Question

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　　What exactly is a lie? Is it anything we say which we know is untrue? Or is it something more than that? For example , suppose a friend wants to borrow some money from you. You say. “I wish I could help you but fm short of money myself.” In fact, you are not short of money but your friend is in the habit of not paying his debts and you don't want to hurt his feelings by reminding him of this. Is this really a lie?

　　Professor Jerald Jellison of the University of Southern California has made a scientific study of lying. According to him, women are better liars than men, particularly when telling a “white lie” , such as when a woman at a party tells another woman that she likes her dress when she really thinks it looks terrible. However, this is only one side of the story. Other researchers say that men are more likely to tell more serious lies , such as making a promise which they have no intention of carrying out. This is the kind of lie politicians and businessmen are supposed to be particularly skilled at: the lie from which the liar hopes to profit （獲利） or gain in some way.

　　Research has also been done into the way people's behaviours changes in a number of small, apparently unimportant ways when they lie. It has been found that if they are sitting down at the time , they tend to move about in their chairs more than usual. To the trained observer they are saying , “I wish I were somewhere else now.” They also tend to touch certain parts of the face more often, in particular the nose. One explanation of this may be that lying causes a slight increase in blood pressure. The tip of the nose is very sensitive to such changes and the increased pressure makes it itch （癢）.

　　Another gesture （手式） which gives liars away is what the writer Desmond Morris in his book Man Watching calls “the mouth cover” . He says there are several typical forms of this , such as covering part of the mouth with the fingers, touching the upper-lip or putting a finger of the hand at one side of the mouth. Such a gesture can be understood as an unconscious （無意識的） attempt on the part of the liar to stop himself or herself from lying. Of course , such gestures as rubbing the nose or covering the mouth , or moving about in a chair cannot be taken as proof that the speaker is lying. They simply tend to occur more frequently in this situation: It is not one gesture alone that gives the liar away but a whole number of things , arid in particular the context （情境） in which the lie is told.

1．According to Professor Jellison, a “white lie” appears to be a lie ________.

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A．that are told to mean the opposite

B．that a liar tells unconsciously

C．that the teller tells to profit or gain some advantage from it

D．which is harmless and told so as not to hurt someone else

2．Research on lying suggests that women ________.

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A．a(chǎn)re more skilled at telling less serious lies than men do

B．tell more lies than men do

C．like to flatter （奉承） people more often than men do

D．a(chǎn)re better at telling lies at parties than men do

3．One reason why people sometimes cover their mounths while lying is that ________.

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A．they wish those words had not come out of their mouths

B．mouth is very sensitive to physical changes caused by lying

C．they are trying unconsciously to stop themselves from telling lies

D．they regret that their lies might hurt other people's feelings

4．We can realize from the passage that ________.

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A．certain gestures can be used as proof to judge whether a speaker is lying or not

B．politicians and businessmen lie more often than ordinary people

C．some gestures are proofs of lying only if they occur too often

D．there is no simple way to judge if people tell lies or not

Answer 1

答案：D;A;B;D
解析：