Let’s say you have a piece of wood, a nail, and hammer. Pretend the wood is a person, the nail is a mean rumor (谣言) about that person. If you hammer in the nail, you’re obviously hurting him or her. If you then pull out the nail, there’s still a hole in the wood, and the damage has been done.
There are many reasons why that nail of a rumor can be so harmful. Rumors are, quite simply, a form of bullying (欺悔). When a person or a group makes up a rumor about someone or decides to spread gossip, it’s usually to hurt someone, break up a friendship, or make someone less popular. It’s the same thing as teasing, only it’s done behind someone’s back instead of to his or her face.
When you spread a rumor about someone, you’re sending a signal that the person is outside of the group, and somehow less worthy of friendship than others. You’re making fun of that person or pointing out negative things about him or her. This can let others think that it’s okay to make the person feel bad, and make him or her an outsider.
We need to be able to trust our friends, and gossip and rumors can break this trust. If you tell a personal secret to a friend, and he turns around and tells it to someone else, you might feel like you will get burned if you ever get close to him again.
Letting a rumor influence your behavior is like letting someone else make a big decision for you. Let’s say you hear that the teacher plans to call a Snow Day tomorrow because a blizzard (暴风雪) is coming. Expecting a day off, you don’t do your homework. The next morning, the blizzard turns out to be nothing more than a drizzle（毛毛雨）, and school isn’t off after all. You get zeroes on your work.
小题1:The purpose of the first paragraph is to .
A．help readers know what a rumor is
B．attract readers to read the following paragraphs
C．emphasize the damaging effects of rumors
D．explain how a rumor spreads小题2:To tell a rumor and a tease apart, you depend on .
A．whether it is done behind someone
B．whether it is painful or not
C．whether it is a kind if bullying
D．whether it is spread fast小题3: If a rumor is spread about someone, others may .
A．point out his or her advantages
B．keep away from him or her
C．not feel he or she is an outsider
D．be hurt if getting close to him or her again小题4:From the last paragraph, we can infer that .
A．it is hard to keep rumors a secret
B．rumors can destroy your interest in learning
C．believing rumors can lead to bad choices
D．rumors can control your whole life小题5:The purpose of this passage is to .
A．advise on how to deal with rumors
B．teach us how to judge a rumor
C．find out why rumors spread fast
D．explain why rumors hurt
