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St. Paul didn’t like it. Moses warned his people against it. Hesiod declared it "mischievious" and "hard to get rid of it", but Oscar Wilder said, "Gossip is charming. ’
"History is merely gossip," he wrote in one of his famous plays. "But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality."
In times past, under Jewish law, gossipmongers might be fined or flogged. The Puritans put them in stocks or ducking stools, but no punishment seemed to have the desired effect of preventing gossip, which has continued uninterrupted across the back fences of the centuries.
Today, however, the much-maligned human foible is being looked at in a different light, Psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, even evolutionary biologists are concluding that gossip may not be so bad after all.
Gossip is "an intrinsically valuable activity", philosophy professor Aaron Ben-Ze’ev states
A. is a valuable source of social information
B. produces a joy that most people in society need
C. brings people the feel of being part of a group
D. satisfies people's need of being unusual
What did some agricultural producing nations complain about ()
Some people believe that international sport creates goodwill between the nations and that if countries play games together they will learn to live together. Others say that the opposite is true: that international contests encourage false national pride and lead to misunderstanding and hatred. There is probably some troth in both arguments, but in recent years the Olympic Games have done little to support the view that sports encourage international brotherhood. Not only was there the tragic incident involving the murder of athletes, but the Games were also mined by lesser incidents caused principally by minor national contests.
One country received its second-place medals with visible indignation after the hockey final. There had been noisy scenes at the end of the hockey match, the losers objecting to the final decisions. They were convinced that one of their goals should not have been disallowed and that their opponents’ victory was unfair. Their manager was in
A. His team would no longer take part in international games.
B. Hockey and the Federation are both ruined by the unfair decisions.
C. There should be no more hockey matches organized by the Federation.
D. The Federation should he dissolve
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