The American secret service began in 1865．It has many important jobs．One is to stop different types of fraud (诈骗), such as printing fake (假的) money, credit card fraud and computer fraud．The other is to protect the president at all times．
The secret service's earliest job was to stop people from making fake money．The secret service agents (特工) still have to do that because the criminals (罪犯) are smarter now．They are better at using computers and other expensive equipment．But agents are much smarter．
Protecting the president is hard．The most dangerous places are outdoors．Agents can't check every person in the crowd, so they must watch the crowd carefully．And they always follow the president．They're just like the president's shadow．
Unluckily, some people do want to give the president trouble, or even hurt him．The secret service agents try to findthemand stop them when they want to do something bad．It's a dangerous, but important job．The secret service helps keep the president and the country safe．
