名人教英文：大批购买
to buy in bulk
大批购买
helga: where are you driving to this fine morning?
黑尔加﹕今早天色好得很，你要开车去哪里？
terri: i'm off to the superstore to do my shopping for the month.
特里﹕我要去超级商场，买这个月必需的东西。
helga: for the month! i can't think two days ahead, let alone four weeks. how do you do it?
黑尔加﹕这个月！我要计划未来两天要买的东西，都办不到，更不要说四个星期。你怎么办得到的？
terri: well, i have to make a list and stick to it. it certainly takes a lot of preparation.
特里﹕嗯，我得开列购物单，严格按照所列物品购买，要不少准备工夫。
helga: what's the advantage?
黑尔加﹕这有什么好处？
terri: i save time and fuel. it's one big trip instead of four. and it means i can buy in bulk and take advantage of special offers. that all saves me a lot of money.
特里﹕我可以节省时间和燃料，只须好好走一趟，不用走四趟。而且我买的分量多，会有特价，这都给我省回不少钱。
特里说要去买下一个月的必需品﹕i'm off to the superstore to do my shopping for the month。superstore（超级商场）和supermarket（超级市场）其实差不多，只是superstore一般较大，货品种类一般较多，而且多位于较偏远的地方。专卖某种产品的大商场，也可叫superstore，例如a furniture superstore是「家具大商场」。有时，superstore也会叫megastore，特别是大型专门店。mega是「大」的意思，例如mega-corporation（特大企业）、megafolly（超级愚昧）等。
黑尔加说﹕i can't think two days ahead, let alone four weeks。let alone二字，用在否定子句之后，表示跟着要说的事更加不可能做到或发生，例如﹕she can't read, let alone write（她不会阅读，更不要说书写）。和let alone意思差不多的，有much less和not to say，例如﹕she can't read, much less / not to say write。此外还有to say nothing of，但这词组之后须用名词，和上述各词组之后可用动词或名词不同，例如﹕i can't think two days ahead, to say nothing of four weeks。
特里谈到必需品一次买足整个月用的好处﹕i can buy in bulk and take advantage of special offers。bulk是「大批」或「大量」，to buy/purchase in bulk是「大批购买」，to sell in bulk则是「批发」，名词是bulk buying / purchasing和bulk selling，例如﹕(1) wholesalers sell goods in bulk（批发商的货物是批发的）。(2) the prices are designed to encourage bulk buying（所定价格，旨在鼓励大批购买）。