准化流程中完成房产交易。”截至去年九月，该公司每月可以为超过2000名客户（包括买家和卖家）提供服务，业务覆盖到了全美二十多座城市，迄今满足了总计三万多名客户的购房和卖房需求。

　　Just over a year ago Zillow,America’s biggest online property marketplace,said it would move into i-buying.Its share price promptly fell by 7%.Investors feared it would be unable to price with enough certainty that its offers could compete with those of real-estate agents,and doubted that sellers would accept a discount in return for an instant sale.

　　promptly/ˈprɒmptlɪ/

　　ADV If you do something promptly,you do it immediately.立即

　　discount|CET4 TEM4

　　N-COUNT A discount is a reduction in the usual price of something.折扣

　　就在一年多前，美国最大的在线房地产市场Zillow表示，它将进军i-buy领域。但其股价随即下跌7%。投资者担心，该公司无法给出足以能与房地产经纪公司竞争的价格，并且不确定卖家是否会接受将折扣作为即时出售的回报。

　　On both counts they may have been mistaken.Stan Humphries,an economist at Zillow,says its listing platform yields enough fine-grained information that it can set prices accurately and competitively.Average fees are around 7%,not far above the cut a conventional estate agent takes on a sale.

　　conventional/kənˈvɛnʃənəl/|CET4 TEM4

　　ADJ A conventional method or product is one that is usually used or that has been in use for a long time.传统的(方法或产品等)

　　在这两个问题上，他们（投资者）可能都错了。Zillow的经济学家斯坦•汉弗莱斯表示，该公司的上市平台提供了足够精细的信息，能够准确而有竞争力地给房屋定价。平均（中介）费用约为7%，与传统房地产代理商的降价幅度相差不远。

　　【长难句分析】

　　Stan Humphries,an economist at Zillow,says its listing platform yields enough fine-grained information that it can set prices accurately and competitively.

　　此句中，“an economist at Zillow”是Stan Humphries的同位语，“its listing platform yields enough fine-grained information”是says的宾语从句（省略了that）,“that it can set prices accurately and competitively.”是修饰information的定语从句。

　　And sellers are turning out to be keen on the service.I-buyers are not present in every region of America—they have entered big cities with large“cookie-cutter”housing stocks first—and therefore accounted for a tiny fraction of home sales in 2018.

　　keen/kiːn/|CET4 TEM4

　　ADJ If you are keen on something,you like it a lot and are very enthusiastic about it.热衷的

　　fraction/ˈfrækʃən/|CET4 TEM4

　　N-COUNT A fraction of something is a tiny amount or proportion of it.少量

　　卖家们也对这项服务很感兴趣。即时买家（I-buyers）并非在美国的每一个地区都存在，他们首先进入的是拥有大量“千篇一律”住房库存的大城市，因此在2018年的房屋销售中他们只占很小的一部分。

　　【搭配与表达】

　　cookie-cutter

　　千篇一律的

　　&People look at them as cookie-cutter animals.

　　人们把它看作千篇一律的动物。

　　But where they operate they are becoming sizeable players.In Phoenix,Arizona,a city with several i-buyers,7%of sales involved them last year.

　　但在他们经营的领域，他们正成为规模可观的参与者。在亚利桑那州凤凰城，一个有只有几所i-buyers的城市，他们贡献了7%的销售额。

　　On May 9th Zillow reported first-quarter earnings showing a better-than-expected 51%year-on-year increase in revenues,to$454m.Zillow Offers,its i-buying arm,contributed$129m to that rise.

　　contribute/kənˈtrɪbjuːt/|CET4 TEM4

　　V-I If you contribute to something,you say or do things to help to make it successful.贡献;做出贡献

　　5月9日，Zillow发布了第一季度的收益报告，收入同比增长51%，达到4.54亿美元，好于预期。i-buying的分支Zillow Offers为这一增长贡献了1.29亿美元。

　　【表达与搭配】

　　first-quarter

　　第一季度

　　&We believe that a peak in inflation and healthy first-quarter results could boost investor sentiment.

