What white lies do you tell? Why?

Do you think it is okay to tell white lies? Why or why not?

The dictionary says a white lie is “a lie about a small or unimportant matter that someone tells so the don’t hurt other people. The biggest problem with white lies is that we need to make more and more lies to cover the tracks of our first lies. So we need to tell more and more lies. Once a lie is told it’s hard to come clean and be honest again.

Here are three examples of when you should tell the truth.

Someone from work asks you out for a date and you don’t want to hurt his feelings so you say you have other plans. This may seem like a small lie to not hurt your co-worker’s feelings and for peace. But this opens the door for being asked out again. It’s best to be honest to not have to lie again and again. You could explain that you don’t think of the co-worker in a romantic way.

You want to stop a relationship but don’t want to hurt the other person’s feelings. Staying in a relationship when you don’t want to is worse. You’re going to have to lie about wanting to go places together. You don’t help the other person by delaying the inevitable and making it seem you’re still interested. It’s best to be honest even though it might hurt their feelings.

You just started a new job and your boss explains what you have to do. It was confusing and you don’t fully understand. When asked if you have any questions, you say ‘no’ because you don’t want to come off as being stupid. You should say something like “I just want to be sure I understand.” Then ask your exact question.

Let’s be honest. There are times when a white lie seems to be the least best thing to say.

The common thing is each of these situations is to not hurt another person. It might be said in each one that you are being compassionate towards another person. That you’re respecting their feelings.

The important thing to remember is, don’t tell a lie to not do what you should do. Explain your situation. There may be good reasons. Accepting responsibility for our actions, and not telling a lie to cover them up, is about integrity.

Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest meaning from the choices in the right. Some of the answers are very close and have similar meaning. The meaning of these words is how they are used in the reading. Some of these words have different meanings in the dictionary depending on how they are used.

 The answers are below the table.  

A=8, B=1, C=4, D=6, E=3, F=7, G=5, H=2

Some example sentences using the new words or phrases from the meaning of how they are used in the reading to help you understand better.

to catch up with

1. The thief covered all his tracks that showed his past actions so the police would not find out.

2. She asked him to come clean about. Was he dating another woman or not?

3. If you are too easy and not strict it opens the door for all the lazy students to join your class.

4. It is inevitable that prices will rise.

5. Please wear some nice clothes. You don’t want to come off as cheap or poor.

6. To be a good nurse you need to be compassionate.

7. In the movie we saw that the police were covering up their illegal actions.

8. If you want your business to succeed a long time then you need to have integrity with all customes.

Some questions using the new words/phrases. Try to use the words/phrases in your answer.

1. What is the problem about covering your tracks by telling white lies?

2. Do you find it hard to come clean about things? Why or why not?

3. How much do you agree that telling white lies opens the door to more lies?

4. Why is it inevitable that every child will lie?

5. What kind of person do you not want to come off as? Why?

6. Would you like to be more compassionate? Why?

7. How do you feel when politicians and other government people cover up their lies and corruption?

8. How can we make politicians and government people have more integrity?