Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 843, Passing Through Airport Security.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 843.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
ESLPOD.com is our website.
Go there to download a learning guide for this episode and become a member of ESL Podcasts.
This episode is a dialogue between Roland and Natalie about going to the airport and having to pass through or go through security.
Let's get started.
Why are you so nervous about flying?
I'm not nervous about being in the air.
It's going through security.
I hear it's a hassle and I don't want to end up being strip searched.
You won't be strip searched.
All you need to do is to follow a few simple rules.
When you get to security screening, put your carry-on bag and all metal objects in a bin so that it can go through the scanner.
But I heard I couldn't bring any liquids with me.
You're only allowed three ounces of liquids, aerosols, or gels.
Those should go inside a zip-top bag and be placed in a bin.
Do I have to take off my shoes and get one of those body scans?
You don't have to take off your shoes, but you do have to get a body scan.
I knew it.
They're going to bombard me with harmful rays.
And you wonder why I'm nervous about flying.
You won't be bombarded with any harmful rays.
You walk through the metal detector and stand in front of the scanner.
It's not dangerous.
Oh, why do they have to treat every passenger like a potential hijacker or terrorist?
Do I look like a terrorist?
I feel like walking through security with my hands up saying, I am not a terrorist.
I am not a terrorist.
I wouldn't do that if I were you.
Just stay calm and follow the instructions.
Just like a lamb to the slaughter?
Our dialogue begins with Roland saying to Natalie, why are you so nervous about flying?
Why are you so anxious about going into an airplane?
Natalie says, I'm not nervous about being in the air.
I'm not worried about actually flying, she says.
It's going through security.
Security S-E-C-U-R-I-T-Y.
At an airport or at some sort of public venue that is some sort of place where lots of different people go in and out of is the process of checking people to make sure they don't have anything dangerous.
Especially in the last 10 years or so in the United States there has been a lot more airport security where they check each person coming into the airport, each person who is flying, each passenger for any sort of dangerous materials they may have.
Obviously, this is in response to the attacks of 9-11.
Natalie says, I hear it's a hassle and I don't want to end up being strip searched.
Natalie has heard that it's a hassle, H-A-S-S-L-E, to go through security at the airport.
A hassle is a pain, something that is inconvenient, something that is unpleasant.
To be stripped.
Searched means they take all of your or most of your clothing off and And this is typically done when they are looking for drugs or something else that you might try to sneak on the airplane to get onto the airplane without permission.
Most security at airports in the United States.
Do not do strip searches, at least not for the average passenger.
To strip, S-T-R-I-P, means to take your clothes off.
The word is also used for women who take their clothes off slowly for reasons of sexual entertainment, shall we say.
Roland says you won't be strip-searched.
All you need to do is to follow a few simple rules.
When you get to security screening, put your carry-on bag and all metal objects in a bin.
So Roland is saying it's not that difficult.
And he's right.
It really isn't that difficult to go through security at an American airport if you understand a few simple things.
Roland talks about security screening, S-C-R-E-N-I-N-G.
Screening is the process of looking something over very carefully.
In this case, searching for things that should not be there.
So when you go into an American airport, there'll be a long line of people waiting to go through the screening area.
That's the place where the government officials or the airport security people look at you and make sure that you don't have anything you're not supposed to have.
Roland says when you get to security screening, put your carry-on bag and all metal objects in a bin.
Your carry-on bag is the piece of luggage or baggage that you are taking with you in your hand.
That's why it's called carry-on, because you can carry it onto the planes.
Metal objects would be keys, coins, anything made of metal.
All of those have to go into a little bucket, a small container, which is called a bin, B-I-N.
Actually, it's not that little.
A bin is typically a large bucket, but the bins at the airport are not huge there enough to put a small bag in a few shoes, a computer, that sort of thing when you go through an american airport.
Now They have to put those objects into a scanner S-C-A-N-N-E-R.
A scanner is the machine that looks for anything that should not be there.
Basically it's a kind of video camera that is looking at all of your stuff and and seen that there isn't any hidden objects.
There aren't any hidden objects.
There aren't any things that shouldn't be there.
Natalie says, I heard I couldn't bring any liquids with me.
Liquids, L-I-Q-U-I-D-S, are things that are wet, things like water, soda.
Those are all liquids.
Rowland says you're only allowed three ounces of liquids, aerosols, or gels.
So you can bring small amounts of liquid, three ounces or less.
You can also bring three ounces of aerosols or gels.
Aerosols, A-E-R-O-S-O-L-S. is liquid that is dispensed or delivered by pressing a little button on the top of a container.
So hairspray, for example, might be an aerosol that you would bring with you.
I always bring hairspray on the airplane with me.
Gels, G-E-L-S, are thick, wet liquids.
Again, you might find these for hair.
There are certain kinds of things that women put on their hair and men that are called gels.
It's kind of like a very thick liquid, but it's not water.
It's thicker than that.
Roland says those should go inside a zip-top or zip-lock bag and placed in a bin.
