上海译语公司-外国的财富之路 花2.5美元得到一座庄园

                                                                                                          The road to riches in foreign countries cost $2.5 to get a manor

After falling on hard times and failing to find a buyer for his home, the owner of this six-bedroom manor house in Lancashire, UK, decided to hold a raffle, inviting people to purchase a £2 ticket for the chance to win it. He hopes to sell half a million tickets by August this year.

37-year-old Dunstan Lowe purchased Melling Manor in 2011 for £435,000, after falling in love with it. He spent a lot of money renovating it, but soon started struggling with mortgage payments, and was forced to put it up for sale just three years later. The first asking price was £800,000, but no one was interested. Lowe chose to put off selling it until December of last year, when the mansion was once again offered up, this time for £845,000. Again, there were no takers, so the frustrated owner dropped the asking price to £650,000, but that didn’t seem to make it more appealing. The house has had just one viewing since, and after looking at his options, Dunstan decided it was time to try a different approach.  

After consulting with his wife, Dunstan Lowe made the decision to hold a raffle, offering people the chance to win the house by buying one or multiple £2 tickets online, or sending an envelope or postcard via 1st class post. The winner will be selected on August 1st, 2017, and the owner hopes to sell at least 500,000 tickets until then. That may sound like a lot, but he’s actually off to a good start.

In February, Lowe told the Evening Standard that he had already sold £120,000 worth of raffle tickets. Within days of setting up a website for the raffle, offers started coming in, and the ample media coverage he got a couple of months ago in the UK got a lot more people interested in his offer.

 “It was really out of frustration. The whole process of viewings and offers, it felt antiquated and frustrating so I set up the website and it just took off,” Dunstan said.

Melling Manor is still on the market for £650,000, but if it fails to sell by August 1st, 2017, the owner will pick a winner from the raffle participants. If it does sell, Lowe doesn’t plan on giving back the money to everyone. Instead, he plans on offering the whole pot as a cash prize to one lucky winner.

To enter the raffle for Melling manor, just head over to WinACountryHouse.com, purchase one or more tickets with PayPal and answer the very simple question “What style of property is this house?”. It’s a multiple answer question, and in case you haven’t been paying attention, the right one is “Georgian”. Good luck! 

上海翻译公司-上海译语翻译分公司译文如下：外国的财富之路 花2.5美元得到一座庄园

2.5美元就能得到一座庄园？那岂不是和白送差不多？当小编看到这篇新闻的时候也是“不信”的，谁让它是白菜价，但翻译完新闻后，我发现这2.5美元（17元人民币）买了票，（这只是票价钱，谁会不要钱到这种程度）,如果这座庄园未能在今年八月份前售出，你将有机会一夜变房主(也就是说八月份之前如果有人买，你这2.5美元就….)。

庄园位于英国的兰开夏郡，内有6间卧室。房间主人在陷入困境、难寻买家之后，决定举办有奖义卖，任何花2英镑（即17元人民币）买票参加活动的人都有可能赢得这座庄园。庄园主人希望在今年八月份之前能卖出50万张票。

37岁的邓斯坦•劳十分喜欢梅林庄园并在2011年的时候花43.5万英镑买下了它。之后他又花大价钱翻新重整，但很快就面临偿还房屋贷款的艰难处境，于是仅过了3年，邓斯坦就别无他法只能将其出售。他最开始的售价是80万英镑，但无人问津。劳决定将其延后到去年12月再出售，要价84.5万英镑，可是依然没有买家。于是，失望的邓斯坦把要价降到65万英镑，然而这个价钱似乎也没有什么吸引力。庄园出售以来只有一个人前来看房，邓斯坦在思考了自己的处境之后，决定是时候尝试一种不同的出售方式了。

与妻子商量之后，邓斯坦•劳决定举办有奖义卖，参与者只要通过网络或明信片、信件邮递的方式购买一张或多张价值2英镑的票，就有可能赢取庄园。大奖得主将在2017年8月1号揭晓，庄园主人希望在此之前能卖出去至少50万张票。这可能听上去太多了，但邓斯坦的售票活动还真开了个好头。

2月时，劳告诉《旗帜晚报》说，他已经卖出去了总价值12万英镑的票。开设义卖网站以来，参与者不断增加。几个月前英国媒体对邓斯坦的大量报道也吸引来了很多感兴趣的人。

“这真的是出于无奈。老掉牙的看房和卖房流程令人失望。于是我建立了一个网站，然后就火了。”邓斯坦说道。

梅林庄园现在的市价仍然是65万英镑，但如果在2017年8月1日之前没能成功售出，庄园的主人就要从义卖参与者中抽选赢家。然而如果庄园在此之前成功售出，劳并不打算归还票款，而是计划把所有票款作为现金大奖提供给一位幸运儿。想要参加梅林庄园义卖的话，请登陆网站WinACountryHouse.com，通过PayPal购买一张或多张门票，并回答一道十分简单的问题——“这座庄园是什么风格的？”。这道题目答案不唯一，但如果你不知道的话，小编在这里告诉你其中一个正确答案“乔治王时代建筑风格”。祝你好运！