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There is nothing so deceptive as an obvious fact.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Adventures o Sherlock Holmes.
Discussion 1 Work with a partner and discuss the following questions.
a Is it important in your job to have access to the most up-to-date information?
Why (not)?
b Where do you get most of the information you need to do your job?
cWhich of the following sources of information are the most reliable?
| the Internet newspapers magazines trade/academic journals TV news company reports specialist news agencies like Reuters opinion polls and surveys end-of-year accounts market research TV viewing figures government statistics scientific studies the grapevine |
2 You are going to read an extract from Great Mytbs of Business by the journalist and self-made millionaire William Dais. First match the following words and expressions to what they mean.
a a mixed blessing d have a vested interest in …ing
ba spin doctor e hearsay
cget the wrong end of the stick f a myth
 |
something believed by many but in fact untrue
completely misunderstand something
something that has disadvantages as well as advantages
something you’ve heard people say which may or may not be true
someone whose job is to make people or organisations look as good as
possible
want things to happen in a particular way because it will benefit you
3Now read the extract. How far do you along with the argument it’s
presenting?
Information –
A mixed blessing
any people seem to find it difficult to accept that the information they get may be unreliable. It does not come out of nowhere: someone, somewhere, has had to put it together. That someone
| may have got the wrong end of the stick, or made use of hearsay, or deliberately set out to mislead. Public relations people, for example, often put out press releases, which are little more than sales promotion. They can easily create a false impression. | |
| Information is slanted, twisted, misrepresented. Achievements may be exaggerated and awkward facts may be sppressed. In politics, ‘spin doctors’ are experts in dissembling. In business too, there are many specialists who have a vested interest in | |
| ensuring that everything a company does is presented in a favourable way. My own profession is not without blame. Journalists frequently print stories which turn out to be inaccurate and TV programmes give a distorted | |
| picture of what is happening in various parts of the world . It is dangerous to read newspapers casually. That’s how the germ of a myth is planted. The next thing you know, it has grown into a fact. A glance at a headline, a swift scan of the introduction, a note of the | |
| picture caption, and you are on your way to a firmly held misconception. |
Look back at the text in 3 and words or expressions meaning:
a make someone believe something which is untrue (paragraph 1)__
b embarrassing pieces of information (paragraph 2)______ _______
c hidden from the public (paragraph 2)____________
d present something inaccurately (paragraph 2 and 3)
__________ a _________ ____________
__________ a _________ ____________
e a wrong belief or opinion (paragraph 3)_____________
Date: 2015-12-17; view: 1995
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| Read the extract from a letter and try to explain the idioms in bold. | | | Comprehensive questions |