英语对话1:
Lisa从美国出差回来,同事Jonah问她此行的情况。
Jonah: Lisa! You're home! Nice to see you! How was your trip to America?
Lin: The trip was good, but boy, American airport security is such a hassle!! I was standing in line for over two hours!
J: Oh...that's a long time!
L: You said it! They made me take off my shoes, take off my hat, remove my belt...and then they still frisked me! I felt like a criminal!
J: Well, you know what they say: better safe than sorry!
Lisa抱怨美国机场安检麻烦,American airport security is such a hassle, hassle is spelled h-a-s-s-l-e, hassle,意思是惹人烦恼的事。脱了鞋帽,解了腰带不说,they still frisked me! 安检人员还是搜了她的身。Frisk is spelled f-r-i-s-k, 意思是搜身。不过Jonah说,better safe than sorry,小心总比出事好。
L: Yeah...but I'm not too sure they're making us any safer. I saw them pat down this old lady. She was at least 80 years old! There is no way she could be a terrorist!
J: Yeah, well the U.S. government says they are doing random searches. So if you are the fifth person to walk through security, you'll get searched.
L: But isn't that sort of ridiculous? What if the fifth person is a pregnant mother with a small child? Are they really very likely to be involved in terrorism?
J: Maybe not, but the government says it's the only fair way to do it...otherwise people might say they are doing racial profiling.
英语对话2:
Lisa说,她看见一个老太太也被搜身,I saw them pat down this old lady,pat down,和frisk一样,也是搜身。
Jonah说,这是random search,随机抽查,如果不这么做,就会有人觉得安检人员是在racial profiling。什么是racial profiling呢?
L: What's racial profiling?
J: Racial profiling means singling out a certain group of people for special investigation. For example, if a security agent only searches people who look like they are from the Middle East, that would be racial profiling.
L: But not many 80-year old great grandmothers are terrorists, either!
J: I see your point, but it's hard to know how to do the searching fairly. Should we stop everyone who has a beard?
L: No, of course not. But there must be a better way than making me wait for more than two hours while they search the inside of my shoes. Do I look like a terrorist?
原来,racial profiling,就是把某个种族的人作为调查目标,有歧视之嫌,这里所说的to single out someone 就是把某人单独挑出来的意思。Jonah说,虽然随机检查有它的缺点,但除此以外,很难找到公平的办法。Lisa似乎并没有被说服,我们下次继续听。




