(完整word版)Unit5TheRealTruthAboutLies课文翻译综合教程三

1、Unit 5The Real Truth about LiesRandy FitzgeraldAt the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, psychology professor Bella DePaulogot 77 students and 70 townspeople to volunteer for an unusual project. All kept diariesfor a week, recording the numbers and details of the lies they told.Onestudentand

2、six Charlottesvilleresidentsprofessedto havetoldno falsehoods.The other 140 participants told 1,535.The lies were most often not what most of us would call earth-shattering. Someonewouldpretendto be morepositiveor supportiveofa spouse orfriendthanhe orshereally was, or feign agreement with a relativ

3、e's opinion. According to DePaulo, women intheir interactions with other women lied mostly to spare the other's feelings. Men lied toother men generally for self-promoting reasons.Moststrikingly,these tellers-of-a-thousand-liesreportedthattheirdeceptionscaused them "little preoccupation

4、 or regret". Might that, too, be a lie? Perhaps. But thereis evidence that this attitude toward casual use of prevarication is common.For example,20,000middle-andhigh-schoolersweresurveyedby theJosephsonInstituteofEthics-anonprofitorganizationinMarinadelRey,California,devotedtocharactereducatio

5、n.Ninety-twopercentof theteenagersadmittedhaving lied totheirparentsinthepreviousyear, and73 percentcharacterizedthemselvesas "serialliars",meaningtheytold lies weekly.Despitetheseadmissions,91 percentofall respondentssaid they were "satisfied with my own ethics and character".Th

6、ink how often we hear the expressions "I'll call you" or "The check is in the mail”or "I'm sorry, but he stepped out". And then there are professions- lawyers, pundits, PRconsultants-whose members seem to specialize in shaping or spinning the truth to suitclients'

7、; needs.Littlewhitelieshavebecomeubiquitous,and thereasonswegiveeachotherfortelling fibs are familiar. Consider, for example, a Southern California corporate executivewhomI'llcallTom.Hegoeswithhis wife and son to his mother-in-law'shomeforThanksgivingdinnerevery year.Tomdislikesher“special ”

8、 pumpkinpieintensely.Invariably he tells her how wonderful it is, to avoid hurting her feelings."What'swrongwiththat?"TomaskedMichaelJosephson,presidentoftheJosephson Institute. It's a question we might all ask.Josephson replied by asking Tom to consider the lie from his mother-in-

9、law's point1of view. Suppose that one day Tom's childblurts outthetruth,andshe discoversthedeceit. Will she tell her son-in-law, "Thank you for caring so much?" Or is she more likelyto feel hurt and say, "How could you have misled me all these years? And what else haveyou lied

10、 to me about?"And what might Tom's mother-in-law now suspect about her own daughter? And willTom's boy lie to his parents and yet be satisfied with his own character?Howoftendowecomplimentpeopleonhowwelltheylook,or expressourappreciation for gifts, when we don't really mean it? Sure

11、ly, these "nice" lies are harmlessand well intended, a necessary social lubricant. But, like Tom, we should remember thewords of EnglishnovelistSirWalterScott,whowrote,"What a tangled web we weave,when first we practice to deceive."Even seemingly harmless falsehoods can have unfo

12、reseen consequences. PhilosopherSissela Bok warns us that they can put us on a slippery slope. "After the first lies, otherscan come more easily,”she wrote in her bookLying: Moral Choice in Public and PrivateLife .“Psychologicalbarriersweardown;theabilityto makemoredistinctionscancoarsen; the l

13、iar's perception of his chances of being caught may warp."Takethe pumpkinpielies.Inthefirstplace,itwasn't just that he wantedhismother-in-law to feel good. Whether he realized it or not, he really wanted her to thinkhighly of him. And after the initial deceit he needed to tell more lies

14、 to cover up the firstone.Whobelieves itanymorewhenthey'retoldthatthe persontheywant toreachbyphone is"in a meeting"? Byitself,that kindoflie isof nogreatconsequence.Still,theendless proliferation of these little prevarications does matter.Once they've become common enough, even th

