听播客学英语 156 你想成为一个间谍

　　Intelligence. What does it mean? The word “intelligence” has two main meanings in English. First, it can mean “mental capacity” – if you are intelligent, you can think clearly and rationally¹, for example. But “intelligence” also means information. For example, we can talk about “market intelligence” – and that means, information about what is happening in a market, such as the stock market or the international oil market. Very often, we use “intelligence” to mean information which is secret, or which has been obtained illegally. Many governments have “intelligence services” which collect secret information about other countries, or about the government’s opponents at home. Intelligence services employ agents – or, to use the more normal word, spies. To spy on someone means to watch them secretly, without them knowing.

　　A few days ago, an advert² appeared in the jobs section of the newspaper which I read. “Don’t keep your intelligence secret!” it said. It was an advertisement for jobs in the British Secret Intelligence Service – the SIS or, as it is sometimes known, MI6. It was an advertisement for spies.

　　Many years ago, I worked in British Embassies³ in the Middle East and in Scandinavia. In the Embassies, there were some diplomats⁴ who were from the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). It was supposed to be secret, but everyone knew who they were. Of course, we were not allowed to call them spies, or people from the intelligence service – we had to refer to them as “our friends”. Sometimes we saw their intelligence reports. They were marked “Top Secret” and told us things that we knew already. I do not know how the SIS recruited⁶ people to work for them in those days. Perhaps they approached people in secret, and invited them to secret interviews with secret people.

　　In those days, too, the name of the head of the SIS was never made public. He was known only as “C”. He wrote things in green ink. No-one else was allowed to use green ink. It was all very ridiculous.

　　But nowdays it is different. The SIS advertises for spies in the newspapers, and even has a website which tells you what the SIS does and what sort of people it wants to recruit⁵. It has a grand headquarters building at Vauxhall Cross in the centre of London. And we know that the head of the SIS is called John Scarlett. He is well-known in Britain. In his previous job, he advised our government that it was OK to say that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The fact that he was completely wrong obviously did his career no harm.

　　But that is how many organisations work. If you are a junior employee and you make a big mistake, they sack you. If you are a senior person, they promote you.

1 rationally   

ad.理性地

参考例句：

• We are determined to set up a complete, rationally distributed scientific and technological research system. 我们一定要建成布局合理、相互配套的科研体系。
• Neither side would rationally initiate an attack which only result in its own destruction. 任何一方只要稍有理性，都不会发动一次结果只能使本身遭到毁灭的袭击。

2 advert   

vi.注意，留意，言及；n.广告

参考例句：

• The advert featured a dolphin swimming around a goldfish bowl.该广告的內容为一条在金鱼缸里游动的海豚。
• Please advert to the contents below.I believe you won't be disappointed.敬请留意后面的内容。相信您一定不会失望的。

3 embassies   

n.大使馆( embassy的名词复数 )；大使馆全体成员

参考例句：

• The representatives of other countries have their embassies there. 许多国家都在此设有大使馆。 来自英语晨读30分（高二）
• Demonstrators protested outside the country's embassies all over Europe. 该国驻欧洲各国的大使馆外都有群众进行示威抗议。 来自辞典例句

4 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 recruit   

n.招聘，新兵，新成员；v.恢复，补充，招募

参考例句：

• The country's first act would be to recruit for the navy.国家的第一个行动是为海军征募新兵。
• This is a nationwide campaign to recruit women into trade unions.这是一次吸收妇女参加工会的全国性运动。

6 recruited   

招聘( recruit的过去式和过去分词 )； 吸收某人为新成员； 动员…（提供帮助）； 雇用

参考例句：

• Were men for the Navy recruited from men on merchant ships? 海军的人员是从商船的人员中征募的吗？
• Most of the workers will be recruited locally. 大多数工人都会在本地招募。