　　我们相信，通胀见顶和健康的第一季度业绩可能会提振投资者人气。

　　Revenue for the year could climb by 79%compared with last year,the firm said,largely because of its i-buying programme.It says it expects revenue to reach$20bn by 2024.Its share price had climbed to$38 by May 15th,up by 22%in the year to date.

　　programme/ˈprəʊgræm|CET4 TEM4

　　N-COUNT A programme of actions or events is a series of actions or events that are planned to be done.计划

　　revenue/ˈrɛvɪˌnjuː/|CET4 TEM4

　　N-UNCOUNT Revenue is money that a company,organization,or government receives from people.(公司、组织或政府的)收入

　　该公司表示，与去年相比，今年的收入可能会增长79%，这主要是因为它的i-buying（即时买卖）计划。该公司表示，预计到2024年，收入将达到200亿美元。截至5月15日，其股价已攀升至38美元，迄今已上涨22%。

　　The service i-buyers offer is a difficult one to pull off.The greater the variety within an asset class,the harder it is to act as an intermediary.But the frictions inherent in the housing market mean it is also a very valuable one.

　　variety/vəˈraɪɪtɪ/|CET4 TEM4

　　N-UNCOUNT If something has variety,it consists of things that are different from each other.多样化

　　inherent/ɪnˈhɪərənt,-ˈhɛr-/|CET4 TEM4

　　ADJ The inherent qualities of something are the necessary and natural parts of it.内在的

　　i-buyers提供的服务很难实现。资产类别的多样性越大，就越难充当中介。但房地产市场固有的摩擦意味着，这是一个非常有价值的领域。

　　【搭配与表达】

　　pull off

　　PHRASAL VERB If you pull off something very difficult,you succeed in achieving it.成功完成，做成（困难的事情）

　　&The National League for Democracy pulled off a landslide victory...

　　全国民主联盟获得了压倒性的胜利。

　　PHRASAL VERB If a vehicle or driver pulls off the road,the vehicle stops by the side of the road.（车或驾车者）停靠（路边）

　　&I pulled off the road at a small village pub...

　　我将车停在公路旁的一家乡村小酒馆前。

　　奇速英语阅读总结：

　　Instant buyers are changing the way people buy and sell their homes

　　即时买家正在改变人们买卖房屋的方式

　　Zillow’s i-buying business is doing well

　　房地产的即时买卖（i-buying）业务发展得很好

　　A WELL-FUNCTIONING market is one that enables buyers and sellers to execute transactions quickly,easily and cheaply.Take the market for oil,or for blue-chip shares.Lots of buyers and sellers,gathered on commodity or stock exchanges,mean lots of bids and offers.Transactions are speedy and fees low.

　　transaction/trænˈzækʃən/|CET4 TEM4

　　N-COUNT A transaction is a piece of business,for example,an act of buying or selling something.交易

　　commodity/kəˈmɒdɪtɪ/|CET6 TEM4

　　N-COUNT A commodity is something that is sold for money.商品

　　一个运作良好的市场是一个能让买卖双方快速、轻松、廉价地完成交易的市场。以石油市场或蓝筹股为例。大量的买家和卖家聚集在商品或股票交易所，这意味着大量的买卖。交易速度快，且费用低廉。

　　【搭配与表达】

　　blue-chip shares

　　头等股票，蓝筹股

　　&The government also plans to buy up blue-chip shares.

　　另外政府也计划大量认购蓝筹股。

　　Company bonds,by contrast,vary in their tenor(the length of time till they fall due)and coupon(interest rate).That makes it much harder to match buyers and sellers.To create liquidity,institutions such as investment banks act as intermediaries,holding an inventory of corporate bonds and guaranteeing to buy from or sell to their clients at any time for a(hefty)fee.

　　liquidity/lɪˈkwɪdɪtɪ/

　　N-UNCOUNT In finance,a company's liquidity is the amount of cash or liquid assets it has easily available.资产折现力，流动性

　　intermediary/ˌɪntəˈmiːdɪərɪ/|CET6 TEM8

　　N-COUNT An intermediary is a person who passes messages or proposals between two people or groups.中间人，中介

　　相比之下，公司债券的期限(到期时间)和票面(利率)各不相同。这使得买家和卖家之间的撮合变得更加困难。为了创造流动性，投资银行等机构充当了中介机构的角色，持有公司债券的库存，并保证在任何时候以(高昂的)费用从客户手中买进或卖出。

　　【搭配与表达】

　　Company bonds公司债券

　　&Foreign currency negotiable securities including government bonds,company bonds,and stocks.

　　外币有价证券，包括当局债券、公司债券、股票等；

　　【长难句分析】

　　To create liquidity,institutions such as investment banks act as intermediaries,holding an inventory of corporate bonds and guaranteeing to buy from or sell to their clients at any time for a(hefty)fee.

