节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2012-05-22
难易度:Medium
关键字:jump through hoops, suspicious, prevention, tolerate, metal detector,
terrorist
Hi, friends. Welcome to Studio Classroom.
Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to study with us.
My name is Steve.
If you travel a lot, especially on international flights, then you know the
drill.
Get in a long line, wait, and wait, and wait some more.
Take everything out of your pockets.
Take your shoes off.
Walk through a metal detector.
If you're lucky, you'll get to put your shoes back on, collect your belongings
and head to your gate.
Sometimes, though, the security check doesn't end there.
A guard might pat you down or open your luggage for a closer inspection.
Well, is all of this really necessary?
Let's open our magazines to page 42 and talk about it.
(Music).
Is Airport Security Really Necessary?
I don't think the authorities enjoy making people jump through all the security
hoops.
They're just trying to improve the process.
How?
Well, in some airports, frequent travelers have a special line now that's
faster.
And soon people won't have to take off their shoes.
Well, that's an improvement.
But why can't most innocent people walk through the metal detector and be done
with it?
I mean, is a woman with a baby or an elderly couple really going to carry a gun
or a bomb?
Come on! They're not suspicious.
(Music).
Hello, friends.
Thank you so much for joining us here in the studio.
My name is Kaylah.
And my name is Ryan.
And well, we're back again in our VIEWPOINTS article continuing the conversation
about airport security.
That's right.
Now we've talked about some of the negatives about airport security: the
scrutiny, how you feel violated,
how it's so thorough that you feel like it's going against your rights, and you
feel like only bad people should have to go through it.
But we have to treat everyone the same.
So we're still stuck in this conversation.
Yes, we are.
And we're still looking at the conversation between Connor and Spencer.
And again, Connor he doesn't like airport security at all.
In fact, he doesn't think we should have it anymore.
And Spencer, he keeps giving reasons why we should.
And he ended with... Connor ended with saying: I understand what you said, but I
still don't like it.
I just don't like having to do airport security.
Yeah. Most of us really don't, so.
Spencer says: But I don't think the authorities enjoy making people jump through
all the security hoops either.
Now we know that the authorities are the people in charge.
They're the ones making us go through security.
But do they really enjoy it?
We said I don't like it.
I don't enjoy going through all the security.
Do you think they do?
That's a good question.
He says: I don't know if they enjoy jumping through security hoops.
Or you could use the phrase "jumping through hoops." What does that mean?
Well, when you "jump through hoops," that's a... an idiom that we use in English
to say do a lot of different things before you're allowed to do what you want,
or what you're actually trying to do.
So for example, if you are trying to get a table at a very... very popular
restaurant, you have to jump through hoops.
You need to call this person, set up a reservation.
Maybe you get there and you have to talk to this person and find...
You know, it's all these different steps before you're actually allowed to sit
down and have dinner.
Yeah. So you're kept from doing what you want to do; you have to do a lot of
work first.
And he says: Well, I think the authorities are just trying to improve the
process.
And Connor's confused.
He says: How?
How are they improving the process?
Spencer says: Well, in some airports, frequent travelers have a special line
now.
Now I've seen this, Ryan.
It's really cool.
It's to help people who are traveling a lot.
A frequent traveler is someone who goes places very often; "frequent" meaning
all the time.
Yeah. The word "frequent" means you do something very often, continuing to do
it.
And so these frequent travelers get a special line that they have to wait in.
Normally, you have to wait in any lines at the airport.
But they get their own.
And it's faster.
That's right.
And really, it's really cool because they can keep going.
They don't have to waste all their time in the airport.
They know how to travel.
They know how to do all the rules and security, and so they can go through a
faster line having been through all the security checks.
OK, so that's one way to improve the process here.
What's another one that Spencer gives us?
He says: And soon people won't have to take their... off their shoes.
Now most... a lot of airports don't do this.