15、e small untruths that are not meant tohurtencouragea certaincynicismand loss oftrust."When(trust)isdamaged, ”warnsBok,“thecommunityas a wholesuffers;andwhenitis destroyed,societies falterandcollapse."Are all white lies to be avoided at all costs? Not necessarily. The most understandableand

16、 forgivable lies are an exchange of what ethicists refer to as the principle of trust forthe principle of caring, "like telling children about the tooth fairy, or deceiving someoneto set them up for a surprise party," Josephson says. "Still, we must ask ourselves if we are willing to

17、give our friends and associates the authority to lie to us whenever they think it is for our own good."Josephson suggests a simple test. If someone you lie to finds out the truth, will he thank you for caring? Or will he feel his long-term trust in you has been under-mined?2And if you're no

18、t sure, Mark Twain has given us a good rule of thumb. "When in doubt, tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends."谎言的真相兰迪 ·菲茨杰拉德1.在夏洛特斯维尔的弗吉尼亚大学里，心理学教授贝拉·德保罗组织了77 名学生和 70 名市民志愿参加一个特别的项目。所有参加者写了一周的日记， 记录下自己撒谎的次数和细节。2.1 名学生和 6 名夏洛特斯维尔的居民声称没有撒过谎。其他 140名参加

19、者共计撒谎 1535次。3.他们说的谎言里绝大多数在大众眼中都不属惊天动地的那一类。其中有人假装对自己的另一半或朋友表示肯定或支持，或对某位亲戚的观点佯装赞同。依德保罗之见， 女性在相互交往中说谎主要是为了不伤对方感情，而男性间撒谎则多半属于自吹自擂。4.最惊人的是，这些撒了数以千计谎言的人声称，欺骗行为并没有让他们十分“纠结或愧疚”。这会不会也是谎言？有可能。不过，确有证据表明，这种撒谎也不眨眼的态度是很常见的。5. 例如，加州马里纳 -戴尔雷有一个致力于性格教育的非营利性组织约瑟夫森伦理道德研究所曾对两万名初、高中学生进行过调查。92 的青少年承认在过去一年中对父母撒过谎， 73%将自己描

20、述为 “连续撒谎的人 ”，意即每星期都撒谎。尽管如此，91的参加者称“对自己的道德和人品还是感到满意”。6.想想我们是多么经常地听到这些话：“我会打电话给你”、“支票已寄出 ”、“对不起， 他不在。”还有一些职业 律师、 专家和公关咨询师 其成员似乎专门歪曲或编造事实以满足客户的需要。7. 无伤大雅的小谎言无处不在， 而我们撒谎的理由也大同小异。 看看这个例子， 是关于一个公司经理的， 我就叫他汤姆吧。 他每年都和妻儿到岳母家参加圣诞晚宴。汤姆非常不喜欢岳母做的 “特色 ”南瓜馅饼。 不过，他每次总是对岳母说南瓜馅饼多么好吃，免得伤了她的心。8.“这有什么不对？ ”汤姆问约瑟夫森研究所所长迈克

21、尔·约瑟夫森。这个问题我们都有可能会问。9.约瑟夫森的回答是要汤姆站在岳母的立场上考虑一下他的谎言。假设有一天， 汤姆的孩子一不小心说漏了嘴， 使她了解了实情。 她是会对女婿说 “谢谢你考虑得这么周到”呢？还是更有可能地，觉得受了伤害，说 “你怎么能骗我这么多年? 你还对我撒过哪些谎?”10.汤姆的岳母现在对她自己的女儿又会起些什么疑心呢? 汤姆的儿子会不会也对父母撒谎的同时满意于自己的品行呢?11. 我们违心地恭维他人如何漂亮，对收到的礼物表示感激，这种情况是不是早已司空见惯？毫无疑问， 这些 “善意的谎言 ”于他人无害且初衷良好， 是不可缺少的社交润滑剂。 但是，像汤姆一样， 我们应该记住英国小说家沃尔特 ·司各特爵士曾写下的句子： “一朝开口编谎言，3此生安