California to hold 'garage sale' 为救经济 施瓦辛格网上卖旧物

为缓和经济窘境，加州州长施瓦辛格近日在eBay 和 Craigslist网站举行“旧物在线展卖”，包括汽车、衣帽架、电脑、鱼竿，以及有他亲笔签名的车辆防晒板等在内的6000件物品均在展卖之列。加州从上周起开始展卖多余的或者无人认领的物品，并将在本周五和周六两天集中展卖上述6000件物品。施瓦辛格在自己网站的一份声明中表示，本州居民和全美国以及全世界的人都可以参与到此次展卖活动中，在清理旧物的同时完成多笔交易，这在当前的经济状况下是一项双赢行为。

California is holding a two-day online sale of unneeded or unclaimed items.

The governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is holding an online "garage sale" in his latest effort to balance the US state's budget.

The Great California Garage Sale will see 6,000 items, including everything from cars to coat racks, auctioned² off on two websites, eBay and Craigslist.

Mr Schwarzenegger has even autographed the sun visors of several of the vehicles on sale to raise their values.

California's $85bn (£52.5bn) budget has a deficit³ of $26bn (£16bn).

On Monday, a vote on a plan to release 27,000 prisoners early in an attempt to save money was delayed in the California Assembly.

'Win-win'

The state began selling unneeded or unclaimed items online last week and is holding a two-day auction¹ of 6,000 more on Friday and Saturday in Sacramento.

In addition to some rather old and well-used vehicles declared surplus by Mr Schwarzenegger last month, buyers could also walk away with computers, box cutters, binoculars⁴, a belt buckle⁵, a fishing rod and a ceramic⁶ heart.

"By posting items online, Californians and people from other states and around the world can participate in the Great California Garage Sale," Mr Schwarzenegger said in a statement on his website.

"This is a win-win for the state and for shoppers. Together we are eliminating waste and providing great deals in this tough economy."

Mr Schwarzenegger took the idea of autographing some of the cars being auctioned from one of his 980,000 "followers⁷" on the micro-blogging website, Twitter.

"I look forward to selling these signed cars and making some $ for California," he tweeted last week as he signed the visors.

One of them, a 1997 green Ford⁸ Taurus with 109,305 miles on the clock, has so far fetched $2,025 (£1,250), with only six hours of the auction remaining.

State Senator Dean Florez told the Los Angeles Times that he was "amazed" Mr Schwarzenegger still resorted to "antics that are kind of reflective of a person that is larger than life".

Vocabulary:

garage sale: 宅前出售(在出售人住所进行的清宅旧货出售)