A zip-top bag is a clear plastic bag that has a little what looks like a zipper on the top of it so you can open and close it easily.
A zip-top bag and I call them Ziploc bags because there's a company that makes these kinds of bags called Ziploc L-O-C-K at the end.
A zip-top or Ziploc bag is used to put your small containers of liquids into before they go through the scanner.
It's required that you take them out of your carry-on bags and put them into these little plastic bags so that the security people can see them.
Natalie says, do I have to take off my shoes and get one of those body scans?
In many American airports it used to be required and I think it might still be these rules change a lot that you have to take your shoes off before you go through the security scanner.
Now it's not always the case, I think, that you have to do that.
A body scan is an image of a person's entire body.
Some airports in the United States have Recently here in 2012 have started to put these machines that scan the entire body.
A lot of people don't like this.
Basically, it's like an x-ray, a picture of your entire body that the security people can see.
Roland says you don't have to take off your shoes, but you do have to get a body scan.
I've gone through the airport many times.
Usually here in Los Angeles, you have to take your shoes off.
And you often will get a body scan.
Not always, but many times.
Natalie says, I knew it.
They're going to bombard me with harmful rays.
To bombard, B-O-M-B-A-R-D, someone... means usually to attack them.
It's a word we would use, for example, during a war where one side is dropping bombs on the other side to bombard.
But here, Natalie means she's just going to get a lot of something.
In this case, a lot of harmful rays, R-A-Y-S.
Ray here is referring to x-rays what a doctor would give you to see, for example, if you had broken a bone.
And you wonder why I'm nervous about flying, Natalie says.
She doesn't want to get all of these harmful x-rays.
Roland corrects her by saying, You won't be bombarded with any harmful rays.
You walk through a metal detector and stand in front of the scanner.
It's not dangerous.
A metal detector is the usual way that you are screened at an airport or somewhere.
A metal detector just determines whether you have any metal on your body, such as a gun for example.
A body scanner actually takes a photograph of your entire body.
Most airports have Metal detectors, not body scanners, although a lot of the larger US airports now have body scanners and metal detectors.
But Rowland says these are not dangerous.
Natalie says oh, why do they have to treat every passenger, every person flying, like a potential hijacker or terrorist?
A hijacker H-I-J-A-C-K-E-R is a person who takes control of a plane illegally, usually to take that plane to a different place or to get money or, in the case of 9-11, to attack different buildings.
That's a hijacker.
You can hijack a plane but you could also hijack a bus or even a car.
It's to take control of something by force.
A terrorist is a person who is involved in using violence to threaten or to scare other people in order to get them to do what he or she wants them to do.
Natalie says, do I look like a terrorist?
I feel like walking through security with my hands up saying, I am not a terrorist.
I am not a terrorist.
Roland says, I wouldn't do that if I were you.
He's saying that's not a good idea.
You don't want to make any jokes when you go through security, even if you think they're funny.
He says that's a sure way, a certain way, to get the TSA's attention.
The TSA here in the United States is the Transportation Security Administration.
It's the part of the U.S. government that is now responsible for safety at our airports.
Rowland says just stay calm and follow the instructions.
Natalie says just like a lamb to the slaughter.
This phrase a lamb, which is a kind of animal to the slaughter, which is when you kill an animal is used to describe someone who is calmly and obediently doing something that will end up in trouble, pain or possibly even death because they don't realize what they are doing.
The most common way of saying this is a lamb led, LED, to the slaughter.
Someone is leading them, someone is taking them, and they are going quietly and without any sort of protest to something that may be very harmful for them.
Natalie, of course, is exaggerating here.
Airport security really isn't that bad in the United States.
It's not that bad of an experience, considering the benefits of having a system like what we have.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Why are you so nervous about flying?
I'm not nervous about being in the air.
It's going through security.
I hear it's a hassle and I don't want to end up being strip searched.
You won't be strip searched.
All you need to do is to follow a few simple rules.
When you get to security screening, put your carry-on bag and all metal objects in a bin so that it can go through the scanner.
But I heard I couldn't bring any liquids with me.
You're only allowed three ounces of liquids, aerosols, or gels.
Those should go inside a zip-top bag and be placed in a bin.
Do I have to take off my shoes and get one of those body scans?
You don't have to take off your shoes, but you do have to get a body scan.
I knew it.
They're going to bombard me with harmful rays, and you wonder why I'm nervous about flying.
You won't be bombarded with any harmful rays.
You walk through the metal detector and stand in front of the scanner.
It's not dangerous.
Oh, why do they have to treat every passenger like a potential hijacker or terrorist?
Do I look like a terrorist?
I feel like walking through security with my hands up saying I'm not a terrorist, I'm.
I wouldn't do that if I were you.
That's a sure way to get the TSA's attention.
Just stay calm and follow the instructions.
Just like a lamb to the slaughter?
Improving your English is never a hassle if you listen to the wonderful scripts by Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
