万花筒 2008-08-01&-08-02 三千护照被盗

A passport costs 72 pounds. Its value to criminals is much higher. Greater Manchester Police don't yet know if the robbers knew what they were after when they targeted the vehicle that had barely started its journey. The Citroen van carrying boxes of blank passports and blank stickers for visa stamps left the factory in Gorse Street, Chadderton at 6:30 yesterday morning and stopped half a mile away on Long Lane. The driver went into a newsagent’s to buy a paper. His coworker, who stayed in the van, was then confronted by two men and hijacked¹.

No personal details have been lost in this robbery. The passports themselves were blanks. But despite reassurances² that the micro-chips in them were encrypted, there is still concern that they could be used in all sorts of illegal activity. "With the passports that have been stolen, It's an obvious sure consideration that they will be used by criminals. A passport can be a valuable commodity. When the actual value of the passports stolen themselves is over two million pounds, maybe toward two and a half million." The price on the streets is partly determined³ by its value outside the UK's borders.

Officials here say you couldn't get in or out of Britain on one of the stolen passports. But it could be used to fool banks and other institutions to create false identities. "It only takes one passport to be used unlawfully to cause major problems. And here you have three thousand and that's why it's extremely important that we know as much information about these blank passports as possible: Did they contain numbers? What are the numbers? Because the people who targeted this particular van will know what to do with them."

The serial⁴ numbers that were on the stolen passports are now being collated⁵ and will be sent out to ports and airports. But it may be months or years before the stolen passports surface again.

Tom Parmenter, Sky News, Oldham.

 

1 hijacked   

劫持( hijack的过去式和过去分词 )； 绑架； 拦路抢劫； 操纵（会议等，以推销自己的意图）

参考例句：

• The plane was hijacked by two armed men on a flight from London to Rome. 飞机在从伦敦飞往罗马途中遭到两名持械男子劫持。
• The plane was hijacked soon after it took off. 那架飞机起飞后不久被劫持了。

2 reassurances   

n.消除恐惧或疑虑( reassurance的名词复数 )；恢复信心；使人消除恐惧或疑虑的事物；使人恢复信心的事物

参考例句：

• We have had some reassurances from the council that the building will be saved. 理事会保证会保留那座建筑，这使我们得到了些许安慰。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Everybody's reassurances have encouraged me. 大家的勉励鼓舞了我。 来自辞典例句

3 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

4 serial   

n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的

参考例句：

• A new serial is starting on television tonight.今晚电视开播一部新的电视连续剧。
• Can you account for the serial failures in our experiment?你能解释我们实验屡屡失败的原因吗？

5 collated   

v.校对( collate的过去式和过去分词 )；整理；核对；整理（文件或书等）

参考例句：

• When both versions of the story were collated,major discrepancies were found. 在将这个故事的两个版本对照后，找出了主要的不符之处。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Information was collated from several data centers around the country. 信息从城市四周的几个数据中心得到校对。 来自互联网