美國機場保安人員差點讓《哈利·波特》作者J·K·羅琳不能乘機返回英國，因為她拒絕丟棄“波特”系列叢書的最新創作手稿。不過，日前羅琳已在她的官方網站透露，機場方面已做妥協，允許她將手稿用橡皮筋捆好帶上飛機。自8月10日英國警方挫敗一起未遂恐怖襲擊陰謀后，英國和美國均加強了機場安措施檢，在乘客的行李攜帶方面有許多禁令，此前，液體和膠狀行李一律不得帶上航班。羅琳當時正在紐約參加一個慈善活動，碰巧趕上這個“非常時期”回國，被機場要求放棄攜帶手稿才能登機。

British author J.K. Rowling says she won an argument with airport security officials in New York to carry the manuscript of the final Harry Potter book as carry-on baggage. Had security agents not relented, she said on her website, she might not have flown, she said in a posting dated Wednesday. "I don't know what I would have done if they hadn't — sailed home probably," she wrote. The author had participated in a book reading for charity on Aug. 1 with fellow writers Stephen King and John Irving. Security was drastically tightened after Aug. 10 when British police said they had intercepted a plot to blow up US-bound airliners. "The heightened security restrictions on the airlines made the journey back from New York interesting, as I refused to be parted from the manuscript of book seven. "A large part of it is handwritten and there was no copy of anything I had done while in the U.S." Eventually, she added, "They let me take it on, thankfully, bound up in elastic bands." Rowling said she was still considering two possible titles for the last of the boy wizard's adventures. "I was quite happy with one of them until the other one struck me while I was taking a shower in New York," she wrote. "They would both be appropriate, so I think I'll have to wait until I'm further into the book to decide which one works best." (Agency)

Vocabulary:

carry-on baggage: 手提行李 intercept: 中途攔截；截擊；截取 US-bound airliners: 飛往美國的客機 manuscript: （小說）的手稿 （英語點津陳蓓編輯）