But most airports, at least in America,
you have to take your shoes off and put them through the scanner to show that
you're not hiding anything in your shoes.
And it's kind of gross, really.
Yeah, most people don't enjoy very much.
And so now he's saying, well, now soon people won't have to do that anymore.
That's great.
And Connor says, well, that's an improvement.
That's great.
Of course, we want that.
That's better.
And he continues to say:
But why can't most innocent people walk through the metal detector and just be
done with it?
Now a "metal detector" is a machine that can sense that there is metal
somewhere.
It can be handheld, or it can be a big doorway that you walk through.
And it beeps if you have any metal on you to let them know if you have weapons.
Yeah, that's why, because most weapons are made out of metal, and so it tells
you if there is metal.
Now that last sentence is our Grammar on the Go phrase, so let's go visit Liz.
Hi there, friends.
How are you doing today?
My name is Liz.
And it's time for Grammar on the Go.
I'm here at the airport.
And going through an airport these days can be quite a task, especially with
airport security.
So is airport security really necessary?
That's what we're talking about in today's VIEWPOINTS article.
We read: But why can't most innocent people walk through the metal detector and
be done with it?
That's our Grammar Tip sentence for today.
And it just means: Why can't most innocent people just simply walk through the
metal detector and complete the security check like that?
Notice the phrase, be done with it.
It's another way to say: be finished with something.
We can often hear native speakers use this phrase "be done with it" to talk
about how being completely finished with something.
For example, if you need to borrow something from a co-worker, and you want them
to know that you will need it for an hour, then you can say:
I'll be done with it in an hour and I'll return it to you when I'm done.
Or let's suppose Tom is working on a project.
And his supervisor wants him to quickly finish it up by the end of the week.
So Tom might hear his supervisor say to him: I want you to be done with it by
the end of this week.
If you want to see some more example sentences, they're available in today's
Grammar Tip section in your Studio Classroom magazine.
That's it for today.
This is Liz with Grammar on the Go signing off.
Bye-bye.
Thank you, Liz.
It continues on here saying:
I mean, is a woman with a baby or an elderly couple really going to carry a gun
or a bomb?
Come on! They're not suspicious.
OK. This is the example I was using before - is a baby or an elderly couple, an
older couple, really going to have weapons?
Come on!
Now what does this word suspicious mean?
"Suspicious" means it makes you feel that something illegal is happening or that
something is wrong.
Are you suspicious that your sister is taking your money?
OK. So he's saying: Well, maybe you can just look at these people and decide.
Well, they're really old or it's a baby!
Maybe the baby doesn't want to hurt anybody, so maybe we can just let them
through.
That's right. Well, I don't know.
We'll see what Spencer has to say when we come back.
But first, let's watch these interviews.
I find airport security to be a necessary inconvenience.
It is inconvenient because it'll take longer to get to the airplane, and there
are some things I want to keep private.
However, it does seem necessary because I do not want someone to take advantage
of innocent people, especially in an airplane.
When I go to the airport, I'd like to think: What if I was working at the
airport in the security staff?
What kind of person would I want to check?
Probably someone who's friendly, who smiles and obeys and listens to everything
that the security officer has to say.
So that's what I try to be.
When I go to the line, I am respectful.
I do everything they tell me to, and everything goes smoothly.
Yes, I think airport security is necessary, especially in this day and age when
the world is unstable.
Flying is a choice.
So if people find that the screening process in airports is too annoying, then
they just shouldn't fly.
But for me, since I wanted to come to Taiwan,
I made sure to read the guidelines beforehand to ensure that the items I wanted
to bring on the airplane could be brought on the airplane.
And the... the items that could not be brought on the airplane, I left at home.
So I think that if people are complaining about airport security process,
they should make sure to read the guilelines beforehand and just to comply so
they won't have any trouble when they go to the airport.
That way, when people want to fly, they should just be willing to go through the
security measures to protece thegreater good.