Great Lies
(fragment)
Jo Donelly
Every day - in every area of our lives - we tell and to get paid, at least for a few months, you feel stressed.
hear a thousand lies. Not cruel lies. Not harmful lies. Why should you want to know that the last cabbage in
Not lies that matter. No, of course not. But great lies: the shop - needed urgently for the salad you're making
It'll be ready in an hour. Your cheque is in the post. for the dinner party - has been under the cash register
Fresh today. I will call you. Nothing like this has ever with the cat fur for the last two weeks? You're hardly
happened before. Of course, I love only you. We pretend going to tell anyone that you are going to eat an entire
with no effort and less guilt, that we don't lie through family-size bag of potato chips. Not likely. Moreover, if
our teeth every minute of the day - and everyone else you want to sell your car, you are not going to tell the
pretends that they don't either.
buyer that the door does not lock.
But lying saves time and worries. It makes every Think like this: life is a complicated, fragile and
body happier than they would be if they always told sensitive machine - not great, perhaps, but the only one
or had to listen to the truth. After all, you don't really we've got - and lies are the oil that keeps the whole
want to hear that you'll be lucky if you ever see your thing from blowing into our faces.
gadget again. When you find out that you're not going
b) Read the text again and decide if the following statements are true or false.
Make the false ones true.
1. Every day we tell one thousand lies.
4. Lies make people happy.​