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The Search for the Truth

1. Reading comprehension

  • Look at the title and guess what the text is about.

  • Guess whether the following questions are true or false, then read quickly through the text and see if your guesses were correct.

  1. King Solomon was well known for his wisdom.

  2. The polygraph is used to detect hidden documents.

  3. The problem of distinguishing between lies and truth has been solved.

2. You are going to read an article about ways of finding out the truth. Seven sentences have been removed from the text. Choose from the sentences A-H the one which fits each gap (1-6). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

How can the truth be discovered? Is there a reliable and safe way to make sure others are telling the truth?

0

F

According to the story, King Solomon, who was renowned for his wisdom, was once faced with two women both claiming to be the mother of the same baby. He threatened to cut the baby in half in order to settle the disagreement. The truth was revealed instantly when the real mother offered to give up her baby rather than see it die. Of course, interrogators who lack Solomon's legendary wisdom have to rely on other meth­ods to discover the truth.

1

In the past, the basic techniques used to get prisoners to reveal the truth varied. They included physical torture, depriving prisoners of sleep, making them stand for hours with their arms stretched above their heads, and putting them in solitary confinement, a practice which is still employed today.

In modern times the techniques commonly used cause psychological rather than physical suffering. These meth­ods may be effective in making prisoners or suspects talk, but when people are forced to confess, do they always tell the truth?

2

Obviously, the problem of distinguishing between lies and truth remains.

3

Stress creates physical symptoms which can be recorded when trying to decide whether a person is telling the truth or not. The device used to record these symptoms is called a lie-detector or polygraph. It is widely used by police and other agencies. It indicates whether the person questioned is being honest as t records changes in the heart rate, blood pressure and other physical factors during questioning.

Most polygraph experts now admit that the method is not perfect: even an innocent person will feel under stress when faced with a serious accusation. As a result, a more accurate technique has been developed.

4

Since most people would be guilty of this to some extent, the polygraph will show some stress caused by the denial of the truth. For innocent people, this will be the highest stress they show, while a murderer will become even more stressed when denying a question about his or her involvement in the murder.

Recently, it has been shown that people can be trained to trick lie-detecting machines.

5

The fact remains, however, that some people make better liars than others.

6

The basic problem with all methods is that if the person is in control, they can easily mislead their questioners, while if the person is not in control due to pain or drugs, what they say may not be true at all.

A

Perhaps the best-known scientific method relies on the fact that lying causes stress.

B

The questions remains: is there really a foolproof way of finding the truth?

C

With this technique, the person being questioned is instructed to deny questions like "Before 1990, did you ever do anything dishonest?"

D

Pain is no longer used to make people talk.

E

Even clues like body language, tone of voice, and eye contact can be controlled by a good deceiver.

F

One of the best-known and cleverest solutions was that used by a king in ancient times.

G

By biting their tongues or counting backwards, guilty people can make themselves appear under stress when answering innocent questions, and this often makes the results inaccurate.

H

If a prisoner, for example, is made to suffer a lot, it seems obvious that false confessions may be given just to satisfy the interrogator.

3. Read the text again and compare and contrast past and modern methods of questioning people in terms of techniques and equipment.

4. Sometimes people tell "white lies" in embarrassing situations. Have you ever told such a lie? Why/Why not?

5. Look at the words in bold and try to explain them.

6. Choose the correct item.

1 He decided to give his life of crime and become a responsible citizen.

A off В in С out D up

2 The results of the experiment will be if it is not carried out very carefully.

A inaccurate В impractical С false D improper

3 The boy to having broken the window.

A claimed В confessed С refused D agreed

4 I don't think he was being when he said that he had been at home all night.

A true В fair С honest D right

5 How many criminals were in the robbery?

A involved В interfered С included D participated

6 The policemen were given special for dealing with terrorist activity.

A coaching В practice С exercise D training

7 After months of investigation, the truth was finally

A appeared В shown С revealed D found