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.
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。 |