Test 2 On the border

Simply put, the average traveler is very average. He has two cases and the things in those cases accurately reflect his position in life and his journey.

Let’s say he is a businessman back from Europe. He may have had a rather complex journey, been to a few capitals over there. His cases will have a fair bit of paperwork in them. He’ll have a couple of pairs of shoes, good shoes, and a Brooks Brother suit or whatever, three or four silk ties, and a good selection of shirts and socks, all neatly laundered by a hotel. There will be laundered handkerchiefs and a couple of hard-cover books.

Now, if he’s an oilman, even a fairly senior one, he’ll be very different. If his travels have taken him to the North Sea, he’ll have bought a couple of tartan rugs, for certain – they all do! He’s going to have slacks, sports skirts and a pair of boots. He may have a paperback and a shooting or hunting magazine. And, almost certainly, a couple of bottles of whisky. Don’t ask me why oilmen have dirty laundry, maybe Scottish hotels won’t do it.

When we get somebody whose luggage doesn’t match his appearance or his story or his route, then we get curious. Like with Pan Am 800. Why should people carrying light clothes, slacks, short-sleeved skirts be coming from Tokyo in February? Why should they have sun-tan oil in their toilet kits? Because they started from Colombia. They may claim to be students. What is a student doing in Tokyo in February? He’s surely not on vacation. So where is he studying? Or a businessman. So how come he’s not carrying lots of papers, commercial samples, sales aids?

Smugglers never accumulate all the rubbish in their cases that an ordinary traveler does: phrase books, torn street maps, half-filled-in postcards, used rolls of film, hotel receipts, curious presents for the children. And they can make real fools of themselves. They’ll say, “Colombia? Where’s that?” And then you point out that their skirt wrappers are labeled “Bogota Hotel” or that their toothpaste or shaving cream is Colombian. You get some who are so stupid that they don’t even fill their suitcases. They seem to think that we won’t find it odd that they’re traveling with a case. Those who fill them often get the mix wrong. There will be masses of clothes but not heavy shoes or books. The clothes themselves are often suspicious: skirts of different sizes, trousers that don’t seem they would fit the passenger, labels with little give-aways: “Ind Col” (“Colombian made”) or all the other clothes will obviously be new or they don’t suit the personality of the owner. We had one, a “macho” type, and he had all dull gabardine trousers and chunky sweaters, totally out of character. Though the cocaine we found wasn’t!

It takes a lot of skill to fool a man who’s been looking at suitcases for 15 years.

TASKS

Task 1. Read the article. Are these statements true or false?

a) The average traveler has two cases and one traveling bag.

b) A businessman returning back from Europe may have all necessary papers with him.

c) An oilman always has the laundered clothes as well as a couple of bottles of whisky.

d) Smugglers never accumulate all the rubbish in their cases that an ordinary traveler does.

Task 2. Choose the proper definition of the following words used in the article.

1. case

a) a situation

b) law / crime

c) a large box or container

2) rubbish

a) food, paper that is no longer needed

b) an idea that is silly or wrong

c) a film that is very bad

3) chunky (adj.)

a) thick and heavy

b) large pieces of food

c) a person who has a broad, heavy body

Task 3. What is the key message of the article? Choose the best alternative.

1) The methods of smuggling are becoming more and more sophisticated but there is no substitute for a well-trained and experienced Customs officer.

2) Airlines provide difficulties at the border as the number of passengers is constantly increasing.

3) A Customs officer must be a good judge of character.