　　此句中，“To create liquidity”作目的状语；“institutions such as investment banks act as intermediaries”是句子的主干，“holding an inventory of corporate bonds and guaranteeing to buy from or sell to their clients at any time for a(hefty)fee.”为并列的现在分词结构作伴随状语。

　　The more varied a product is,the harder it is to create a liquid market.One of the most troublesome—and important—is the market for homes.No two are exactly alike.Compounding the difficulties,most buyers and sellers are links in a chain.

　　troublesome/ˈtrʌbəlsəm/|CET4 TEM4

　　ADJ You use troublesome to describe something or someone that causes annoying problems or difficulties.令人烦恼的

　　产品种类越多，就越难创造一个流动的市场。房地产是最麻烦也是最重要的问题之一。没有两个房子是完全一样的。雪上加霜的是，大多数买家和卖家都是一个链条上的环节。

　　Two-thirds of Americans who are selling a home are also looking to buy another.A delay at one point in a chain holds up transactions all along it.So intermediaries in the property market offer a bespoke service,matching individual buyers and sellers and taking a chunky fee.

　　property/ˈprɒpətɪ/|CET4 TEM4

　　N-UNCOUNT Someone's property is all the things that belong to them or something that belongs to them.财产

　　bespoke/bɪˈspəʊk/

　　ADJ(esp of clothing or a website,computer program,etc)made to the customer's specifications(尤指服装、网站、电脑程序等)定制的

　　三分之二正在出售房屋的美国人也在考虑再买另外一套。一个链中某一点的延迟会一直阻碍事务的进行。因此，房地产市场的中介机构提供定制服务，为个人买家和卖家牵线搭桥，收取高额中介费用。

　　Enter i-buyers(instant buyers),who aim to play the role in homebuying that investment banks play in the corporate-bond market.They use fancy algorithms that analyse data,from the number of bedrooms to local crime rates,to estimate what a property should sell for.

　　investment/ɪnˈvɛstmənt/CET4 TEM4

　　N-UNCOUNT Investment is the activity of investing money.投资

　　algorithm/ˈælɡəˌrɪðəm/

　　N-COUNT An algorithm is a series of mathematical steps,especially in a computer program,which will give you the answer to a particular kind of problem or question.(尤指计算机程序中的)演算法

　　进入i-buyers(即时买家)市场，他们的目标是像投资银行在公司债券市场中一样，在购房中扮演角色。他们使用奇特的算法来分析数据，从卧室的数量到当地的犯罪率，来估计一处房产应该卖多少钱。

　　Then they buy it,tidy it up and sell it.Opendoor,a startup based in San Francisco that launched in 2014,now offers i-buying services in 20 American cities.

　　launch/lɔːntʃ/|CET4 TEM4

　　V-T If a company launches a new product,it makes it available to the public.推出(新产品)

　　然后他们把房子买下来，整理好，再卖出去。总部位于旧金山的初创公司Opendoor在2014年上市，现在在美国20个城市提供i-buy服务。

　　【拓展理解】

　　Opendoor

　　Opendoor是一家帮助用户“绕过”房地产经纪人和经纪公司的线上房产中介服务平台，通过其网站和移动应用程序，人们可以直接购买和出售房产。事实上，Opendoor扮演了一个“虚拟中间人”的角色，正如该公司自己所形容的那样：“如果你正在卖房子，就把房子卖给我们，这样能够让你不再担忧空房闲置好几个月的麻烦，也消除了其他很多买卖交易中的不确定性因素；如果你正在买房，可以轻松浏览我们平台上提供的海量Opendoor住宅，找到最中意的完美住宅，之后在标准化流程中完成房产交易。”截至去年九月，该公司每月可以为超过2000名客户（包括买家和卖家）提供服务，业务覆盖到了全美二十多座城市，迄今满足了总计三万多名客户的购房和卖房需求。

　　Just over a year ago Zillow,America’s biggest online property marketplace,said it would move into i-buying.Its share price promptly fell by 7%.Investors feared it would be unable to price with enough certainty that its offers could compete with those of real-estate agents,and doubted that sellers would accept a discount in return for an instant sale.

　　promptly/ˈprɒmptlɪ/

　　ADV If you do something promptly,you do it immediately.立即

　　discount|CET4 TEM4

　　N-COUNT A discount is a reduction in the usual price of something.折扣

　　就在一年多前，美国最大的在线房地产市场Zillow表示，它将进军i-buy领域。但其股价随即下跌7%。投资者担心，该公司无法给出足以能与房地产经纪公司竞争的价格，并且不确定卖家是否会接受将折扣作为即时出售的回报。

　　On both counts they may have been mistaken.Stan Humphries,an economist at Zillow,says its listing platform yields enough fine-grained information that it can set prices accurately and competitively.Average fees are around 7%,not far above the cut a conventional estate agent takes on a sale.

　　conventional/kənˈvɛnʃənəl/|CET4 TEM4

　　ADJ A conventional method or product is one that is usually used or that has been in use for a long time.传统的(方法或产品等)

　　在这两个问题上，他们（投资者）可能都错了。Zillow的经济学家斯坦•汉弗莱斯表示，该公司的上市平台提供了足够精细的信息，能够准确而有竞争力地给房屋定价。平均（中介）费用约为7%，与传统房地产代理商的降价幅度相差不远。

　　【长难句分析】

　　Stan Humphries,an economist at Zillow,says its listing platform yields enough fine-grained information that it can set prices accurately and competitively.

