How Many Lies Do the Children Tell You?
Mothers who feel their children don’t appreciate them can add another complaint to the list: half the time, their children are lying to them. A study designed to expose the
truth about lying shows that undergraduates lie to their mothers in 46% of their conversations. Still, mums should feel 
better than-total strangers, who are told lies an aston
ishing 77% of the time.
Bella DePaulo and a team of psychologists from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, asked 77 undergraduates to keep a record of all their conversations for a week, and write down whether they lied at any time. DePaulo named lying broadly, as “when you intentionally try to mislead someone”, so she would catch the smallest of lies.
The students told an average of two lies a day. They said they had been studying when they had been out drinking. One told his parents that a textbook cost $50 rather than $20 so that
they would send him extra money. Female students constantly told their plain-looking roommates that they were pretty. “They are everyday lies,” says DePaulo.
DePaulo and her colleagues conclude that people tend to tell fewer lies to those they feel closest to. College students lied to their best friends 28% of the time but lied to acquaintances 48% of the time. In close relationships, people were more likely to tell “kind-hearted” lies, designed to protect feelings, rather than self-serving lies.
DePaulo finds that unmarried lovers can expect less honesty than best friends because of the insecurity that comes with romance.
Mothers can take heart from one other finding. They may have been lied to, but at least their children talked to them. The students were recorded telling few lies to their fathers because they had little interaction with them.
小题1: Female students lied to their roommates to ________.
A．get money from them
B．offer them the services
C．gain more security
D．make them happy小题2: According to the passage, college students told fewer lies to ________.
A．mothers
B．best friends
C．acquaintances
D．romantic partners小题3: Which of the following statements is correct ?
A．Undergraduates lie to their mothers in 77% of their conversations.
B．Strangers become very annoyed when children tell lies to them.
C．Compared with mothers, students’ fathers are told fewer lies.
D．Best friends can expect more insecurity than unmarried lovers.小题4:What is the purpose of this article ?
A．To present a fact.
B．To argue an idea.
C．To tell a story.
D．To explain a theory.
