Video: The Future of Lying - Listening Exercise with Answers

Listen to the talk on “The Future of Lying” by Jeff Hancock at http://www.ted.com/talks/jeff_hancock_3_types_of_digital_lies.html and then answer the questions below.

You may need to listen more than once. The first time, you should listen to the whole talk to get the main ideas. Making some notes while you listen may help you focus. When you listen again, use the pause and transcript buttons to catch details if needed.


Questions

1. About how many times per day do people lie?

2. Is the internet making us more deceptive?

3. Why do we lie less when we write?

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Vocabulary

To lie/to tell a lie – to tell an untruth; a liar (n.) – a person who lies

A fib – a small lie

A white lie – a less serious lie, often told to protect another person from feeling bad

To tell the truth/to be truthful - to be honest; truth (n.), truthful (adj.)

To deceive – to be dishonest; deception (n.), deceit (n.), deceitful (adj.)
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Answers

1. We all lie once or twice a day.

2. No. (New means of communication have only changed the ways in which we lie. We tell most lies on the phone. We’re more honest online than face to face).

3. With writing, we leave a record (unlike speaking, where there’s no record of what we say).


***On a scale of 1 to 10, how difficult did you find this exercise? It's not an easy one -- this is a native speaker, speaking quickly on a complex topic. Hope you could catch some of his main points!