英文原版对话1000个:1053 Banned by Customs

 　　Ray: Well so Shirley, tell me about your career as a Customs inspector¹.

 

　　Shirley: Yes, many years ago in a previous lifetime, I worked as a Customs Officer in Australia. And, I don’t know if you know but that means … basically taking control or monitoring our borders and checking what comes in and out of the country.

 

　　Ray: Well that sounds pretty interesting.

 

　　Shirley: Yeah, it had its moments.

 

　　Ray: Like for example

 

　　Shirley: Well, Australia has very strict quarantine regulations so we’d often get people trying to smuggle² in prohibited food or seeds or plants and I remember one time there was a man who had an entire sapling, a small tree strapped³ to his body. He had the roots kind of in his shoe and it was strapped to his leg all the way up his body and along his arm and of course his clothes on top so that we couldn’t see them.

 

　　Ray: Well that’s a, are now you sure he was a person and not an “ent”?

 

　　Shirley: I don’t know. He was doing a good disguise if he was in fact a walking “ent”.

 

　　Ray: That’s true, so what’d you do to this poor guy?

 

　　Shirley: We didn’t do so much to the poor guy, I think he probably

 

　　Ray: so what did you do to his poor tree then I guess.

 

　　Shirley: Well his tree was confiscated⁴ and would be destroyed. Probably he was fined and went to court and would have to pay a fine.

 

　　Ray: What other things do people smuggle?

 

　　Shirley: All sorts of strange things. Sometimes they smuggle things that they don’t even realize are prohibited. So for example canned foods like pate⁵ or canned meats are also completely prohibited

 

　　Ray: Oh boy

 

　　Shirley: Yeah, I mean a lot of those things they can hold, for example foot and mouth disease, I think, is resistant⁶ to very high temperatures and it’ll last for about seven or eight years. So those things are also prohibited. Birds, which is pretty sad because when people bring in something like birds or small animals the death rate for the animals is extremely high so

 

　　Ray: Goodness, yes.

 

　　Shirley: Usually only about ten percent (10%) survive and if they get caught, then they can’t have them anyway.

 

　　Ray: Can’t imagine how, if you were trying to smuggle a bird I have visions of somebody anasthetizing the poor thing and, stuffing it into their backpack or something of that sort and

 

　　Shirley: Yeah

 

　　Ray: that can’t be good

 

　　Shirley: there’s lots of imaginative ways to do that but all in all, none of them are very good for the birds.

 

　　Ray: Any reptiles⁷?

 

　　Shirley: Yeah well, people do smuggle them in, although actually in the case of Australia I think we have a bigger problem with them going out because Australia has, I think, the highest number of venomous reptiles in the world and also different types of reptiles so people taking them out illegally is a big problem. I personally never saw any, fortunately. I actually quite like snakes but I have a healthy respect for them so I don’t really want to be, you know, engaging with them on a one-to-one personal level.

1 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

2 smuggle   

vt.私运；vi.走私

参考例句：

• Friends managed to smuggle him secretly out of the country.朋友们想方设法将他秘密送出国了。
• She has managed to smuggle out the antiques without getting caught.她成功将古董走私出境，没有被逮捕。

3 strapped   

adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带

参考例句：

• Make sure that the child is strapped tightly into the buggy. 一定要把孩子牢牢地拴在婴儿车上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The soldiers' great coats were strapped on their packs. 战士们的厚大衣扎捆在背包上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 confiscated   

没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Their land was confiscated after the war. 他们的土地在战后被没收。
• The customs officer confiscated the smuggled goods. 海关官员没收了走私品。

5 pate   

n.头顶；光顶

参考例句：

• The few strands of white hair at the back of his gourd-like pate also quivered.他那长在半个葫芦样的头上的白发，也随着笑声一齐抖动着。
• He removed his hat to reveal a glowing bald pate.他脱下帽子，露出了发亮的光头。

6 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

7 reptiles   

n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Snakes and crocodiles are both reptiles. 蛇和鳄鱼都是爬行动物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Birds, reptiles and insects come from eggs. 鸟类、爬虫及昆虫是卵生的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》