Buying a house
Todd: Michael, this is a beautiful home.
Mike: Yeah, we've lived here for about twelve years and it's too big for us now.
Todd: Really. It's pretty big.
Mike: Well, yeah, I mean, it's got four bedrooms and it's got this big living room area and dining room area, and I've got two kids and both of them are in college now, so they don't live here anymore. (Oh) So my wife and I are thinking about, you know, moving to a smaller house.
Todd: Oh, that makes sense. Well, so where are you going to move?
Mike: Well, this area is called Walnut Creek, it's in the East Bay of San Francisco, and we want to move into an area that's in the Berkeley Hills. It's called Orinda.
Todd: Oh, yeah. That's nice.
Mike: Oh, it's very nice. I mean it's a little more inconvenient, and it's not as convenient as here (Yeah) but it's a little more, there's more privacy, and there's more nature, you know more like old established trees and hills, and a little quieter, and so all those things appeal to us, so we're looking. It's not easy to find a right place but we're, actually today we're gonna meet a realtor, and we're going to be looking at some houses that are available and see if you like any of them.
Todd: You know, actually, I've been thinking about getting a house.
I'm kind of getting up there in age. What is the process of buying a house? Like how do you go about it?
Mike: Well the first step to find a place is you, generally you have to work with a realtor, somebody who has access to homes that are for sale, and then you sort of look through the listings and you find ones that you like, that you can afford, and then you visit with the realtor, and say you find a house that you like, like there is one that we're going to visit today that we think we like and we're going to check it out again. After we visit we make an offer sheet, we draw an offer sheet, that says how much we're willing to pay for the house, and the owner looks over the offer sheet. They never meet us directly, they meet only through their (the realtor) the realtors talk to each other. The buyer and the seller never actually talk to each other directly, and in this case, the house is going to have multiple offers. Many people will want this house.
Todd: OK
Mike: So they're not going to look at the offers until next week, and say five or ten people bid on it, they're probably going to take the one, the person who offers the most money for it, so it's competitive.
Todd: That is a tough situation.
Mike: Yeah, so sometimes you'll find a house that you love, and you can afford, but somebody outbids you. Somebody bids more for the house than you do and you lose it, and you have to keep looking so it can take weeks of months.
Todd: Wow, well
Mike: To find the house you want.
Todd: Sounds tough. Good luck.
Mike: Thanks a lot
Writing Sample for TOEFL?
art or environment?
Frankly speaking, both art and environment are the most important things for human beings. But, if I want to choose which one is more vital than other, I absolutely choose the environment. However, art is one of the best forms of recreation that can calm emotion of people and help them to improve the quality of life, but I think that environmental issues are more urgent and essential for human life. There are numerous reasons to bolster my point of view. In the following paragraphs, I will explore a few primary ones.
In the first place, I would like to emphasize that the most important subjects which scientist concern about it is the possibility of human life in future. There is no doubt, all of us are aware of the harmful damages which humans consciously or unconsciously have inflicted on the earth. Humans are considered the most intelligent of species due to the their advanced and complex brain. Otherwise, they are also the most selfish from all of the creatures. Mankind during their life has done a lot of damages to the environment due to his selfish activities for having the comfortable and convenient life. For instance, deforestation in a large scale to build dwellings or structures has distracted the balance of ecosystem. Or consuming numerous natural resources without regarding the fact that whether these remain resources can meet the needs of our descendant or not. Hence, it is time for us to rectify these damages before it is too late and human beings encounter with serious problems in future.
Besides, the other issue of concern which is vital for human is depleting ozon layer in Antarctica due to the human interference. Using a lot of chemical material for having the better conditions of life has had damaging effects on ozon layer.
Therefore, due to its damages, harmful Uv ray of the sun can reach the surface of the earth directly and causes skin cancers and other mortal diseases. Hence, attention to this phenomenon should be set in the primary policy of each countries.
To put in briefly, from the reasons which I mentioned above, we could say that however, art is a very important aspect of human life, but the environmental issues are more serious, and need more money than art do. Consequently, governments should promote the protection of our environment by donating funds generously and organizing campaigns to undo the harmful actions that we have done.