B2 – Upper Intermediate
The fallout of trust on the government, companies, and even individuals is evident in the recent years. As access to information is at an all-time high, it creates room for doubts on people’s minds. We tend to be cynical about almost everything now.
Is it really bad that we doubt? Do we simply have to trust everything we hear and see? Or should we realize that sometimes there is more to it than meets eye?
Listen to this podcast about trust in this day and age.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english/ep-200813
Discussion Questions:
- Are you a trusting person or a skeptic?
- Are you familiar with the Ponzi scheme mentioned in the podcast? What is it about? Did something similar happen in your country?
- How would you describe someone who is gullible?
- What makes someone truly trustworthy?
- Talk about a situation you know of where public trust was betrayed.
2 replies on “Is This The Era of Distrust?”
Discussion Questions:
1. Are you a trusting person or a skeptic?
I’m a sceptic person, I like to check everything if I can, I think it’s worth it, above all because nowadays there are a lot of fake news, scams and conmen trying to device you. They are the new criminals of our digital word.
2. Are you familiar with the Ponzi scheme mentioned in the podcast? What is it about? Did something similar happen in your country?
Yes, it is a way to deceive people, a kind of pyramidal scheme, base in gain the trustworthiness of people for invest money in a product with alleged important revenues or yield… The word in mouth of people attract more people and more people to the product and so on…. The scammers use the new money to pay interests and continue the growth of the scam with more people… everything works properly until people (p.e. in a crisis scenario) need the money urgently and want to withdraw the money massively… this is the moment where the Pyramid crash down and everybody realise all was a fraud and they are going to lose they investments…
3. How would you describe someone who is gullible?
They are good people who think all people are similar to them, people who really believe in the goodness of the human kind. It’s a big problem because in the real world there are also bad people, scammers, criminals, etc… and a gullible person is the perfect victim for them.
4. What makes someone truly trustworthy?
According to the podcast there are the key factor to be trustwhorty: Competence, Honesty and reliability.
5. Talk about a situation you know of where public trust was betrayed.
Every single day a politician opens his/her mouth.
One example it the last Glasgow Agreement to the Climate Change COP26… only words, because there is not a real willpower to reach the goals… (as happened with the las agreement in Paris COP21)
You are doing great with your practice. Keep at it.
Note how this sentence can be revised:
You can add an explanation and example for each of the three key factors to elaborate on your answers.
Until your next entry!