美國公司熱賣月球地產(chǎn)英語美文
Staff in the Netherlands and Spain were less stressed than Britons
China may be years away from a lunar landing but one company is offering a piece of "land" there right now.
The so-called Lunar Embassy, through which one can purchase an acre on the moon for 298 yuan (US$37), started operations yesterday in Beijing.
Li Jie, chief executive officer of Beijing Lunar Village Aeronautics Science Co Ltd, said his company is the sole agent in China for US-based Lunar Embassy.
The area? Between 20 and 24 degrees latitude north and 30 to 34 degrees longitude west, the company says.
Lunar Embassy will issue customers a "certificate" that ensures property ownership including rights to use the land and minerals up to 3 kilometres underground
"We define it as a kind of novelty gift with the potential of unlimited increase in value," said Li, who was nominated as the agent in China by Dennis Hope, a US entrepreneur who founded the first extraterrestrial estate agency Lunar Embassy in 1980.
Hope thinks a loophole in the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty makes his property sales legitimate. The agreement forbids governments from owning extraterrestrial property, but fails to mention corporations or individuals.
"I have 3.5 million customers including ex-US presidents Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and movie stars who have purchased land on the moon," said Hope at a press conference yesterday in Beijing. China is the eighth country to have a Lunar Embassy after the United States, Germany, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, he said.
And there appear to be at least some moonstruck people in China Li told reporters that he had received more than 400 telephone orders in the past few days.
Meanwhile, not all believe that the trading is legal; and some even regard it as fraud or a joke.
中國宇航員想要登上月球也許還要幾年時間，但一家美國公司已經(jīng)開始在中國出售月球上的土地。
這家被稱為“月球大使館”的美國公司昨天在北京正式營業(yè)。目前，每一公頃月球地皮的售價為289 元(37美元)。
北京月球村航天科技有限公司總經(jīng)理李捷說，他的公司是美國“月球大使館”公司在中國的唯一代理商。
購買月球上的土地?該公司表示，向中國顧客發(fā)售的是月球上北緯20到24度、西經(jīng)30到34度之間的`土地。
“月球大使館”公司將發(fā)給購買者一張月球土地所有權(quán)證書，土地所有權(quán)包括土地使用權(quán)和地下三公里深的礦物資源。
“我們認為這是一種非常新奇的禮物，有無可限量的升值潛力，”李捷說，他被丹尼斯·霍伯任命為中國區(qū)獨家代理。美國企業(yè)家丹尼斯·霍伯于1980年建立了第一家宇宙地產(chǎn)公司——“月球大使館”。
霍伯認為1967年聯(lián)合國通過的《外層空間條約》存在漏洞，他可以趁機合法出售外太空地皮。《外層空間條約》禁止政府擁有任何外層空間產(chǎn)權(quán)，但并沒有提到公司或個人。
“我的客戶已達到350萬人，其中包括美國前總統(tǒng)羅納德·里根、吉米·卡特和眾多電影明星，他們都購買了月球上的土地。”霍伯在北京召開的新聞發(fā)布會上說。中國是繼美國、德國、英國、愛爾蘭、澳大利亞、新西蘭和日本之后擁有“月球大使館”公司代理商的國家。
在中國，確實有一些想入非非的人，李捷告訴記者說在過去幾天中他已經(jīng)接到400多個定購電話。
同時，并不是所有人多認為這種做法合法，有些人甚至認為這是一種欺騙或玩笑。
Vocabulary:
novelty: originality by virtue of being refreshingly novel(新穎，新奇)
loophole: an ambiguity (especially one in the text of a law or contract) that makes it possible to evade a difficulty or obligation(漏洞)
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