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| The Lies of Adults |
| 2007-01-19 |
I love watching the CCTV program “To speak the Truth”. Among other things, it has a very good name. What a difficult thing it is to speak the truth! The opposite of truth is lie. One of the topics discussed in the program was lies, the lies of children, to be exact.
Among the guests on that occasion was a professor from a psychology institute. He said that they had conducted a survey of 430 families in 13 cities of seven provinces from 1991 to 1994 and discovered that 52% of the children began lying from the age of 3. As they grew older, the percentage of children lying got higher. By the age of 9, the number of children who had lied reached 70%. Does lying increase in direct proportion to age? Or do people suddenly all become honest when they reach a certain age? From the questions and answers of the host and the guests, one got the feeling that the correct answer seemed to be a “yes” answer to the second question. It was as if adults never lied, for when the guests were asked whether they had ever lied or when they themselves talked about it, although they all said they had lied, yet the lying invariably happened in their childhood. One of them said it was at the age of 13 or 14, another at 7or 8, and the third on the eve of the Chinese revolution. But what about after they grew up, especially recently and now? Did they never lie again after childhood? Is that true?
Lying is closely related to advantages and disadvantages, and the liar is always motivated by the need to gain advantages and avoid disadvantages, why bother lying? As for young children, they are naive and innocent, unaware of advantages and disadvantages. Naturally they need not lie. For the same reason, children are easily deceived, for they always take the words of adults very seriously. Once on a train, a mother and her 5-year-old son sat facing me. To relieve the monotony of the long journey, I played magic to entertain the boy. I took off the boy’s cap, played a small trick, and pretended to have thrown the cap out of the window. “Where’s my cap?” asked the boy. “I’ve thrown it away.” I said. “Just blow.” The boy then blew on my hand. In an instant, the cap reappeared in my hand. The boy, with his eyes popping, was greatly surprised and delighted. He jumped to my side, took off my cap before I was able to explain, and threw it out of the window into the distance. This time it was my turn to be pop-eyed! With great delight, the boy said, “Blow, sir!” Blow? Seeing that my briefcase was still on the small window-side table, I gasped and immediately pressed my hand firmly on it and closed the window. Now you tell me, is such a naive child, being not worldly-wise and unable to play clever tricks, really capable of lying?
译文：
大人们的谎言
沙叶新 文/国华 译注
我很爱看中央电视台的“实话实说”节目，名字就好，“实话实说”，多不容易！实话的反面是谎言。“实话实说 ”有一次话题就是针对谎言的，不过针对的是孩子们的谎言。
嘉宾中有一位是心理研究所的教授，他说，他们从1991年到1994年，在全国7个省13个城市430个家庭进行调查，发现从3岁开始，就有52%的孩子开始说谎了。随着年龄的增长，比例越来越高，到9岁时，说过谎话的孩子已经上升到70%！谎言是随着年龄成正比，还是到了一定的年龄段人们便突然纷纷变得诚实起来了呢？从主持人和嘉宾的回答来看，给人感觉,答案好像是后者，好像成人都不撒谎。因为当嘉宾被问到或自己谈到有无撒谎的经历时，虽然都说有过这样的经历，但都是在小时候有过：一个说是在13到14岁，一个说是在7岁到8岁，一个说是在解放前夕有过撒谎的经历。可是长达成人之后呢？尤其是最近和现在呢？就再也没有说过谎吗？真的是这样吗？
撒谎和利害有关，说谎者总是为趋利避害；如无利害，扯谎作甚？而人在幼小之时，天真无邪，不明利害，当然也就无需撒谎。因此小孩也极易受骗，对大人的话总是深信不疑。有一次乘火车，对座是一位母亲和她的5岁男孩。长途苦旅，我变魔术逗男孩玩耍。我将男孩的帽子摘下，小施手技，作往窗外投掷状。男孩问：“我的帽子呢？”我说：“ 扔掉了。你吹口气！”男孩就朝我的手吹了口气。不一会儿，帽子又出现在我的手中。男孩瞪大眼睛，又惊又喜，高兴得扑到我身边，不由分说地就摘下我的帽子往窗外远远地扔去。这时候轮到我瞪大眼睛了！男孩高兴地说：“叔叔，你吹一口气！”还吹气？我看我的公文包还搁在窗边的小长桌上，我倒吸一口，连忙紧紧按住，并将窗关上。你说，这么天真的小孩，无世故之心，无机变之巧，能撒谎吗？
(摘自《英语学习》2002年12期。) |
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