Short Answers

1 Auctions are public sales of goods conducted by an officially approved auctioneer. He

asks the crowd assembled in the auction-room to make offers, or "bids", for the various

items on sale. He encourages buyers to b 记 higher figures, and finally names the highest

bidder as the buyer of the good. Practically all goods whose (lualities vary are sold by

auction. Among these are coffee, skins, wool, tea, furs, species, fruit and vegetables and

wines. Auction sales are also useful for land and property, antique furniture, pictures, rare

kooks, old china and works of art

2 An auction is usually advertised beforehand with full particulars of the articles to be

sold; and where and when they can be viewed by prospective buyers. TI the advertisement

cannot give full details, catalogues are printed, and each group of goods to be sold together,

called a "lot", is usually given a number. The auctioneer need not begin with Lot 1 and

continue in numerical order; he may wait until he registers the fact that certain dealers are in

the rocm and then produces the lots they are likely to be interested in. The auctioneer's

services are paid for in the form. of a percentage of the price the goods

are sold for. The

auctioneer therefore has a direct interest in pushing up the bidding as high as possible

3 The auctioneer must know fairly accurately the current market values of the goods

he is selling, and he should be acquainted with regular buyers of such goods. Fe will not

waste time by starting the bidding too low. He will also play on the rival among his buyers

and succeed in getting a high price by encouraging two business competitors to bid against

each other. It is largely in his advice that a seller will fix a "reserved" price, that is, a price

below which the goods cannot be sold. Even the best auctioneers, however, find it difficult

to stop a 'knock-out", whereby dealers illegally arranged themselves as the only bidder, in

the hope of buying goods at extremely low prices. If such a "knock-out" comes off, the real

auction sale takes place privately afterwards among the dealers

Questions31-35:

31. What are auctinns?

32. What are the goods which can be sold by auction? (Name at least three)

33. Mhat is a "lot"?

34. How are the auctloneer, s services pa 记 for?

35. What wifl happen if a "knock-out" is achieved?