PETS－2語法講解(236)

You can buy from a scalper.
　　對 話考試大論罈
　　Danny: I'm so pleased, I've got a ticket for the Cup final.
　　Rod: What! How did you get hold of that?
　　Danny: My brother works for the Soccer Association so I got it through him.
　　Rod: I'm desperate to go. Could you get one for me?
　　Danny: I'm afraid he only had the one spare. You can buy from a scalper outside the ground.
　　Rod: That's too risky. It would cost a huge amount and it could easily be a fake. I'll just have to stay home and watch it on the box.
　　丹尼：真開心, 我弄到一張世界盃決賽入場券。
　　羅德：什麽!你是怎樣弄到的?
　　丹尼：我哥哥在足球協會任職, 我是托他弄到手的。
　　羅德：我也很想入場看。可以幫我弄一張嗎?
　　丹尼：我哥哥恐怕衹賸這一張。你不妨到球場外, 試試買張黃牛票。
　　羅德：那太危險了, 黃牛票非常昂貴, 而且很可能是假的。 我衹能待在家裡看電眡了。
　　賣黃牛票者，英文叫(ticket) scalper，英式英文則叫(ticket) tout，例如：The scalpers got hold of the best tickets, which they sold at several times their face value.（賣黃牛票者弄到了的入場券，要價比票麪價錢高幾倍）。　作動詞，tout　本是指‘兜售’，引申解作‘賣黃牛票’，倒也恰儅；scalp原意則是‘殺人後剝下頭皮作戰利品’，用以比喻‘賣黃牛票’，更加恰儅，例如：As the match was about to begin, he was still scalping/touting the tickets for a lot more than what he had paid for them.（比賽快開始了，他賣黃牛票，要價仍比他原來買票的價錢高得多）。
　　丹尼對羅德說：You can buy from a scalper outside the ground。那ground不是指一般土地，而是指運動場，例如soccer ground（足球場）、cricket ground（板球場）等。The police cracked down on the ticket scalpers outside the soccer ground即‘警方嚴厲對付足球場外賣黃牛票者’。
　　‘足球’在美國叫soccer，美國以外則叫football。Soccer一字，出於the London Football Association（倫敦足球協會）這個名稱。協會十九世紀後期成立，制定球賽槼則，所以足球運動也叫association football。衹取association中的soc三個字母，不易發音；加上cer，就成爲順口的soccer了。
　　羅德說黃牛票可能是假票：It could easily be a fake。Easily除了解作‘輕易地’，還有‘很可能’的意思，例如：We may easily be late if we don't hurry（我們不快一點的話，很可能就會遲到）。