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進入《中英對照讀新聞》Shiftless crooks clutch over stick…無能小偷緊抓著排檔桿…
◎俞智敏
Two U.S. car thieves failed to make their getaway in a car they had just stolen because they couldn’t figure out how to use its manual transmission, a witness said.
兩名美國偷車賊沒辦法開著他們剛偷來的汽車逃跑，因為他們不知道如何使用車子的手排變速箱，據目擊者指出。
The teenagers armed with a gun approached a man outside a pizza restaurant in Marietta, Georgia recently. They stole his wallet and the keys to his Honda Accord, got into the car but couldn’t make it start because it had stick shift, according to John Williamson, 18, a restaurant employee.
兩名持槍青少年日前在喬治亞州馬利艾塔市一家披薩店外接近一名男子，他們不但偷走男子的皮夾，還拿走了他駕駛的本田Accord汽車的鑰匙。但小偷上車後，卻無法發動汽車，因為這款車使用的是手排檔，18歲的餐廳員工威廉森表示。
"The kid was just sitting in the car trying to start it but he had no idea what to do. He looked dumbfounded. The only thing he had going was the radio."
「那男孩坐在車裡試著發動汽車，但卻完全不知道該怎麼做。他看起來既驚慌又困惑。他唯一能發動的只有收音機。」
While the thief was trying to start the car, restaurant employees called the police who arrived and caught the teenagers as they tried to escape into nearby woods.
正當竊賊努力發動汽車時，餐廳員工打電話報警，少年在試圖逃進附近樹林時，剛好被警察逮個正著。
新聞辭典
shiftless：無能的，或是沒志氣的、得過且過的。例句︰He called the young people shiftless, lazy and good-for-nothing.（他說那些年輕人既無能又懶散，根本一無是處。）本文中的小偷不會使用手排檔（shift stick ），因此標題中稱其為shiftless，此為幽默的雙關語。
crook：口語用法，指騙子、壞蛋，例句︰These politicians are just a bunch of crooks.（這些政客全是群騙子。）
clutch：動詞指緊抓，例句︰A drowning man will clutch at a straw.（快溺死的人就算連一根稻草也會緊抓著不放。）名詞可指爪子、手、掌握，例句︰He is in╱has fallen into the clutches of that woman.（他掉進那女人的手心裡。）但clutch亦可指汽車的離合器，例句︰When driving a stick shift vehicle, a clutch pedal must be depressed to change gear.（駕駛手排車時，必須先踩下離合器才能換檔。）
