By Andres Jones

　　 沐风 选注

　　“当然是真的，我在报纸上看到的!”——常人易有的错觉是报上报道的(新闻)故事就是真的。看看这位美国人发现了什么。

　　Many pople believe everything or almost everything they read in newspapers or hear on the radio. They think that if information has been printed or broadcast, someone must have checked to see that it was true. The following reading describes some stories that may not be true.

　　A few years ago I read a story about a husband and wife who made a terrible mistake. They had gone shopping and had taken their small baby along with them. After they had finished their shopping, they returned to their car to go home. When they reached their car, they put the baby in the plastic baby carrier<注1> that he rode in for safety. The couple then drove off in their car toward home. After they had driven a few miles, they looked in the back seat of the car to see how the baby was. To their suprise, the baby was not there. According to the story, the couple had put the plastic seat and the baby on the top of the car but had forgotten to put him inside the car. They had driven away with the baby on the top of the car.

　　The couple drove back toward the store but did not find the baby. They called the police, and the police said that they had the baby and that the baby was fine. The baby had fallen from the top of the car but had been protected by his plastic seat. The grateful couple took their baby home and were always careful after that.

　　There was one thing wrong with the story. It was not true. Even though it had been published in a major newspaper, the story was a myth<注2> or rumor, a story that many people believe but is simply not true. I believed the story because I had read it in a newspaper. I made the mistake of thinking that information reported in newspapers is usually true. Often it is, but there are stories that get into the news that are not true but that sound as though they could be true.<注3> Newspaper and radio reporters like to repeat them because they are interesting.

　　Stories such as this one are often reported in newspapers and on radio and television. Because they are read and heard in places that usually report the truth, many people believe them. People also believe them because, like the story above, they have something unusual or frightening about them. What is strange is that newspaper and radio reporters also believe them.

　　Another unture story that has been reported in many places is a story that shows how some people are afraid and suspicious of strangers.<注4> The story has many variations, but in most of them somesgroupsof Chinese or Southeast Asian people living in the United States is described as eating dogs and other pets as food.<注5> The story is based on the partly true belief many Americans have that many Chinese regularly eat the meat of dogs. Because Americans think this is a strange and unacceptable custom, they show their fear of strangers by spreading false stories such as this one. Newspapers and radio only help to spread this kind of untruth and rumor.

　　A funnier rumor that has appeared in many papers in the world is a story about an old, rich woman who is trying to find a place to park her Mercedes Benz.<注6> A parking place opens up and just as she is about to drive into it,<注7> a younger driver with an old car drives into the parking place first. The younger drivers says, "I'm young and fast." The older woman calmly crashes her Mercedes into the old car several times and says to the surprised driver, "But I'm old and rich."

　　The story is funny to some readers. Others think it is just silly. But the story has appeared in many newspapers in the world and has been reported as true. But it never happened. It is another example of the stories that spread and are published because some people want to believe them, even if they are not true.