　　此句中，“an economist at Zillow”是Stan Humphries的同位语，“its listing platform yields enough fine-grained information”是says的宾语从句（省略了that）,“that it can set prices accurately and competitively.”是修饰information的定语从句。

　　And sellers are turning out to be keen on the service.I-buyers are not present in every region of America—they have entered big cities with large“cookie-cutter”housing stocks first—and therefore accounted for a tiny fraction of home sales in 2018.

　　keen/kiːn/|CET4 TEM4

　　ADJ If you are keen on something,you like it a lot and are very enthusiastic about it.热衷的

　　fraction/ˈfrækʃən/|CET4 TEM4

　　N-COUNT A fraction of something is a tiny amount or proportion of it.少量

　　卖家们也对这项服务很感兴趣。即时买家（I-buyers）并非在美国的每一个地区都存在，他们首先进入的是拥有大量“千篇一律”住房库存的大城市，因此在2018年的房屋销售中他们只占很小的一部分。

　　【搭配与表达】

　　cookie-cutter

　　千篇一律的

　　&People look at them as cookie-cutter animals.

　　人们把它看作千篇一律的动物。

　　But where they operate they are becoming sizeable players.In Phoenix,Arizona,a city with several i-buyers,7%of sales involved them last year.

　　但在他们经营的领域，他们正成为规模可观的参与者。在亚利桑那州凤凰城，一个有只有几所i-buyers的城市，他们贡献了7%的销售额。

　　On May 9th Zillow reported first-quarter earnings showing a better-than-expected 51%year-on-year increase in revenues,to$454m.Zillow Offers,its i-buying arm,contributed$129m to that rise.

　　contribute/kənˈtrɪbjuːt/|CET4 TEM4

　　V-I If you contribute to something,you say or do things to help to make it successful.贡献;做出贡献

　　5月9日，Zillow发布了第一季度的收益报告，收入同比增长51%，达到4.54亿美元，好于预期。i-buying的分支Zillow Offers为这一增长贡献了1.29亿美元。

　　【表达与搭配】

　　first-quarter

　　第一季度

　　&We believe that a peak in inflation and healthy first-quarter results could boost investor sentiment.

　　我们相信，通胀见顶和健康的第一季度业绩可能会提振投资者人气。

　　Revenue for the year could climb by 79%compared with last year,the firm said,largely because of its i-buying programme.It says it expects revenue to reach$20bn by 2024.Its share price had climbed to$38 by May 15th,up by 22%in the year to date.

　　programme/ˈprəʊgræm|CET4 TEM4

　　N-COUNT A programme of actions or events is a series of actions or events that are planned to be done.计划

　　revenue/ˈrɛvɪˌnjuː/|CET4 TEM4

　　N-UNCOUNT Revenue is money that a company,organization,or government receives from people.(公司、组织或政府的)收入

　　该公司表示，与去年相比，今年的收入可能会增长79%，这主要是因为它的i-buying（即时买卖）计划。该公司表示，预计到2024年，收入将达到200亿美元。截至5月15日，其股价已攀升至38美元，迄今已上涨22%。

　　The service i-buyers offer is a difficult one to pull off.The greater the variety within an asset class,the harder it is to act as an intermediary.But the frictions inherent in the housing market mean it is also a very valuable one.

　　variety/vəˈraɪɪtɪ/|CET4 TEM4

　　N-UNCOUNT If something has variety,it consists of things that are different from each other.多样化

　　inherent/ɪnˈhɪərənt,-ˈhɛr-/|CET4 TEM4

　　ADJ The inherent qualities of something are the necessary and natural parts of it.内在的

　　i-buyers提供的服务很难实现。资产类别的多样性越大，就越难充当中介。但房地产市场固有的摩擦意味着，这是一个非常有价值的领域。

　　【搭配与表达】

　　pull off

　　PHRASAL VERB If you pull off something very difficult,you succeed in achieving it.成功完成，做成（困难的事情）

　　&The National League for Democracy pulled off a landslide victory...

　　全国民主联盟获得了压倒性的胜利。

　　PHRASAL VERB If a vehicle or driver pulls off the road,the vehicle stops by the side of the road.（车或驾车者）停靠（路边）

　　&I pulled off the road at a small village pub...

　　我将车停在公路旁的一家乡村小酒馆前。

　　我们相信，通胀见顶和健康的第一季度业绩可能会提振投资者人气。资产类别的多样性越大，就越难充当中介。但房地产市场固有的摩擦意味着，这是一个非常有价值的领域。更多奇速英语阅读资讯，请持续关注奇速英语官网：www.qisuabc.com