Steve Kingstone, BBC News

媒體英語(yǔ)會(huì)帶大家一起學(xué)習(xí) BBC 撰稿人在報(bào)道世界大事時(shí)常用到的單詞和短語(yǔ)。

Background: 以超人為封面的第一冊(cè)漫畫(huà)以2千1百萬(wàn)美金成交，創(chuàng)下漫畫(huà)書(shū)拍賣(mài)的世界新紀(jì)錄。這本初版“動(dòng)作漫畫(huà)"是1938年出版的，這次通過(guò)美國(guó)的一個(gè)拍賣(mài)網(wǎng)站進(jìn)行拍賣(mài)。

When it appeared on newsstands 73 years ago, the first edition of Action Comics cost just ten cents. The cover design showed a well-built man in blue tights and a red cape, smashing a car against a rock.

Superman was introduced to readers as a "champion of the oppressed," who could "run faster than an express train."

Only a hundred copies of that first issue survive. And for comic buffs this one was in breathtakingly good condition.

In an online auction it fetched a little over $2 million, a world record for a comic. The buyer remains anonymous. The seller is rumoured to have been the actor Nicolas Cage.

Connoisseurs of the comic world say this type of investment has become popular during troubled economic times because rare collectibles hold their value more reliably than property or shares.