Commuters left fearing vicious ’Farringdon mice’ after prank sign warned them to tuck their trousers in 惡搞公告警告民眾把褲子塞好 兇殘的「法靈頓之鼠」讓通勤族膽寒

Commuters left fearing vicious ’Farringdon mice’ after prank sign warned them to tuck their trousers in
惡搞公告警告民眾把褲子塞好 兇殘的「法靈頓之鼠」讓通勤族膽寒
2012-09-04◎陳維真

A gang of rampaging mice appear to be striking fear into the hearts of London commuters, after being reported to be nibbling their toes.
據報有一群狂暴的老鼠囓食人類腳趾後，似乎讓倫敦通勤族嚇破膽。

Just this weekend, the residents of Essex feared for their lives after a lion was reported to be on the loose in a field. Now, passengers at Farringdon station were left puzzled after an official-looking sign warned the mice had been "attacking" customers.
本週末艾塞克斯才傳出有一隻獅子在郊野中遊走，讓居民十分擔心自己的性命安全。現在，一個看起來像是官方發布的公告警告民眾小心「攻擊」顧客的老鼠，讓法靈頓車站的乘客感到很疑惑。

The handwritten notice advised："Please place the bottom of your trousers into your socks to avoid being a victim of the Farringdon mice". The sign, which was immediately photographed by baffled passengers and placed on social networking site Twitter, has now been viewed by thousands of people.
這份手寫的公告建議：「請將你的褲腳塞入襪子裡，避免成為法靈頓老鼠的受害者。」這張公告馬上被困惑的乘客拍下來，傳到社群網站推特上，現在已有上千人點閱。

Despite the excitement, the sign was quickly revealed to be little more than a harmless prank, with TfL denying all knowledge of a mouse problem. A spokeswoman confirmed："The writing on the whiteboard at the station is not an official TfL message and has since been removed. We do not believe it was written by a member of station staff and we’re not aware of any problems with mice."
儘管引發騷動，但告示很快就被揭穿只是個無傷大雅的惡作劇，倫敦交通局否認知道老鼠問題。發言人證實：「車站白板上寫的倫敦交通局的官方訊息，已撤除公告了。我們認為這不是車站人員所寫，而且也不知道有老鼠的問題。」

新聞辭典：

prank：名詞，胡鬧、惡作劇。例句：She enjoys playing pranks on people.（她很愛惡作劇戲弄人家。）

nibble：動詞，細咬，一點一點的咬。例句：He nibbled a biscuit.（他小口小口啃著餅乾。）

on the loose：片語，不受約束的，自由的。例句：A second suspect is still on the loose.（第二名嫌犯仍逍遙法外。）