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Complete PICLE corpus of essays by Polish advanced EFL students (330,000)

/^t/Lying is probably the best way of preventing embarrassment. Why should we experience a state of self-conscious distress if we can prevent it? It would not hurt anybody and we would be saved from being laughed at. There are such situations in our lives in which we should lie to somebody, particularly if they concern our privacy. We can tell the truth only our close friends and family, namely people whom we know quite well. We should not tell the truth about our private lives, that is we should and must lie to our acquaintances. These are people whom we know a little and we are not sure whether they can be reliable or not. Therefore, we are not obliged to telling them the truth. Lying to them about things we do not want them to know is acceptable and tolerable.