Xiaohua: 欢迎来到本期的RoundTable词汇小百科栏目，and Mark is joining us this week, as we talk about Good Samaritans.

Mark: Yeah. It’s a phrase that we hear a lot, I think, Good Samaritan. If we go back to the origins, like many of these phrases that in English language, they either come from the words of Shakespeare or the Bible. Now in this particular case this one comes from the Bible, from the Parable of the Good Samaritan. And in brief it was the story that was told by Jesus. It was about a traveler who was been beaten and robbed, left half dead along the road, a priest came along and totally ignored the man. Then a Levite came by, which is another sect, and ignore the man. Finally though a Samaritan came past, now Samaritans are people from a certain city at that time and Samaritans and Jews generally didn’t get on well. But the Samaritan helped the injured man who was Jewish. Therefore the saying goes that while most of the people crossed the road to the other side and didn’t want anything to do with the situation, the Good Samaritan went and helped this man, regardless of who he was, what his social status was, he helped him simply because he needed help. And that is the basis of western society.

Xiaohua: Samaritan被直接翻译成中文就是撒马利亚人或者是乐善好施者。很多人可能也知道这样一个圣经故事。耶稣讲了这样一个寓言就是说一个犹太人被强盗打劫，受了重伤，躺在路边。有一个祭司经过，另外呢，还有一个利未人路过，但是他们都不闻不问。只有一个撒马利亚人路过，但是他不顾教派的隔阂，非常善良的照顾着他，还出钱把犹太人送进旅店。在当时犹太人基本上是看不起撒马利亚人的。So I guess, yeah, the story tells us that no matter what background you come from, helping people is always a good idea.

Mark: Yes. It is not just people. Say for an example, you saw an animal in distress and helped that, then you could then also be called a Good Samaritan, because now it’s used as a common metaphor. Any person that does a charitable deed, especially one who rescues or helps out a needy stranger could be described as a Good Samaritan. And in fact a number of charitable organizations have used the idea in their name. Samaritans, for example, is an organization in the UK, people who are feeling suicidal depress can call.

Xiaohua: Good Samarian在现代社会中呢，不管是指那些乐善好施的人，也指人们在遇上危险的时候或者危急的时候，伸出援手的人，大概也就是中国人所说的见义勇为的人。Yeah, about this Good Samaritan law thing, it’s quite common in a lot of US states. They try to sort of protect people who volunteer to help from any sort of possible legal responsibilities.

Mark: Yes. This is very interesting, because this would be, for example, if somebody was involved in a motorcycle accident and someone else was first on the scene. You are not supposed to move people in that situation, because you might cause a spine injury, for example. However, if someone didn’t know that, they did try to help them, and then they made the matter worse. Under the Good Samaritan law, as far as I understand it, they wouldn’t leave able be prosecuted because they were trying to help.

Xiaohua: That’s right.美国的很多州都有Good Samaritan law，也有被翻译成《无偿施救者保护法》的，就是说，在紧急状态下，施救者因为他的施救行为给被救助者造成了一些伤害的时候，这个时候可以免除他的法律责任。

Mark: The thing is that the essence of the Good Samarian is that the Good Samaritan didn’t ask for payment or even thanks.

Xiaohua: Yeah. I think that’s the key thing about being a Good Samaritan. And that wraps up this edition of RoundTable’s word of the week. Thank you, Mark.

Mark: I’ve enjoyed it.