【一起听英语】女士专用车厢

火车上会给女士提供女士专用车厢，方便她们不受骚扰....

Alice: Hello! I’m Alice and this is 6 Minute English…. Welcome to Rob who

is joining me today! Hi Rob.

Rob: Hello Alice.

Alice: Today we’re talking about female-only carriages on trains.

Rob: These are train carriages which are only for women. We don’t have

them in the UK.

Alice: No we don’t – but there are quite a few countries which do have

female-only carriages for commuters. It’s to help women from being

bothered while they are travelling – to stop sexual harassment 1.

Can you guess which of these countries have female-only carriages

Rob? I’ll give you a choice of 4.

Canada, Japan, Egypt or Germany

Rob: I’ll have a think and tell you at the end of the programme. Why is

this in the news?

Alice: It’s in the news because women in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, will

now be able to travel in female-only train carriages. Here’s part of a

report by the BBC’s Karishma Vaswani in Jakarta. 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010

Page 2 of 5

Extract 1:

The trains to the suburbs are always packed with commuters trying to get from their

offices in the city back to their homes. Female passengers have been complaining that

some male commuters are taking advantage. By introducing women’s only carriages,

the state-run rail operator wants to put a stop to sexual harassment.

Alice: The company that operates the trains in this part of Jakarta say they

have received lots of complaints about men taking advantage of

women. Taking advantage – that’s a polite way of saying some men

were touching 2 women or banging into them on purpose on crowded

trains.

Rob: It is officially called sexual harassment.

Alice: The state-run rail operator – the train company owned by the

government – said that women were avoiding packed trains to avoid

sexual harassment. So they have created women only train carriages.

Rob: They have even designed the train carriages to appeal to women

apparently 3.

Alice: That’s right. The carriages are made in Japan and have brightly

covered pink seats. They’re easy to spot.

Rob: They’re easy to spot – they stand out, they’re easy to see from a

distance.

Alice: This woman, 22 year old Yanti a student in Jakarta said she hopes the

carriages will help stop sexual harassment on crowded trains. 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010

Page 3 of 5

Extract 2

(Voiceover in English): Hopefully this service will be able to reduce the number of

women who become targets of sexual harassment on the trains. Sometimes there are

men who bump and push into us on purpose, and they take advantage of the cramped 4

conditions. But there must be other ways to stop sexual harassment. We have to try and

raise awareness 5 about the issue as well.

Alice: So Yanti said the carriages are part – but not all of the solution - to prevent

sexual harassment on the train.

Rob: Yes – she said that it’s important to raise awareness about the issue of

sexual harassment as well.

Alice: to raise awareness – that’s a useful phrase – you often hear

it when people want to talk about difficult issues – issues which are

difficult to discuss.

Rob: We also heard the phrase taking advantage again.

Alice: Yanti said that some men take advantage of the cramped conditions

on the train to bump or push into women on purpose.

Rob: on purpose – that means you do something deliberately 6. The

carriages are full of people – they’re very cramped.

Alice: He did it on purpose, she did it on purpose – it wasn’t a mistake, they

did it deliberately. Sexual harassment is a difficult issue to talk about. 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010

Page 4 of 5

Some countries have laws which make sexual harassment illegal –

especially in the workplace. What is the official definition of sexual

harassment Rob?

Rob: The United Nations Development Fund for Women defines sexual

harassment as "unwelcome or unwanted verbal, non-verbal, physical or visual

conduct based on sex or of a sexual nature; the acceptance or rejection 7 of

which affects an individual's employment.

Alice: Verbal means spoken. So sexual harassment can be language too –

not just physical touching. Unwelcome verbal, non-verbal, physical or

visual conduct. Visual – means it could be a look from somebody that

is unwanted as well.

Rob: That definition of sexual harassment is also just about women at

work. But it can happen in other places too.

Alice: Yes – and remember it’s not just women who can be sexually

harassed 8. There are also many legal cases where men say they have

been sexually harassed at work or in other places too.

Rob: Men can be victims of sexual harassment too.

Alice: So Rob have you thought about the answer to my question. Which of

these countries already have female-only train carriages?

Canada, Japan, Egypt or Germany 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010

Page 5 of 5

Rob: I’ll have a guess. Is it Canada and Japan?

Alice: The answers are Japan and Egypt. Female-only train carriages were

first introduced in Japan in the year 2000 during the busy end-of-year

festive 9 season when lots of people had been celebrating. And you can

also find female-only train carriages in Cairo, Egypt, Brazil, Malaysia

and Taiwan. So before we go Rob shall we review some of today’s

language?

Rob: Yes of course.

female-only

carriages

commuters

sexual harassment

taking advantage

state-run rail operator

easy to spot

to raise awareness

cramped

on purpose

verbal

Alice: Well that’s all we’ve got time for today. Thanks for joining us and see

you next time. Bye!