A: Hello! This is Word Wise on Language Tips. I’m Marc.
B: Hello! This is Meggie.
A: Meggie, do you have any plan to get married on the opening day of the Beijing Olympics?
B: August 8? It is a good day, but I don’t think I will compete with thousands of couples for that.
A: Oh! That would be a bad news for those scalpers.
B: Scalpers? What does that mean?
A: Scalpers refer to those who buy something and resell it at a price far above the initial cost.
B: 那不就是黄牛党吗？可他们跟奥运开幕那天结婚有什么关系啊？
A: Well, just like what you’ve said, many people would like to get married on that special day, then they would surely need a place to hold their wedding banquet, and so many wedding banquets on that day …
B: 啊！我明白了。你是说那天办婚宴的人太多，会有很多人订不到场地，对吧？
A: Definitely. So here comes the wedding banquet scalper.
B: 婚宴黄牛党。这些人可真会赚钱。They will surely make a lot of money.
A: But it is risky too.
B: Risky?
A: Yes. They have to pay a deposit of 3,000 to 4,000 yuan to reserve a wedding banquet space, if they are unable to sell the space later, that money is gone.
A: Right! A ticket scalper is someone who buys ticket for an event like the Olympics and resells it at a price far above the initial cost. For example, the police cracked down on the ticket scalpers outside the soccer ground.
B: 倒卖高价票的黄牛党真是太可恶了，他们就应该得到惩罚。
A: Hmm, I will never buy tickets from a scalper. That is the word today, scalper, and wedding banquet scalper, and ticket scalper.
B: 我们今天说的就是黄牛党这个词，scalper。
A: For more word wise please log onto our web site at language.chinadaily.com.cn. see you next time!
