商務禮節美語第30期:Airport Hassles(1)

Lisa從美國出差回來，同事Jonah問她此行的情況。

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: 's a long time!

L: You said it! They made me take off my shoes, take off my hat, remove my then they still frisked me! I felt like a criminal!

J: Well, you know what they say: better safe than sorry!

Lisa抱怨美國機場安檢麻煩，American airport security is such a hassle, hassle is spelled h-a-s-s-l-e, hassle，意思是惹人煩惱的事。脫了鞋帽，解了腰帶不說，they still frisked me! 安檢人員還是搜了她的身。Frisk is spelled f-r-i-s-k，意思是搜身。不過Jonah說，better safe than sorry，小心總比出事好。

L: 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 rwise people might say they are doing racial profiling.

Lisa說，她看見一個老太太也被搜身，I saw them pat down this old lady，pat down，和frisk一樣，也是搜身。

Jonah說，這是random search，隨機抽查，如果不這麼做，就會有人覺得安檢人員是在racial profiling。什麼是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?

原來，racial profiling，就是把某個種族的人作爲調查目標，有歧視之嫌，這裏所說的to single out someone 就是把某人單獨挑出來的意思。Jonah說，雖然隨機檢查有它的缺點，但除此以外，很難找到公平的辦法。Lisa似乎並沒有被說服，我們下次繼續聽。